Glassing in old tower mount holes?!

[Doug]

I've been considering replacing my roll bar tower with a Monster Tower. The only problem is the glass shop quoted a price of $900 to fill in and re-gel coat the areas. i was wondering how difficult would it be to do the glass work myself? I would let the shop do the gel coat. Are there alternative glass composite type products just to fill in holes?

[wakerwes]

i don't have much experience in gelcoating but i have to do it to in my older ski nautique 2001 (a lot of gelcout holes and osmosis)
i think you can do it by yourself but you have to a lot of research on the net,
you can fill up the holes with epoxy and then you have to gelcoat and then you can polish it up till you have a smooth surface, but you have to find the same color of gelcoat.

i gonna do it after the winter because its freezing here
let us know how you gonna do it

[riverside]

900?????
just for repairing some holes,...my god that is insane.
well i,ll do it for ya..500 for the plane ticket and 100 materials etc.
you saved yourself 300...

but seriously.
it is a simple job and if you are just a little handy man you can do it yourself.

here is my option.(don,t mind my spelling i,m dutch)
use some tape to create your work area.
sand the holes vert so you have a bigger surface for the polyester filler(with fibers) to connect.
sand it down with 80 grit
now use a final epoxy filler
sand it down with a waterproof sandpaper start with 150 and after that 400 and use a sanding block.
now here is what i do ....(you don,t nessesary have to use gell coat to bring the color back.gell coates fade and it will be hard to get the right color...beside that you will need a special non-sticking gelcoat because normal gelcoats only being used inside molds and are seperated from air).
There are other products....2 components epoxy coats.
they can be mixed to the right color.
now increase your work area (sand it 1000)and apply it with a foam roller and be shure to apply a little more on the repairs and a little less on the tape edges....at least 2 layers.
now comes the trick....sand the final topcoat with the sanding block and a 1000 grit.
and make shure it flows over to the original gelcoat.

Buff baby Buff:twisted: buff it up untill it gets glossy.
that,s all.

ben

[wesgardner]

Hey Doug,

I agree with everything riverside the dutchman says - one thing, with older boats you probably will not get a perfect color match - this is the "hard" part, gelcoating (polyester resin) is basically fairly simple and alot of gelcoat formulations come with parafin already in them - parafin is wax (yes) and floats to the surface thus locking off the air so the gel will actually dry otherwise it remains tacky - you can simulate this effect with taping wax paper over the repair thus locking out the air - don't mix the batch too "hot" and don't mix up too much at a time or it will blast off in the cup (actually can catch fire), but basically fill the holes with epoxy resin and some sort of backing cloth hold the fill a bit low, once this has set up, fill the remainder with your gel (alotta boat dealers/builders will sell/give you the right color) if not you're gonna have to match the color - this is tricky but not impossible, then do the wetsanding/rubbing compound/polishing thing and voila - go install your new tower and go ridin'

Hope this helps - pm me if you want more moral support

Wes

[salmon_tacos]

Hey, here's an idea that I got out of a West Marine boat building book, in case you are a little paranoid about the bond between the "plug" and the hull:

Bend a nail at 90-degrees, about 1/4 inch from the end, and insert it into a drill (cut the head off it if has one). Then, put it in the hole and tear out some of the core material inside the two fiberglass resin layers (probably some kind of foam stuff). Then blow it all out. This way you will have more bonding surface and the new plug will be physically retained in the hole and less prone to cracking at the edges or whatever.

This is probably not necessary but it would only take an extra couple of minutes so why not?

[Jeffro]

have you thought about maybe pluggin the holes with something else? Like a 12v outlet for accessories, or maybe another tie down? even a grommet of some sort? You could even cover over it with some Gator Grip after you glassed the hole!

i know it's not the prettiest, but it wouldn't look like a repair job gone wrong in case something happened while doing the glass on your own, or incase it didn't match once the shop was done.

guess it depends on how much you want to spend and how imprtant aesthetics are to you on your boat.

[Doug]

I've used a product in the past that you mixed two liquids (resin & hardner) with fiberglass powder to make a putty consistance. Had good luck with it repairing the hole, just not sure about matching color with gel coat/paint. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this?!

[wesgardner]

Hey Doug,

What you had was coloidal silica (the thickener). Like I posted earlier, you may be able to get Malibu to supply you (or a dealer) with the correct color "white" - don't be fooled, there are a zillion colors of "white". If your boat is relatively new, you'll get a good match.

Maybe it's like Jeffro said - find some blank plates (they make alotta plates and stuff for sailboats) and install them over the old tower feet....your call - we'll give you all the support you need to do the job HOWEVER - you'll actually have to do the mixing - think of yourself as a mad scientist....no, on the other hand....

Wes

[Fishmaster]

Doug,

Get some measurements on the bases you have (length, width and distance between holes) and give me a call at 877-778-6937. We can likely either use or cover up most of, if not all of the existing holes with our bases which could bypass the need to do gelcoat. For conversions we can always do a "one off" plate or adapter as needed as well.

Bill

[Doug]

If you look at my profile, I have a Barewest rollbar type tower. The rear part of the tower is bolted to the top of the gunnel. The front legs mount in front of the wind shield. I've looked at the gallery of Malibu boats with the monster tower. There are a couple of boats like mine ('92 Sunsetter Euro F3). The front legs are mounted to the side of the boat. The rear legs are mounted to the top of the gunnel. I would prefer mounting mine to the side like the front legs. So the only way to do the job right is to repair the holes. Maybe we can work out a price so I can pay for the gel coat??!! I'll be taking to you Bill.