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1969 E32 cockpit core repair: an illustrated guide

tenders

Innocent Bystander
E32 cockpit core repair: an illustrated guide

The cockpit deck of my fine 32, built in 1969, owned and sailed by me since 1991 on three US coasts (west, north, and east), had become progressively spongier and spongier; I think the area around the fuel fill had leaked water long ago.

My boat partner and I repaired this to our mutual satisfaction for about $500 in supplies and about 25 hours of work time, though that number is hard to estimate. Here's what we did:
1-before-small.jpg
* Mark off desired zone with masking tape. Cutout zone should leave sufficient decking in place to accommodate 2 further inches of beveling, plus any desired area beyond beveling for paint
2-the cut-small.jpg
* Cut with angle grinder with diamond blade - mark the appropriate depth on blade, and do not cut lower layer of glass!
* Remove top layer by hook or by crook. Areas of balsa may remain surprisingly sound and adherent to both layers of fiberglass
3-what came up-small.jpg
* Scrape out old balsa core (screwdriver, oscillating saw, sander)
4-the lower layer-small.jpg
* Cut plywood template to fit hole in deck. Place any holes in template using parts of top layer removed during initial cut
* Using template, cut 1/2" foam core slab and add any necessary holes
* Using template, cut G10 (I used 3/16" thickness) and add any necessary holes
* Grind and sand a 2" taper all the way around the G10
 

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  • 5-the chamfered G10 panel-small.jpg
    5-the chamfered G10 panel-small.jpg
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tenders

Innocent Bystander
* Grind and sand a 2" taper all the way around the edge of the remaining deck. I noticed that the thickness of the glass varies quite a bit around the hole.
* Using small pieces of foam core an inch or two wide, dip one at a time in neat epoxy and stuff it under the beveled edge of the deck hole. With a utility knife, cut each piece flush with the hole. The corners are complicated and should be done first - suggest dry-fitting a rectangle of epoxy first, then cutting off a gnomon to accommodate the hole in the deck, then coating in epoxy and pressing into the corner.
* Wet out the new foam edges of hole and the bottom deck layer with neat epoxy; spread a layer of thickened epoxy across the bottom deck with a notched trowel
* Wet out bottom and sides of foam core replacement slab
* Drop foam core slab into the prepped hole and apply thickened epoxy into edges and across the top of core with notched trowel
* Wet out underside of G10 and place atop the prepped foam core slab. Fill any gaps around the perimeter with thickened epoxy
* Apply weights (5 gallon buckets of water, car batteries, cinder blocks, bags of sand) to press G10 onto core and allow to cure at least overnight
6-core and top in place before taping-small.jpg
* Measure out 4", 3", 2", and 1" wide strips of fiberglass tape around the perimeter of the repair. Do not overlap strips of the same width on the corners, or the repair will stand very proud in those areas. I used 4" tape for everything and cut one section of it into into 2" widths and another section into 1" and 3" widths.
7-glass tape before wetting out-small.jpg
* Lay down and wet out the 4, 3, 2, 1" strips, centering each on the edge of the cutout, starting with the 4" strip for maximum strength. Conventional wisdom suggests you'd start with the 1" strip at the max depth of the bevel but I read somewhere that if you do that, when you start fairing you end up grinding away the 4" strip at the top of the bevel, which spans the bevel and provides the most joining strength. So if you put the 4" strip at the bottom of the bevel you maintain the most strength. As each piece wets out it becomes transparent and the hole cut line is easy to see, even through the fourth layer.
8-structural work complete-small.jpg
* Allow to cure, grind and sand down (60 grit grinder, 60-80 grit sandpaper), fill low spots as necessary
* Sand entire repair (G10, patch, and perimeter of deck destined for paint) with 100 grit paper
* If necessary, thoroughly Softscrub with bronze wool and rinse with water
* Mask around repair for priming and painting
* Prime cockpit deck
* Paint cockpit deck, sprinkling nonskid additive using salt shaker
* Repaint cockpit deck with nonskid additive
* Install fittings
RESULT:
Final - after paint-small.jpg
 
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bigd14

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Nice job! Just out of curiosity why did you decide to use such a large amount of G10 instead of the more typical technique of laying layers of fiberglass cloth over the entire repair? I am not saying this is a bad method, on the contrary it looks like you saved yourself a lot of fairing and finishing this way. Was that the primary reason or was it for strength/stiffness? And how thick was the G10? Do you have any shots of the finished product?
 
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tenders

Innocent Bystander
I'll add photos of the finished job the next time I'm on the boat. We finished the painting late Saturday night and launched on the 11am tide on Sunday morning - it was a mad dash to get everything else ready for launching, like reinstalling the rudder and tiller hardware, and we were not the least bit certain the paint would be sufficiently dry!

I used the large sheet of 3/16" G10 for strength and simplicity. Along with the 1/2" foam core it was definitely the right stuff to closely match the thickness of the original deck. While G10 is a bit pricy and does require carbide-tipped saw blades to cut, it is tough as nails, West epoxy doesn't exactly grow on trees either, and it seemed to me that cutting, laying up, and grinding/fairing multiple layers of large sheets of fiberglass cloth was likely to take a lot of time and look pretty bad. <-- also, just remembered, that hole in the middle of the deck for the fuel fill would have been more difficult to place using multiple layers of glass and epoxy.

(By the way, I feel the same way about Starboard plastic too - it is expensive, but when you put the last screw into it the job is done with no further finishing or refinishing, ever.)

Rough expenses were:

G10 - $170 from McMaster.com; everything else came from Defender.com or Home Depot
Foam core - $120
4" fiberglass cloth, also cut down to 3", 2", and 1" strips - $30
West epoxy and additives - $75
Brightsides paint, primer, nonskid additive, rollers - $60
Sanding supplies - $40 or so
Salt shaker for nonskid - $1 from dollar store

I have enough of all this stuff left over to repair another soft patch on the side deck in the fall.

I was a bit worried that the nonskid paint additive was going to look bad but it's essentially very fine sand. It doesn't look bad at all and it isn't uncomfortable even on bare skin. Also, Brightsides paint is quite durable and easy to apply (it's 1-part polyurethane) but it hides absolutely nothing. What isn't fair or smooth WILL show through, so when in doubt, grind or sand a little more.

This probably would have been a $5k job in a yard, and who knows when they would have gotten to it. Was our time worth $180 an hour ($5000 yard - $500 cost)/25 hours? Well, yes, I think it was, I'm glad to have done it and in my opinion while only time will tell, it came out better than a less-involved core repair a pro did on the side deck four years ago.
 
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tenders

Innocent Bystander
Updated with "after" photo. Repair is like-new solid.

I should point out that I also remade the 3/4" wooden (teak?) block underneath the bronze upper guide for the rudder post out of a slab of 3/4" grey Starboard, which I expect to last another 50 years. This required an angled cut with a hole saw so that the rudder post can pass through it, and was sealed with my good friend, butyl tape.

Also, to make the initial deck cut I used this $22 DeWalt DW4701B 4-1/2" XP turbo diamond blade in a $40 Black & Decker grinder:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CNMGVQ/

This highly imprecise tool in my inexperienced hands nevertheless easily cut a very straight set of lines out of the deck.
 
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