Roof repair, fiberglass 2003 Allegro

Winnipeg wrote:
Matt,

Did you seriously question the intelligence of a repair person who you never met, and then continue on to recommend duct tape for a roof repair? It is not nice and not helpful.

Paul

Paul,

No offense was intended.

I am trying to save an owner a lot of grief. This is all the result of decades of fiberglass building and repair.

The duck tape is just to keep the structure underneath dry until a permanent repair can be made. If it is cracked, it will leak and it may cause damage.

The difference between polyester and epoxy is something that provided me with good income for several decades. Polyesters are all poor adhesives and do not even bond well to existing polyester. This is such that one several occasions, when the hull was finally brought ashore and dried out, I was able to pick the polyester patch off and show the owner where the failure had originated.

Said, if you are offended, that was not my intent.

Matt - You can't look up my website anymore because I retired.

Matt,

Did you seriously question the intelligence of a repair person who you never met, and then continue on to recommend duct tape for a roof repair? It is not nice and not helpful.

Paul

Andrew,

Ready? Hang on because here we go.
First, if you take her to an RV place for this, you know it will cost 150~200$. Remember that.
You seem to be literate and probably have a IQ over 80, that may put you ahead of the guy at the RV place that would get paid for this.
Do not use any polyester resin for the repair.
Before you do anything else, seal the crack with duck tape. (It is really called duck tape because it was used during WWII to seal ammo cans and make them as water proof as a duck.) You will need to clean the area before the actual repair anyway.
Next before anything else is locate and acquire a copy of Fiberglass Boat Repair and Maintenance from West System. ~6$ (West system is not part of West Marine) Read it.

When you are buying materials, be sure to have gloves and a helper. Get the pumps. If you use the pumps, you will never have a mix go bad.

If the damage is not visible from the ground, don't work too hard to make it pretty.

There may be other considerations, but if it is what the Gougeon Brothers (we are down to one now) wrote, believe that before any friend's advice.

Without seeing the damage, it is possible that a small West System repair kit might do you. Just don't be stupid and try to save money when you are doing a 200$ job for 25$.

If you need me, I'm here a lot.

Matt

Drill a small hole at each end of the rip before repairing.

If it were mine I'd use the mat and resin method.

There is a product called Kitty Hair that works for fiberglass repair. Amazon link

That works. Clean the glass all around, scuff with coarse sandpaperr, bevel the edges a bit and lay in cloth and resin.