virage restoration

**aquahaulinass** · 02-07-2016, 12:47 PM

After a 1800 mile move and 5 months I'm finally ready to start working on the virage. It had some bow damage when I bought it. With the 12 month boating season in Florida I never wanted to disable it, but now that in in Michigan its time. Here are a few pics of the damage and splitting the deck

**59powercat1400** · 02-07-2016, 02:21 PM

Cool. Keep the pics coming.

**Karsten** · 02-07-2016, 02:41 PM

The damage shouldn't be hard to fix. Just grind in down to solid glass and start building it up with Chop Strand. Mine wasn't as larger an area and I guess the hard part will be rebuilding teh upper lip.

Pic #5 looks like the front of my 1973 Corvette.

Good luck with the resto.

Karsten

**rossi** · 02-08-2016, 08:12 PM

I'm in the same boat, literally

**rossi** · 02-08-2016, 08:16 PM

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**rossi** · 02-08-2016, 08:24 PM

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**aquahaulinass** · 02-09-2016, 02:06 PM

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Got the old repair cut out. The hole was much larger than expected. I made a mold out of flexible plywood screwed to the bottom and used tinfoil so the glass didn't stick to the mold. The repair is a single piece of wolven glass molded to the conture of the hull The repair turned out excellent. I will still have to fill and finish sand the bottom surface. While waiting for the glass to dry I checked the foam in the starboard sponson. It was completely waterlogged.

**Karsten** · 02-09-2016, 07:25 PM

I didn't see the hull damage in the above pictures...that is a pretty big hole to repair.

Best of luck with that.

Karsten

**FAST RALLY SPORT** · 02-10-2016, 06:45 AM

We had a virage here in Central Fl. just like yours took a ride up though the trees one night, boat was tough as the driver !

**aquahaulinass** · 05-08-2016, 03:08 PM

Here are the latest pics of my progress on the virage. The bottom hull is blocke out just needs a skim coat of filler before primer. The wood along the top edge of the hull were replaced to get the fit as close to factory as possible. I made a mold fitted to inside of the deck and reattached the two halves. I laid 3 layers of chop mat. After it dried popped it apart trimmed the lip and removed the mold. It went back together perfectly. Just a little block sanding and I should be ready for primer.

**aquahaulinass** · 05-08-2016, 03:13 PM

Here are the latest pics of my progress on the virage. The bottom hull is blocke out just needs a skim coat of filler before primer. The wood along the top edge of the hull were replaced to get the fit as close to factory as possible. I made a mold fitted to inside of the deck and reattached the two halves. I laid 3 layers of chop mat. After it dried popped it apart trimmed the lip and removed the mold. It went back together perfectly. Just a little block sanding and I should be ready for primer.

**Karsten** · 05-08-2016, 06:59 PM

Awesome progress and it is turning out great. Keep it up and post the work as you go.

Karsten

**Aaronhl** · 08-23-2016, 12:43 PM

I am restoring a Virage and will need to do slight repairs to the front like you did you fix some stress cracks. But looks like the previous owner of your Virage hit the bow on something and then fiberglassed the two halves together.

There was a repair on my Virage on the right corner near the transom. They fiberglassed the two halves together so I had to cut away part of the top deck where the rub rail goes. I will be doing a similar repair so thanks for giving some tips.

**Aaronhl** · 08-23-2016, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by rossi

Hi how much did you grind away on the sides of the sponson where the edge of the two pieces of floor meet? I ground too much in some areas (around where the ski locker would be) and the fiberglass is very thin. I will need to add fiberglass on each of those humps to properly seat the floor so it's level and has enough thickness to sit on.