Forum Discussion
HMS_Beagle
Dec 16, 2015Explorer
If the NL is built like a Bigfoot, the shell is fairly thin, then has foam (non-structural foam, really) "bonded" to the inside using a spray contact adhesive. This is replaced with wood stiffeners where they need them and then the 3mm luan glued over that with contact adhesive. Because of this, I have never believed you could drill holes and inject anything that would fix a delamination. You can do that on a proper foam sandwich construction (as used on boats) under some circumstances. But I cannot see how epoxy or anything else would stick at all well to old contact adhesive. I suppose one could argue that it might be as good as the original bond (the one that failed).
You are then left with stiffening the outside shell to be structurally complete by itself, or demolishing enough of the interior to be able to clean it and rebond it properly. It is really too bad that BF and NL, having taken the time to mold a nice shell, don't use proper fiberglass sandwich construction materials and methods in the rest of the build. It would cost more, and they are already fighting cheaper brands I guess.
You are then left with stiffening the outside shell to be structurally complete by itself, or demolishing enough of the interior to be able to clean it and rebond it properly. It is really too bad that BF and NL, having taken the time to mold a nice shell, don't use proper fiberglass sandwich construction materials and methods in the rest of the build. It would cost more, and they are already fighting cheaper brands I guess.
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