Hi All,
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I might go about repairing the nose of my laser?
I understand I will need to grind back the soft/delaminated fibreglass however I wasn't sure how to get the shape and strength back in the gunwale.
cheers
Luke
I would just grind out all the rubbish and fill with a fibreglass filler such as this one with fibreglass fibers.http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Septone-Fibreglass-Filler-1kg.aspx?pid=3147#Recommendations
Mold up the outer edge with either a plastic or cardboard with a layer of cellophane or equivalent to get the right shape. Use ordinary body filler to get the final smooth finish and paint with a pressure pack paint tin.
Just don't try to fill the lot in one go.
If you know someone else with a laser you may be able to use their boat to make a small female mould to put on the underside where you need to do the repair. Then grind out all the damaged area and then just build it back up with glass and resin. The trick it to over lap the new glass with the old. Butt joints don't work.
It's not as hard as you may think and if it all goes wrong just grind it off and start again. Gloves and face mask are a must plus eye protection.
I did a mast step repair to my Laser a few years ago. Two pieces of advice for you:
1. I found that West Systems epoxy is super strong and bonds extremely well with the hull's resin. Use that with some rough random strands glass cloth and you'll have something very strong and durable.
2. A dremel tool (super el-cheepo from the hardware store) with the little sandpaper cylinders is amazingly helpful for those kinds of jobs where you want to a. grind away old stuff and b. smooth out the result for nice compound curves. I say the dremel is amazing because I have a full shop with lots of tools, some of them quite expensive, and yet that little toy thing was the most helpful of all for that job, despite my initial skepticism...
Enjoy,
~Pierre
