My sunfish project

[Ninja_sailer]

I’m pretty new to the sunfish scene. I just bought a 76 AMF sunfish last week.
I have 4 main questions.

The boat is pretty heavy so I’m going to crack the seal between the hull and deck to give me access inside the hull so I can examine the sponges and maybe replace them. There is also small leaks in this seem I need to re-seal. What is a good product to use to reseal the deck to the hull? I specific brand name would be very helpful.

There are also small hair line cracks through out the boat. I know how to do fiber glass work. Is there any reason why I should not fiberglass these cracks?

Also the gel coat is practically gone. What is a good brand of gel coat to get, again a specific brand name would be lovely.

Has anyone ever painted their sunfish custom colors? I never painted fiberglass, but would it be best for me to fix my hair line cracks, then apply paint, then apply a gel coat. Or can I paint on top of a gel coat? Any painting information would be helpful.

 

[mike4947]

Don't attempt to break the deck loose from the hull. You WILL destroy the boat. There are no sponges inside, only blocks of foam that are attached to both the deck and hull and provide structural support more than any floatation value. The mast step and cockpit are also bonded to both the deck and hull.
Do some reading here as these issues have been brought up numerous times.

 

[DanB]

Congrats on your new boat. By pretty heavy what does it really weigh? Roll the hull so you are balancing it on it’s side on a bathroom scale. How much above roughly 140 will tell you how serious an obesity problem it has. Look back to post 2875 among others to learn about drying out. http://www.sunfishforum.com/showthread.php?t=2875 and read through the whole thread.

Do your homework before making any drastic splits of the hull. Like Mike is saying you have been grossly mislead about your Sunfish’s interior.

How do you know the deck seam has leaks, is water coming out at spots? Trouble with those leaks is the real split in the seam can be inches or feet from where water shows up because of the aluminum edging. The best approach is to do a leak test. http://www.windline.net/proj4.htm If that shows a leak at the deck seam then the edging must come off and a second test performed to locate the exact spot. Look up the instructions for removing and reinstalling the edging for doing repairs at this web site. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunfish_sailor If the seam needs fixing fiberglass or glassing epoxy is the stuff. http://www.windline.net/joint.htm
Since you do fiberglass work you probably already have a favorite brand. Just in case you haven’t ordered any in awhile here’s a distributor with selections to choose from. http://www.jamestowndistributors.com Look under Polyester Resin and Epoxy Resin for some reputable brands.

The hair line cracks you mentioned are they aging cracks in the gelcoat surface or are they actual damage cracks that go down into the fiberglass layers? Damage will require fiberglass repair and often from the inside. Gelcoat weathering can be sanded down some and then painted or if you have the resources sprayed with new gelcoat, but that’s way more expensive and involved. When you say the gelcoat is practically gone are you saying the color layer is worn away and now all you see is the yellow-green resin coated glass fabric? Can you put up a picture of that?

If you want to paint there are a rainbow of colors to choose from in marine paints. You are going to sand down the gelcoat some, fill the now widened cracks with something like an epoxy filler & primer and then apply a compatible marine paint. Most paint suppliers have instructions for preparation and application of their products such as these sample links. http://www.yachtpaint.com/USA/boat_painting_guide/default.asp
http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...1329&familyName=Pettit+EasyPoxy+Topside+Paint

 

[Sailynn]

As said earlier, you will destroy your Sunfish if you try to separate the top from the hull. We have 8 Sunfish in our Junior Sailing Program as old as the early 60 to as late as 1980. They were all hand me downs from other yacht club junior programs. We fixed them up to make them sailable put they all had various leaks which we dealt with by draining daily. Finally this year my husband and I deceided to fix the leaks by doing the soapy water and vacume test. The guy helping us didn't read the instructions. The very first boat popped a seam with a very loud bang. Our helper had held the hose to the drain hole in a complete seal instead of blowing the air in a little at a time as the instructions said. If you do it right, you can actually see the fiberglass deck rise slightly. I knew right away what he had done, and he left quickly. It turned out this one boat was the best of the lot and was the lightest and most air tight. So it went on the patch rack and along with the others got a re-seal project on about two feet of deck seal. I taught two straight weeks of junior sailing in June and none of the boats leaked any water when checked daily, which seemed like a miracle to us.