Plastic Classic Forum

Yes, I know; there is only 1 right way to fix a soft deck. Well, I would rather sail than do fiberglass work during the good weather. I hated stepping on a soft spot on the deck of my 1976 Bristol 24. It felt like the core was completely gone in a small area. The deck skin had a hollow looking area of about 1 square foot. I've read about drilling holes in the deck and injecting epoxy to fix soft spots, but didn't want to make things much harder when I get around to recoring the deck. I drilled some 1/4" test holes and found the balsa was crumbling and slightly damp. The surrounding area was firm and dry. I thought about what might be used to fill the area, but wouldn't be too hard to remove. I saw a bottle of Gorilla glue at the store. The instructions said to damp the area to be glued. Well, that had already happened! It also said the glue expanded 3-4 times after reacting with moisture. Sounded like just the thing!

I put down several pieces of masking tape to lessen the mess, and drilled holes about 3"-4" apart throughout the soft spot. I squeezed glue into each hole. Some holes took a lot of glue, others not so much. I tried to stop before filling the voids to allow for expansion. Within minutes, glue, foam, and balsa pieces were bubbling out of the holes. After a while the foaming stopped, and in about 1 hour the foam was hard enough to remove the tape and excess foam. It left the 1/4" holes filled with foam. I will re-drill the holes about 1/2" deep. and fill with epoxy putty.

I allowed a day before stepping on the deck. It felt completely firm and no diferent than the rest of the deck. The hollow spot was back to the same level as the surrounding deck, without and bulges or irregularities. I may not even bother with recoring at all!

This sounds very interesting. I have worked with gorilla glue and it does expand a lot, but will it be solid enough to properly bond the wet balsa. Please keep us updated.
Antonio

The Gorilla glue seems to bond well with about everything. I know it took a week to wear off of my fingers. I guess I really won't know for sure until I do a regular recore and cut it open. Maybe someone needs to do a test a few weeks before doing their recore. As I said, the area I used the gorilla glue in, looked perfectly level and felt solid under my 200#'s.

Crap; now you tell me! I just spent 2 years and used 15+ gallons of epoxy on my decks when I could have been sailing?
Seriously though, I think that approach might work for a bit in a localized area, but unless you found a specialized Gorilla glue product, it does not have structural gap filling properties. I suspect it will probably break down over time. How much time? who knows, but at least your still sailing.

How are you going to cover the holes? I do know from experience that Gorilla glue breaks down quickly in sunlight, so at the very least get some paint on it.

When the Gorilla glue reacts with the moisture in the damp core, it turns to a similar foam as used for insulation. It sticks well to wet surfaces. It's a temporary solution that might be easier to remove than the hardened epoxy that some people use.

I'll fill the drill holes in the fiberglass with epoxy and ground fiberglass.