Nose Repair Advice Needed

4cpus4me

Active Member
I ran out of off-season to repair the nose on the Sunfish, so here we are. :eek:

I attached some PICs now that I got the trim removed. Bad news is there is some damage (I bought it this way). The good news is it looks to be isolated to the flange area and the lower hull looks fully intact. Not taking on any water. You can see from the shape of the trim how it got deformed and is now no longer rounded properly on the nose. Must have hit a dock or something.

Need some recommendation on how to proceed... mostly want a functional repair so I can sail, don't need anything sexy but it bugged me that it was messed up so I pulled the trim off and took these PICs. That green goo is Turtle Wax from last year.

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I'd take a wood saw, and by hand, "dress" all the fractures and openings to get to sold fiberglass. (Get the wax residue OUT--top, bottom, and in between). Then mix some resin and brush it in. Cover everything with wax paper, clamp the works together between flat pieces of metal or wood. Use a lot of clamps, and let the resin cure.

Clean up what extends beyond the proper curve.

Reattach the trim from only the good side, take a heavy rubber hammer and "reform" the bad side to fit until the other rivet holes line up. (It's a heavy piece of aluminum, so it may take a 2-pound hammer and a block of hardwood).

Reattach the last pop-rivet(s).

Or order a good piece of aluminum nose-trim from member Alan Glos, and trim the fiberglass instead.

That's the quick-and-dirty answer. :)
 
Thought I was off to a good start but it went south quick. Had everything sanded and prepped and as I started to coat the area and work the resin in the loose pieces broke apart and a sticky 5 minutes later after trying to fit them back together I had to abandon ship on that attempt. :(

Amazing they stood up to all the sanding and Dremel work with the wire wheel and acetone cleanup but fell apart when coating with resin, go figure. :D

Will have to look at a new approach tomorrow.
 
Not sure where it's going, but here's where it is at the moment. Just trying to establish some base layers to work off since a lot of the nose rim area was literally gone. This may be painful for veteran fiberglass guys to watch, so you've been warned. :D Wow, that permanent marker gets everywhere.

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Please do not take offense. I am not known to be the best speaker.

You are not doing a very good repair. It will not be structural and it will just look bad. You are only using cloth when mat is needed. From the resin dripping off I can see you too much for a sound repair. I also do not see that you have tapered the areas back and have it down to glass not on the gel coat. You need to take away the broken off parts and build it all up.

You need to grind it down to a taper, you should take off the handle but that might not be wise for other reasons. You need to start with a large layer of mat then large layer of cloth then 2 layers of mat. Yes that is how far it needs to be ground down. You wet out the glass on some card board then transfer it to the boat. It must not be dripping wet!!

The bottom will be a bit of pain to do. You will need a dremel to grind back around the curve. You will need to be using mat to make up the compound curve. You will also need to make smaller pieces to get round the curves some.

Go watch some videos on youtube to get a better idea of what to do. The area you are trying to work is a bit harder to come out right. That area will take a beating as it already has so you need to make it sound or it will just break again.

Here is what I recently did on a newer hull for the club. Keep in mind it is not a perfect repair. The boat is pretty beat up and a pretty repair would have taken a few days to do and I did not have the time. It needed some repair at the bow face that required me opening up the top to put more structure inside. I had the problem of trying to do that curve around edge found on the newer Sunfish. I ended up using a rubber hose as a form.

I am just in the early learning stages of glass work. I have undone some repairs that look like what you are doing and know that it is not a good repair.
 

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Please do not take offense. I am not known to be the best speaker.

You are not doing a very good repair. It will not be structural and it will just look bad. You are only using cloth when mat is needed. From the resin dripping off I can see you too much for a sound repair. I also do not see that you have tapered the areas back and have it down to glass not on the gel coat. You need to take away the broken off parts and build it all up.

You need to grind it down to a taper, you should take off the handle but that might not be wise for other reasons. You need to start with a large layer of mat then large layer of cloth then 2 layers of mat. Yes that is how far it needs to be ground down. You wet out the glass on some card board then transfer it to the boat. It must not be dripping wet!!

The bottom will be a bit of pain to do. You will need a dremel to grind back around the curve. You will need to be using mat to make up the compound curve. You will also need to make smaller pieces to get round the curves some.

Go watch some videos on youtube to get a better idea of what to do. The area you are trying to work is a bit harder to come out right. That area will take a beating as it already has so you need to make it sound or it will just break again.

Here is what I recently did on a newer hull for the club. Keep in mind it is not a perfect repair. The boat is pretty beat up and a pretty repair would have taken a few days to do and I did not have the time. It needed some repair at the bow face that required me opening up the top to put more structure inside. I had the problem of trying to do that curve around edge found on the newer Sunfish. I ended up using a rubber hose as a form.

I am just in the early learning stages of glass work. I have undone some repairs that look like what you are doing and know that it is not a good repair.


Yes, your repair is much more extensive, because it required it. It looks like you did a great job.

My repair was only to the flange area as the main hull nose was not crushed or damaged and the adjacent surfaces are rock-solid. I did not bevel a 12:1 ratio because it doesn't need it and has an extremely strong protective aluminum frame also supporting it. If it can survive reassembly and recurving of the aluminum guard frame it will likely survive my sailing skills on the water.

I do appreciate the response and detailed photos and advice you have offered.
 
Just did a similar repair. Largely cosmetic versus the structural of Shorefun's. To form the point of the bow I took a large fountain drink cup and cut it horizontally to give me a curved plastic band. I taped it to the boat and started sticking strips of chopped strand mat to it and filled in with thickened polyester resin. It not the most elegant, but I got the basic shape and it seems pretty firm.
 

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After the weird start, making progress on the nose flange repair. The glasswork is done and I sanded the top with various grits up to 240 and first coat of primer is drying. I'll sand that down when it dries and see how it looks.
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