Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron Bakken on August 25, 2011 at 10:36am

Hi Tom!  I'm a newbie and am about halfway into building a drift boat so I'll offer the little I have picked up so far.  But others here will have a lot more sound advice.

 Your first question is hard to answer without seeing the extent of the damage.  Pics would help.  If there is not too much damage you may be able to seal cracks with epoxy or thickened epoxy.  How you repair can also vary depending on how you want the interior to look.  Keep the natural beautiful wood look or will it be painted? 

 

2nd Q - If you have a leak, address it from the exterior first. Then as far as sealing the interior you can oil it (search this site for "boat soup") seal it with epoxy or epoxy and fiberglass.  Epoxy needs to be UV protected.

 

3rd Q - The term "glassing" refers to applying fiberglass cloth and epoxy to the boat. You can use it to make repairs.

 

Hope that helps a little.  Come back with more questions as much as needed.

 

RB

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on August 25, 2011 at 3:31pm

Thomas, a magical fellow by the name of AJ recently responded to a post dealing with almost exactly the same questions with a few variations. Take a gander at that one. Do a search on the top right of the site for AJ and all of his posts will pop up. He is one of the "Grand Wizards" of wooden drift boats, especially in the care and feeding of older drift boats. As mentioned many times before, get a copy of Roger Fletcher's book, "Drift Boats and River Dories". It is a solid foundation by another of the Grand Wizards!It is the manual your boat didn't come with.

 

Happy Waves to You,

 

Rick Newman

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by thomas schumacher on August 25, 2011 at 4:50pm

Cheers Rick,

I will do just that.  AJ seems to be the guru out there and I have been following along but seems I missed some of his posts.  I will have to search further.  I will also certainly get this book I keep hearing about.  Appreciate your help.

 

<*(((((()))))))>/p>

Thomas

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by thomas schumacher on August 25, 2011 at 4:46pm

Thanks RB,

I appreciate your feedback.  That will help get me thinking about how I want to re-finish the interior.  And good point about checking the exterior first as far as leakage - duh.  I have a starter kit with the epoxy and associated materials.  I'm still doing a lot of cleaning up (stripping, sanding, breaking up rotted areas) but will keep you posted if I get stuck again. 

Tight lines,

Thomas

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Don Hanson on September 5, 2011 at 8:45am

 One way to find your leak is to put water inside the boat....see where it appears on the outside.  You can trace it from that.  Be aware you MUST have things totally dry (again) to successfully (permanently) repair any wood with chemicals...

 

Prepare everything carefully before you put epoxy, polysulfide or any other chemical onto the wood....If things are damp, oxidized, dirty, rotted...etc etc...whatever you put on there/in there...it won't stick for long and you will have a REAL mess!  It is so tempting to just pour some "magic goo' onto your problem and hope it works...Sometimes it does work...but more often you will just get short term fix, followed by frustration fixing your 'fix' before you can start a proper repair again.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by thomas schumacher on September 15, 2011 at 12:35pm

Thanks Don.  I appreciate your help.  I'm going to pour some water along the edge where I believe the leak is coming from and try to identify on the exterior.

• ▶ Reply