StingerFan

Just wondering, as a new restorer guy.
Would adding a couple tabs of Carbon Fiber here, under the fuel tank, be worth the effort? The materials, in the grand scheme of things, wouldn’t be too terribly more expensive than the Vinylester/1708 that I’m doing now. The rest of the boat is in Vinylester, but none of that will touch this area. I figured a couple tabbing strips and some epoxy right down the length of the keel area wouldn’t hurt.

Or would it?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but an ad for the CF showed up…

Bondo

Ayuh,.... One question,..?? Why,..??

StingerFan

Only reason is to add strength, I guess. I was gonna lay a couple 1708 tabs down there anyways.
I’ve noticed that the factory did a decent job overall on the hull layup, except for some of the hull corners. There were lots of voids in the tabbing of the stringers to hull in the corners, you can see one in the pic here. Juuuust in case there’s a weird spot somewhere in the middle, I figured the CF/Epoxy might add a bit of insurance.

Maybe it wouldn’t make any difference, I figured I’d throw it out there.

resurrected

I don't think there would be any real gains using carbon on that area. And once you use epoxy that's all you can use on top of that area.

glassdave

not much of an advantage in carbon fiber when used in a traditional wet layup. If anything you'd be better off with 1700 bi-ax in an S glass and stagger off the edges of the tabbing so as not to induce a hard spot, or if you had to have carbon salt it in at about 70% S to 30% CF. Carbon in a wet layup carries no better physical then S glass and in some cases S is even better. CF is incredibly over sold in this industry, the only way to achieve those high numbers is with pre pregs and an autoclave, post cure ramp cycles help but for our every day mid range use S or even E is fine. One other thing the 2x2 and 2x4 twill weave many people use is merely an appearance fabric and does not offer any strength to speak of for our purposes.

StingerFan

Thanks gents, always appreciated!! Can’t wait to actually be done with disassembly and fully into putting her back together!

jeff32

ok i guess the best oso chemist just spoke...
i did not get everything stated in the formula but trust what he said !