Restoration project (Lido 14)

So I've reclaimed our family's old Lido 14, and I'm going to start the restoration process
on it. The guy that had been "taking care" of it for the past few years let the poor boat
just sit and gather dirt. He sanded the hull down (apparently intending to repaint it),
but never finished the job.

Basically, the rudder and centerboard need substantial work. I've done some fiberglass
work before, so I can reinforce the rough areas and seal the rest with epoxy.

The hull needs some fiberglass work too, especially on the transom (old epoxy has cracked
and started to pull away from the wood in some areas) and the floor of the cockpit. I
also need to replace all of the fittings, which brings me to my questions:

1: How can I repair the cracked transom epoxy? Do I just cut/chip away the delaminating
parts, and reseal?

2: What epoxy/fiberglass combination would work best for all these repairs? I'm used to
using woven plies from doing work on aircraft, but it appears the boat has glass mats that
seem to be just random jumbles of long fibers.

3: How do I repair holes where fittings attached? I have a feeling that a lot of them
have either stripped out or rotted, and I don't want to be putting my mast fitting into
rotted wood. Can I overdrill the hole, plug with a dowel or similar, then glass it in and
redrill the hole?

4: Finally, how should I go about getting the hull repainted? I live in an apartment
complex, which rules out spraying it myself.

Thanks in advance

Bob Martin wrote:

> So I've reclaimed our family's old Lido 14, and I'm going to start the
> restoration process on it. The guy that had been "taking care" of it
> for the past few years let the poor boat just sit and gather dirt. He
> sanded the hull down (apparently intending to repaint it), but never
> finished the job.
>
> Basically, the rudder and centerboard need substantial work. I've done
> some fiberglass work before, so I can reinforce the rough areas and seal
> the rest with epoxy.
>
> The hull needs some fiberglass work too, especially on the transom (old
> epoxy has cracked and started to pull away from the wood in some areas)
> and the floor of the cockpit. I also need to replace all of the
> fittings, which brings me to my questions:
>
> 1: How can I repair the cracked transom epoxy? Do I just cut/chip away
> the delaminating parts, and reseal?
>
> 2: What epoxy/fiberglass combination would work best for all these
> repairs? I'm used to using woven plies from doing work on aircraft, but
> it appears the boat has glass mats that seem to be just random jumbles
> of long fibers.
>
> 3: How do I repair holes where fittings attached? I have a feeling
> that a lot of them have either stripped out or rotted, and I don't want
> to be putting my mast fitting into rotted wood. Can I overdrill the
> hole, plug with a dowel or similar, then glass it in and redrill the hole?
>
> 4: Finally, how should I go about getting the hull repainted? I live
> in an apartment complex, which rules out spraying it myself.
>
> Thanks in advance


You can use either mat or woven cloth for your repairs, use epoxy resin
as opposed to the polyester it was built with.

Check out http://www.gougeon.com/ or http://www.westsystem.com/
for a wealth of information on using epoxy for repairs, One step for
stripped fastening is much as you suggest, except you saturate the area
with resin and fill the hole with one of the many fillers, to re-drill
and re-set the fittings.

Good painting results can be had by rolling on the paint and tipping it
off with a brush. I mostly just brush out what I'm painting, but I've
been doing it for 45 years.....

Have fun.

Jonathan

--
I am building my daughter an Argie 10 sailing dinghy, check it out:
http://home.comcast.net/~jonsailr