Hobie Forums
http://www.hobie.com/au/en/forums/

Marine-Tex for small chips
http://www.hobie.com/au/en/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=34476		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Flip57 [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:44 am ]
Post subject:  Marine-Tex for small chips
I was out on Lake Mohave last year on my H16. The wind was whippin' the length of the lake towards the north. So I flew down the lake and then had to make many, many, many tacks back down the narrow lake to get back to the launch area. One of the tacks I tangled my foot in the main sheet. While I was distracted clearing my foot, a puff blasted my sail and slammed the boat up onto a large rock. Luckily I was close enough that the total velocity was not much but the force pushed me up onto said rock. I checked for damage and gently lifted the boat back to the water. The total damage was only a chip smaller than a dime on one bow and some small scratches on the keels. These are some darn tough boats. My question is can I use white Marine-Tex to repair this or should I buy some gel coat?
Author:  MBounds [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
"White" Marine-Tex really isn't white - at least it doesn't match the white gel-coat. It's also wayyy harder than the surrounding gel; sanding it flush is a challenge.

Get some gel coat and thicken it with colloidial silica (Cab-o-Sil, WEST 406) until it will hold a peak (like whipped cream). Butter it on, cover with plastic wrap (keep air out), let it go off, sand and polish. You'll never see where it was fixed.
Author:  KevMiami [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
Last post was good advice - Marine Tex is great stuff, but is impossible to sand and/or grind flush with other materials, the epoxy is just way to hard. Sure was the cat's meow for filling in voids in a very pitted aluminum water tank - never leave home without. Cheers, Kevin.
Author:  Flip57 [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
I used Marine-Tex to repair the pump for my pool when I lived in Houston, TX and had some left over. I believe in doing things right so I'll buy some gel coat and Silica. Thanks for the advice. :D
Author:  dregsfan [ Sat Mar 19, 2011 8:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
Marine Tex is great for small gel coat dings. The trick is to cover the MT with clear 2" packing tape and work out the bubbles and voids to get a smooth, no-sanding needed finish.
Author:  Flip57 [ Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
dregsfan - I see you are in Arizona too.
This is off of the subject here but I was wondering if you have had any problems going to other states because Arizona does not register small sailboats. My Texas registration was still good last year but now I'm going to have to break out the "goo-gone" and remove the TX tags from my bows or be accused of being out of date. Do you think the license plate on my trailer will be enough to prove that I don't have to have the registration stickers anymore?
Author:  dregsfan [ Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
I've never taken my boats out of AZ. I would think that your driver's license would be sufficient, unless you run into a Barney Fife type.

I am in Mesa. Do you sail at Watson?

Flip57 wrote:
dregsfan - I see you are in Arizona too.
This is off of the subject here but I was wondering if you have had any problems going to other states because Arizona does not register small sailboats. My Texas registration was still good last year but now I'm going to have to break out the "goo-gone" and remove the TX tags from my bows or be accused of being out of date. Do you think the license plate on my trailer will be enough to prove that I don't have to have the registration stickers anymore?
Author:  Flip57 [ Sun Mar 20, 2011 10:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
I usually sail at Lake Pleasant and will be there first week of April. On the west side of the dam, camped next to the water.

dregsfan wrote:
I've never taken my boats out of AZ. I would think that your driver's license would be sufficient, unless you run into a Barney Fife type.

I am in Mesa. Do you sail at Watson?

Flip57 wrote:
dregsfan - I see you are in Arizona too.
This is off of the subject here but I was wondering if you have had any problems going to other states because Arizona does not register small sailboats. My Texas registration was still good last year but now I'm going to have to break out the "goo-gone" and remove the TX tags from my bows or be accused of being out of date. Do you think the license plate on my trailer will be enough to prove that I don't have to have the registration stickers anymore?
Author:  Sail Revolution [ Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
MarineTex has no place in a permanent repair of any Hobie hull. Maybe for a quickie beach repair, but there are better things out there.

Whenever a boat comes in to get repaired and has MarineTex on it, we charge extra to grind every bit of that stuff out.

It's especially worthless when used to 'fix' a spot where there is broken laminate. There is no substitute for cutting out the damage, and actually laminating in new glass. For filling a ding, yeah, that's OK, but why not use the correct stuff, gel coat. It's basically the same process with the additional step of occluding o2 with plastic, etc.
Author:  Fa1321tx [ Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
I am a marine-tex user it definately does not match gel coat but can somebody please tell me why marine-tex is not good. The problem for me is mixing, spraying & smelling gelcoat is a real pain. I own a 27 year old boat so the gelcoat is not going to match either it will most likely stand out even more than the marine-tex. I have a gallon of white gelcoat and a couple of prevail sprayers also the 406 silca you mentioned so can you tell me an easy step by step procedure?
Author:  Sail Revolution [ Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
Generally speaking...no offense to anyone that uses the stuff. People that use Marine Tex often don't take the extra time to study up on how to properly repair their damaged boat. MT is blobbed on like bondo, and it's expected to become a solid repair. Then down the line, after the hull has flexed for years and years, the MT still seems like it's hanging on, when actually it has cracked away from the hull half way around, allowing water to seep into the foam core. I have seen probably a hundred boats with leaky MT 'repaired' keel areas.

Hobie hulls flex. MT is as hard as a rock, therefore it cant make a solid, lasting bond. Eventually it will fail. It's so hard, in fact, that you can break out a tap and cut threads into it. A useful trait for other things, not so good for flexing Hobie hulls.

I'm on a crusade in three areas of 'The Hobie Way of Life'.

1) Why the heck can't trailer hitches all be 2"? I'm fixing that one trailer at a time!

2) I want to stop people from overspending for unnecessary materials for repairs. That means no epoxy when you're laminating glass. Read elsewhere in these forums for the reasons. I'm not getting into it now.

and... 3) (This one is kind of selfish.) I want every fiberglass guy down the road 20 years to not suffer the way I did on a bulk daggerboard repair job a couple of years ago. I had 12 H18 DBs here at the shop, and every one of them had MT on them. I underestimated the invoiced labor time by days, not hours, and had ended up grinding for 2 extra days. After I prepped and repaired the damage, I faired them and shot them all with about 10 coats of gelcoat, hot-coating the whole way. Unbeknown to me while I was spraying, the small scratches that still had MT in them were making the gelcoat not cure properly. I had to strip the uncured areas, grind them out and re shoot. Since the gel had PVA on it, I had to resand the entire board to make sure that the new coat of gel stuck. Took 4 extra days.
I should've read the MT website a little more carefully:

Quote:
How to apply gelcoat over epoxies (Marine Tex):

-Applying polyester resin (like gelcoat) over epoxy is very tricky and must be done extremely carefully. The smaller the repair, the easier it is to coat epoxy with gelcoat. The larger the area, the polyester will be more difficult to work with and more likely to malfunction (not cure).


Just thicken some gel, catalyze, fill the scratches, cure, fair, buff. It's just as easy.
Author:  Fa1321tx [ Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
No offense taken and I would agree with you. I was told by one of my the older sailors to just get some MT the first time I had to do any repairs. You have a big task in front of you as I have seen multiple people use MT & West System on the hulls & daggers. There are so many things to learn when you start out so MT is a quick fix and older better sailors are saying use it = a big task in front of you. I just filled a whole with 1 part west system and silca and thin layer of MT on top so how do I get it out and what do I use for filler since the hole is down to the glass about 2" x 1" area?
Author:  Sail Revolution [ Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Marine-Tex for small chips
I'm telling you, brother, it's a crusade. :D
I'm battling the ease of the two little pumps and a nice little box with only two components. It's easy, marketed well, and in the case of the WS pumps, people are willing to spend almost 3 times the amount of money unnecessarily.

If your repair isn't leaking, just forget about it and sail. West Systems will seal it.

Get a few of the Hobie Hotlines and read up on proper repair techniques.
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/