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Author Topic: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting  (Read 1937 times)

terry1956

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Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« on: March 04, 2024, 11:58:55 am »

Hi out there. I have a small problem in that the top half of the split hull is no longer mating to the lower half. The top half as spread out so it no longer sits right with the lower half. I am thinking of adding some small brass extensions or tongues to the top half, the will hold it in. However I am not sure what glue would be strong enough to keep the tongues in place against the force of the hull trying to spread, or would be suitable to use with fibreglass. Anyone know. Thanks
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6705russell

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Re: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2024, 08:04:16 pm »

Is this a submarine hull?
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terry1956

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Re: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2024, 08:28:03 pm »

Not truly, it's a spar boat
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6705russell

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Re: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2024, 08:37:11 pm »

Have you tried running a hot air gun or hair dryer over the top half and warming it up?  You can bend back to normal shape this way.
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JimG

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Re: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2024, 08:39:34 pm »

You could try carefully heating the top half to make it more flexible then tape it to the lower half, closing the joints. When it cools it should hold the new shape and be a closer fit to the bottom half. When you join the top and bottom together you need to run some fibreglass tape inside the join with resin to reinforce the join.
Jim
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terry1956

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Re: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2024, 07:06:59 pm »

Thanks chaps
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: Thin Fibreglass hull halfs not meeting
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2024, 07:58:50 am »

I have fixed a few submarine hulls with this problem. For a high strength option I would suggest holes in both sides of the deformed section. Then run studding (M4, or M5 thread is my usual choice) through the holes across the model. Force the hull back to shape with external nuts until you are happy. Then get inside the hull and bond the studding in place with epoxy or some sort of fibreglass repair paste. Remove the external nuts, cut off the studding and clean up the outside face till beautiful!
You will probably still need to do everything already suggested by others, plus making the join line good with decent filler. This will help stabilise an older fibreglass hull that prefers to be out of shape rather than in shape.
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