question about abs slurry repair for royalex

[Seabass]

I have a cold cracked dagger ovation that I got for a 12 pack. I want to know if when I use the abs slurry if I can lay fiberglass inside of it for structure.

I already took the boat apart, ground an inch and a half thru the nylon on both sides of the crack. drilled end of crack. used g-flex to glue the crack. now I wanted to use the abs slurry with fiberglass cloth 3inch wide to support the crack. I was planning on brushing the slurry onto the boat, brushing it onto the cloth as I apply it, and brushing it onto the top while working out the air bubbles. will this work? because when I'm done, I'm going to do the same method on the inside of the boat too. will the abs slurry be thin enough to penetrate thru the cloth? Am I over thinking this?

I searched this forum for an answer to this. didn't really find one. sorry if this is repetitive.

[wwh]

I don't know anything about and can't comment on the ABS slurry repair, but here's how I'd fix it. I like that you've drilled a hole at each end of the crack to keep it from continuing. I've generally used epoxy to wet out fiberglass or Kevlar on Royalex repairs. If the repair is in a place prone to flexing, I might cover the fiberglass patch with a construction material called ice and water shield. This self-adhering fabric is tenacious and flexible in case the patch or crack (brittle) flexes enough to where the crack repair or patch are no longer waterproof. Be sure to keep the ice and water shield wrinkle free! I hope this helps.

[johns]

I also have not tried ABS slurry, but have done ABS patches glued with goop over cracks fixed with gflex which have outlasted boats, and in some cases gflex alone has worked well and proved durable. what to do depends a lot on length and location of crack. ABS sheet material needs to be formed and put under pressure while goop sets to get a tight bond. heating in oven works for forming, temp and timing determined by thickness. these patches have good impact resistance.

[PAC]

I have done ABS slurry over GFlex on a boat and it has help up okay. Never tried to brush it into the glass as it sets up. Not sure what ABS will do to GFlex / glass chemically. Maybe email West Systems for that answer.
I have add dye to the GFlex resin during the glassing process with good results as well. Just like the ABS keep it thin when applying. More so with ABS - keep it thin, put on thin and let it vap off prior to next apply.
Hope this helps and keep us posted on the project.

[Seabass]

Well I laid glass cloth into the abs. I wish you replied sooner pac as I learned that many thin layers of abs is best. The top layer dries while the inner is still liquid underneath and it takes hours to cure if you go too thick. So far I've only done the outside. Just cut up a bunch of grey Legos for the inside. The glass seemed to not react with the acetone where I left it hanging off the edge. I think it's going to be solid.

[clt_capt]

I have used the ABS Slurry repair a few times - mainly on the bow of cracked roaylex boats - mix of ground ABS and MEK. The resulting ABS is more rigid than the surrounding Royalex, so while it works, it has a tendency to crack. I covered the repair with a kevlar felt/epoxy grunch pad and it seemed to hold up.

[Seabass]

repair done. thanks for the help guys. I ended up drilling the end of the crack, g-flex up inside the crack. laid a thin layer of abs slurry then a piece of fiberglass cloth then many more thin layers if abs slurry. Just put the gunwales and bow thing (don't know what to call the cap on the bow and stern) back on with 1/4 Al rivets. Put the thwarts back in. And I was carefull not to pull the rivets too tight where there was nothing backing it in the royalex. I cut the mandrels out of those and ground it down.

Well anyways thanks for the help, and thanks cheeks for the abs slurry repair suggestion. Cant wait to get it on the water.

[jaxstraw]

bow thing (don't know what to call the cap on the bow and stern)

Those are called decks.