All good advice from Webfoot1.i got a 1983 boat last year thay needed a small bit of work and I’m finally getting around to finishing that work.
First off, there’s old repairs in the daggerboard trunk that need to be redone. Does anyone have any advice for sanding down repairs inside of the daggerboard trunk?
Second, if anyone knows what i mean when i say the little C ring thing that goes on the rudder with the pintle and spring, mine went missing when i had to take the rudder apart to refinish it. Do i need this?
The rest of these are wish list projects, but i was wondering if anyone has experience attempting these and could tell me how long and expensive you think they would be.
1- kinda simple, was thinking of possibly painting the bottom of the hill in a navy blue and the top in a light gray. Would i just have to lightly sand the whole boat then roll two coats of topside on?
2- removing the metal trim and having the edges covered in something else, just kind of looking for ideas here. Epoxy around the whole thing and smooth it out and paint it?
3-if i was to paint the boat, i had this idea of somehow finishing the foaming (splash guard) in the same like wood stain i have my daggerboard and rudder in. Would it be possible to buy an old wood sailfish or sunfish splash guard and attach that to my modern era sunfish? Would this be stupid
just a slab of plywood with some sandpaper glued to the side sounds like it’ll work, thanksYou would need to sand with something thinner than the daggerboard. I've
had epoxy beads after a repair and the daggerboard got wedged. If you
do go that route run a cloth through the trunk and try to remove all the excess
epoxy while it is still wet.
The 2 coats of liquid flex seal dried, and it turned out better than expected. My daggerboard trunk is sealed with minimal effort and mess.Try out the flex seal, who knows?
It’s hard to see in the picture, but there are plastic washers there. Is it possible that the pivot bolt is too tight?Can't tell with just a picture. There should be plastic fender washers
between the grudgen and wood rudder at the pivot bolt. Same with the tiller strap
bolt which I see not. Pull the bolts and go get some plastic washers at the
hardware. While you're at it get 2 brass bushing to install in the pivot bolt
holes. You'll prevent the rudder from splitting out at the boat holes.
Blew air into the drain while the boat was wet and soapy, and it bubbled up along part of the trim.How do you know the leak is under the trim?
Removing and reinstalling the trim is easy. You just drill out the rivers, make the repair and pop rivet the trim back on with aluminum pop rivets. Rivets and rivet fun’s are available at Home Depot, Lowes. Etc. but first be sure the leak is where you think it is!
So i took my lazy route and there’s some nice flex seal that is drying currently. Should hold up fine for the season. Next off season I’ll repair it for real.Well that proves it! When you take the trim off, I’d suggest widening the crack where the leak is - probably the deck and hull have slightly come apart. You can use a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to just open the gap a bit, or sometimes you can work a cutoff hack saw blade in and use it to saw the crack a bit bigger. Then (if the boat is freshwater sailed) Jam a big screwdriver in to open the crack/gap up and let it dry overnight. If it’s saltwater sailed, squirt fresh water in before drying.
Then mix up some epoxy or polyester resin and work it in there (boat needs to be tipped so the resin will flow in) and then get the screwdriver out! Lightly clamp it (you don’t want to squeeze all the resin out) wait 24 hours and put the trim back on.
How's the flex seal holding up? Did you do another leak test after applying it, or just go sailing? I sure understand your eagerness to get out there on the water.
When you're ready to do the repair it really isn't bad. The hardest part was finding the right size rivets for reinstalling the trim. Don't ask me what it is, but I can mail you a few for your section if you'd like. Since I was painting the boat I ended up removing all the trim, repaired the leak and put a thin Flexpoxy seal around the whole perimeter.
Beldar has a thorough write-up of the repair somewhere on this forum. Here's what mine looked like. The arrows on deck point to where it bubbled in the leak test. A small crack in the seam can let in a lot of water.
How's the flex seal holding up? Did you do another leak test after applying it, or just go sailing? I sure understand your eagerness to get out there on the water.
When you're ready to do the repair it really isn't bad. The hardest part was finding the right size rivets for reinstalling the trim. Don't ask me what it is, but I can mail you a few for your section if you'd like. Since I was painting the boat I ended up removing all the trim, repaired the leak and put a thin Flexpoxy seal around the whole perimeter.
Beldar has a thorough write-up of the repair somewhere on this forum. Here's what mine looked like. The arrows on deck point to where it bubbled in the leak test. A small crack in the seam can let in a lot of water.
Boat looks great. I wouldn’t recommend painting it. From the factory they are covered with gelcoat, a fairly durable low maintainance finish. Paint is not as durable Or as low maintenance. Plus it looks fairly retro as it is - it’s 36 years old!! They only started making glass Fish about 25 years before yours was made.
Yeah, I’m really just eager to sail and would rather just half ass any repair
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Check out our cheap clamps, 4 inch thick wall PVC cut into 2 inch wide sections, then cut a slit down the side. They provide adequate pressure for the thickened epoxy and you can get a lot of them out of a 4 foot piece. And that cup on the stern gives you an idea how much the expanding foam expands, it was about 1/4 full when we set it there.