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Hole in hull

2K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  jfl14609 
#1 ·
I have a small hole in my hull (previous owner thought it would be a nice drain in case water got into the boat) its about 1/4 in the size of a bb. whats the easiest permanent repair. i thought about marine tex but it looks to easy and normally things that work arent that easy
 
#2 ·
I think Marine Tex is a putty; I'm not sure if that is best.

I would:

1. Rough up the walls of the hole with a wood file or coarse sandpaper wrapped around a dowel; clean up the dust;

2. Put some duct tape at the bottom of the hole from the outside;

3. Pour some good epoxy in the hole from the inside;

4. Once the epoxy cures, fair it out and paint/seal it;

A 1/4" hole isn't going to be a structural issue; just fill it.
 
#6 ·
I did about 50 of these on my boat.
From the outside, countersink the hole a little bit. Sand it smooth with 80-120 grit. Clean with lacquer thinner or acetone on a new rag. Mix up some epoxy thickened with cab-o-sil (or mix some Marine Tex) until it's a thick paste.
Fill the hole well, smashing it deep into the hole. Smear it flat, very flat, with your spreader. At this point you can leave it or sand it smoother and leave it, or you can sand and primer and paint or use gelcoat, it all depends on how good you want it to look.
If it's at or near the waterline, I sanded the repair down as deep as a layer of impregnated fiberglass cloth is thick (about 1mm for 8oz glass) out to about 3" in diameter and then I layed-up a layer of glass over the plug to be certain that it would never leak or fall out.
In reality, I spent about 5 minutes per hole but I was doing quite a few at once.
 
#12 ·
I'm glad this has come up as I have some holes from old seacocks to fill. The old ones had 4 holes and the new ones have 3. My holes are already bevelled from the bolt heads so i think i will use the 105 epoxy mixed with 406 silica to thicken it and some small pieces of fibreglass thrown in for strength. I have to fill my holes from the outside.
 
#13 ·
i think the holes you have are a bit larger than mine is I say 1/4 in but realistically its prob 1/8 i would say a bb would barely fit in it. my original plan before asking people that knew what they were doing was to mix some resin and hardener up then roll up a tiny amount of fiberglass to fit in the hole. then soak it in the resin and stuff it in the hole. seems like others may have better ideas though
 
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