stringers
 

Doing some stringer work,what's a good resin fiberglass or epoxy to bond a piece of plywood to a piece of fiberglass stringer surface that is flat but has a lot of highs and low's in it,I need like a paste or something with the consistancey of peanut butter.Thanks JOHN

use west systems 404 high density filler for bonding, you can use it in any resin. What kind of repair are you doing? uscomposites.com has a great epoxy as well as a nice vinylester resin either would work fine but of course epoxy will be the strongest.

If it is a fiberglass hull then yes any resin will work. However if you use epoxy you will need to stay with using epoxy for the full repair & any subsequent coatings over the epoxied repair.. ;) Jamie / Lakeside

repair
 

Here's what I got I took the stringers out of the boat,by cutting the top open,after doing this I found the glass on the inside of the stringers that went down the inside and wrapped into the floor,is all cracked and peeling so I cut that out down to the floor.Now I want to put the new stringer in bond it to the outside glass that's still good then reglass over it all. Thanks JOHN

So if I start with west system,I need to stay with it????????

Yes, or any other epoxy, once you put epoxy in you cant put poly over it.

correct, epoxy is a bit more sensitive of what materials are used with it. No polys can be used in conjunction and also no fiberglass mat should be used. Use a 1700 fabric rather then a 1708. The toughest part about epoxy is a final paintable surface but if this is not an appearance area you wont have to worry about that.

Seeing that you are going with west systen ( epoxy )i also recomend #1700 - D/B 45 /45 fabric with a no chop back and with that in mind do not let west system or there Tech's tell you that epoxy and the fabric that they recomend ( 1708 ) is compatible with Epoxy .............. NOT.

What is the difference between the 1700 and 1708 fabric?? Thanks

John Jr

the first two numbers in the series are the weight of the cloth and the second two are the weight of the stitched on mat. So . . .

1708 = 17oz cloth with a 3/4oz mat
1700 = 17oz cloth with no mat attached.

The 1700 is far easier to wet out with epoxy and the layer of mat actually weakens the layup. Mat has no place in an epoxy system. If you have trouble finding 1700 i have a supplier online that is very reasonable. :cool: