Carver Owners Forum

tgmkwill wrote:QR_BBPOST Are the holes in the skin for counter sinking screws and you apply fairing over them?? Following this project carefuly

I found a screw at Lowes called a "lathe screw" that had a wide head and also was self tapping. I used these across the top skins, once glued back down, to compress all three layers together as the epoxy cured. Once dry I remove these and fill all holes with thickened epoxy. So far this was worked very well.

Glad to hear this thread might be helping someone else in the future!

km1125 wrote:QR_BBPOST Never though about re-using the top skins. I've only seen folks use new glass over the repair. That's an interesting approach but don't know why it wouldn't be a good idea!!

Looks like on the bow sections you feathered the edges before reinstalling the skins, but didn't on the side deck. Any particular reason? Also, how would you feather the remaining deck to match?

Sailboat guys use this repair approach all the time, which is where I got the idea. I did lots of research before jumping in on this repair as I'm sure you can imagine- the first cut was definitely the hardest!

The reason for not feathering on the side deck before reinstalling was that when I reinstalled the bow sections the edges were a little too thin for everything to compress properly leading me to place the screws into the thicker material. I wanted to hide these holes with the glass tape and later fairing as much as possible so I decided to grind the side deck edged after install.

Hope that makes sense...

BenTen wrote:QR_BBPOST

tgmkwill wrote:QR_BBPOST Are the holes in the skin for counter sinking screws and you apply fairing over them?? Following this project carefuly

I found a screw at Lowes called a "lathe screw" that had a wide head and also was self tapping. I used these across the top skins, once glued back down, to compress all three layers together as the epoxy cured. Once dry I remove these and fill all holes with thickened epoxy. So far this was worked very well.

Glad to hear this thread might be helping someone else in the future!

Elaborate a bit more on this. Do those screws go though the top skin, the coring and the bottom skin?

Yes, the screw goes through all three layers. On the side decks I pre-drilled through the top layer and core and then let the screw bite into the bottom layer adding the compression.

A little progress to share.

Seams ground out and two layers of FG tape added:



Initial fairing using West Systems 410 to level with surrounding original deck surfaces:


All sanded and second fairing added coat to fill in remaining unevenness using Total Boat Total Fair:




Next on the list is a complete scrub of all non skid in preparation for taping and painting of new KiwiGrip on all surfaces. I hope to get started on this by this weekend depending on the weather. As of right now all deck surfaces are in the dry so I won't have to worry about the potential of water penetration etc.- this was my main motivation for working diligently on this project from initial cut.


Thanks for following along!

Thank you for providing updates and pics of your project!

Wow, that looks like a lot of work. Sure it will be worth it once you are done.

Small update:

Reinstalled and rebedded side rail and stanchions using butyl tape. Added a few coats of epoxy primer to seal all of the fiberglass work and fairing. I also removed the carpet that was installed by the PO and the screws that they used to hold it down. This led to the discovery of another small soft spot so I went ahead and made that repair as well.

Net up, once I have a few days of adequate humidity will be to apply the new non skid. For this I chose KiwiGrip- I'm trying to decide now if I'll put it on as straight WHITE or if I'll get it tinted to match the current hue of my gelcoat. Opinions welcome!


Primer Coat:

Amazing you were able to do that work while in the water. Did you lose any tools or parts overboard?

Besides ease of application, any particular reason why you're going with KiwiGrip instead of gelcoat?