I purchased a used Disco from a guy that was liquidating his livery business. It was cheap, but pretty well beat up. No holes through the hull, but some DEEP wounds in the usual bow and stern areas from running up on rocks. These had been repaired with what looks like some kind of melted plastic. It also has skid plate strips that were added over some of the melted plastic stuff.
We had it out last weekend on a shallow river and ended up damaging some of these repairs, tore a hunk out of the front skid plate and exposing some of the original damage.
So my question is this… What is the best way to remove the stuff that’s already on there and start all over again?
Thanks for any help!
Use your best judgement about what
to dig out and remove. You might fill the gaps with some sort of urethane adhesive. I’ve talked about the possibility of mixing microballoons with Seam Grip. Shredded minicell and Seam Grip might work also.
Once you get gouges and gaps filled in, you will want to level the surface as best you can. Then I think the best choice for a new outer surface is layers of fiberglass applied with West G-flex epoxy. Follow West instructions carefully, because it is very hard to get any adhesive to stick well to poly. The surfaces will have to be sanded and flamed. The FG layers will have to go on largest first, down to the smallest. At least 3 layers would be required, maybe more.
Another option would be to consult a plastic welder. Old Town poly is harder to weld back together because it is a sandwich, but some welders can deal with it.
yep…
Thanks for the tips! OT has a two part epoxy on their page but it looks like it’s for filling small gouges, some of these go through the outer layer, but none (at least below the water line, this thing looks like it was run over by a train) go all the way through.
I bought it because my wife and I + 2 kids filled up our Grumman more than we used to (The kids are growing and so are we:() and we figured a second boat (or a diet) was required. I had decided on a Bell Northwind in Kevlight, but after I talked to someone at Bell (apparently the price I saw was NOT a typo!) I began looking for a beat to hell and back Disco.
Old Town has
recommended repair methods on their site.