I’ve learned about several interesting and useful products recently. See, my foredeck hatch started leaking, so I removed the hatch frame from the deck, which required persistence, patience, and the misuse of several plastic utensils from the galley. Here’s a photo I took during the process, showing some exposed (and wet!) balsa core:

But hey, I got the hatch frame out without damaging it or the boat! Then I protected the gaping hole in the foredeck from the elements by taping the hatch (without the frame) back in place over the opening:

Once everything was exposed, I had Aaron come over and take a look at it. We agreed that there didn’t appear to be any real damage, but there was a bit of discoloration to the exposed balsa core in one area, which had been saturated with water when I first exposed it:

By the time Aaron saw it, a day or so later, it was already pretty dry, and the wood felt firm, not soft or “squishy”.

I let it dry with a heater running for a week or so, and late last week I resealed all the exposed balsa surfaces with a thin, slow-curing epoxy called “Git”-Rot, which I got, naturally, over at Fisheries Supply. It’s a product for restoring seriously rotten wood, and it works by saturating the fibers with resin, which soaks in by capillary action.

It’ll also work fine for sealing the exposed balsa-core of my deck. I just mixed up a small quantity and brushed it on. The happy fact is that it just wouldn’t soak in very far. I checked it today, and the surface has an tiny sheen of excess epoxy covering it, even where it’s discolored. This is good, because that means the balsa hadn’t deteriorated by the time I discovered the leak.

I also used a syringe to insert “Git”-Rot it into each screw-hole, too, topping it off each time the previous drop had been absorbed into the hole. I used a pin (the only tool I had handy) to “stir” the epoxy around in each hole. When I left the boat that day, none of the holes were plugged with epoxy…hopefully the screws will go right back in the holes they came out of, but if they bind up a bit, I’ll assume that’s excess “Git”-Rot lining the holes.

The next cool product I’ve discovered is Debond 2000, a marine adhesive remover that claims to remove even the amazingly tenacious 3M 5200. I don’t know about that, but it does fine on whatever adhesive/sealant C-Dory used on my boat. It doesn’t make the stuff dissolve entirely. Instead, it transforms the old adhesive into a gummy mess, which is slightly preferable to a rubbery mess you can’t remove without damaging the material beneath. At least when it’s a gummy mess, you can brush, wipe, or scrub at it and get it to come off, a bit at a time.

I wouldn’t say it’s actually fun to work with, but it works. Wear gloves. And mask the surrounding area. You’ll get particles of “gummy mess” pretty much everywhere. I’ve only done the hatch frame, which I worked on in my driveway at home. I’m really not looking forward to working on the boat with this stuff, but that’s the next step.

Today, see, I removed absolutely all the old adhesive/sealant that I was able to using only physical effort and non-scratching “scrapers” I created out of triangular blocks of scrap wood. A hint with wood scrapers: The key is a sharp edge; once it’s rounded off, it doesn’t work. Bring a file so you can clean up the scraper’s “blade”. With a sharp edge, I got right down to clean gelcoat lots of places.

But it wasn’t consistent enough that I’m willing to move ahead with the process, yet. Nope, first I’ve got to take the DeBond 2000 to the boat and make a big, sticky mess. Yuck. I’m not doing a very good job of selling this product, am I?

Hopefully, in another week or two I’ll have pictures of the completion of this project!