Patching floor of DS I

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Patching floor of DS I

Postby reedd » Sun May 03, 2020 5:15 pm

Hi. My first task on my 1969 DS I that I picked up a week ago was to powerwash the interior to get rid of some ugly green algae-looking stuff. Used the toilet bowl cleanser trick for a good clean. There are, however, some quarter-sized to half-dollar size parts of the paint that came off, as well. Some of the chunks ran pretty deep.

I plan to strip down the wood floor boards to the natural wood, but I want to paint the boat floor white or light gray. Do I need to patch these dings first? Do I use Gel-Coat paste? Someone mentioned Evercoat Gel Paste. Will that work? Thanks I've tried to upload some before and after pics and some photos of the areas that I think need patching.
Before:
2724
After:
2725

Holes:
2726
2727
2728
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby GreenLake » Sun May 03, 2020 6:44 pm

Looks like you have massive issues with gel coat separation from the underlying laminate. Perhaps frost damage?

No matter, you start by popping off any partially attached flakes with a spatula. Then sand the edges, making sure you are left with solid material. Where there are narrow cracks, try to widen them with the point of a chisel or with a dremel tool (whatever you have, as long as you turn them into a bit of a V shape).

Don't sand into the laminate, of course.

Then mix up your Evercoat gel paste. I had recommended the "neutral" as it is air curing (other colors may need to be kept from air while curing which is a pain - and under paint, you don't care about the color). You can apply that with a spatula. Trick is to avoid any "troughs" where you are filling in for missing chips. If you leave a few ridges, you can sand those off when cured.

With the amount of damage I can see you go through more than one can.

Painters mask with cartridges when working with gel coat. The styrene solvent smells and is probably not good for you.

After some scuff sanding, the surface should be ready for painting.

Now, where your CB meets the bottom: be sure that you don't have any cracks extending into the laminate in that area. If in doubt, remove surrounding gel coat by sanding down to the laminate. If you see cracks, or laminate isn't dark (looks whitish), then you'd want to reinforce that area with 2-3 layers of glass cloth and some laminating epoxy.

You cut your patches of cloth so they form a bit of a stair pyramid with each patch being 2" narrower. That helps in gradually transferring the load. You can wet them out on plastic sheet on your work bench, already stacked, and then transfer the whole into place, using the plastic as a backing layer (no need to pull that off until after the epoxy has cured).

We'll be happy to discuss this further, if you haven't done this kind of work before.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby reedd » Sun May 03, 2020 11:00 pm

Thanks for the detailed info on how to tackle this. I may dm you for more info as I make my way through this, if that's okay. I have the gel coat paste on order, so next weekend is fully scheduled! Any tips on the floor paint after I get the gel coat down?
Thanks again!
Doug
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby GreenLake » Mon May 04, 2020 5:46 am

They make special bilge paint that can be immersed in water. Or you can try pool paint. Normal deck/hull paints for above the waterline may not like being immersed. I've only done the first step (covered bare spots with gel coat) not tried to replace the paint.

If you have any questions, feel free to come back and ask them here, even if you think they are very specific to your project or your state of experience with your project. You never know who can benefit from reading along.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby RobH912 » Mon May 04, 2020 1:52 pm

Hi Reedd - following your project.

GreenLake mentioned bilge paint. The previous owner of #2444 posted a lot of information when he was restoring the boat. From one of his posts after repairing floors he says he then painted the floor with Interlux Bilgekote.

Seems to have held up well. I have yet to sail the boat so can't say what paint surface will feel like underfoot.
Rob


DS1 #2444
Cape Cod
Eastham, MA
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby LGsailer » Wed May 20, 2020 11:29 am

This is definitely a helpful thread and I hope to follow along with progress here as my 66 DS1 will need some interior paint/repair next season. to GL's point you never know who can use the info!

One question, Reedd your boat came with floor boards? How did they attach? My boat floor looks similar to yours but did not come with floor boards. I assume they are just cosmetic but may I may want to install them in the future.
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby tomodda » Wed May 20, 2020 12:56 pm

The floorboards don't attach at all. They just sit there and add weight, a lot like me! But they do look Purdy (unlike me). Future project, maybe.
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby GreenLake » Wed May 20, 2020 2:31 pm

LGsailer wrote:One question, Reedd your boat came with floor boards? How did they attach? My boat floor looks similar to yours but did not come with floor boards. I assume they are just cosmetic but may I may want to install them in the future.


Early DS1 floor boards come in four sections. The dividing line fore-aft is about at the thwarts (9" from the forward edge of the seats). And there's a shelf that goes underneath the rear deck. All of these rest on the floor w/o anything to attach them. The floor boards are made from a number of longitudinal slats, held together by a few cross braces below, which also form the part that sits on the floor. All the cross braces have a hollow curve on the bottom, so only the two ends connect to the hull. Because of rather loose tolerances in building the DS, these ends (feet) are filed away to allow an even fit.

The main function of these floor boards is looks. If you do get water in the boat, they also help keep feet/gear moderately dry, while at the same time preventing you from getting at and removing any shallow puddles of water.

If you don't want to recreate them, you might think of creating a platform in the cuddy to keep your gear dry. When I removed my floorboards several years ago for refinishing (yeah, moving very slowly on that job) I took a simple sheet of plywood and laid it across the keelson aft of the mast. The hull sides aren't parallel, so I used some short bits of 2x2 to make feet for the aft side. Basically, I wedged those between the new platform and the hull and secured them with a single deck screw each (just enough to keep them loosely in place, angled, kind of like on a flexible joint). This curious jury rig has now survived several seasons. It sits higher than the floorboards did (they go next to the keelson up to half its height), thus doing a bit better at keeping gear dry. There's a spot in front of the mast that's not covered, and that's where I store fenders.

Because I have a mast jack, I can't completely prevent access to the mast step, another reason why I didn't try to build a more permanent platform for the entire cuddy. As it is, I pull it away from the mast 2-3 inches, raise the mast, and then shove it forward again.

As with all good jury rigs it was made from material at hand (and in that size :) ).

You may find that adding something to keep gear dry is something you might want. With the floorboards out, the cockpit has the hull exposed, so I made sure to generously cover bare spots with gelcoat paste for additional abrasion resistance. Being exposed helps with cleaning up minor leaks/splashes as they happen. I now have a large sponge sitting below the CB pivot (which tends to have a slow leak) and mostly don't see any standing water anymore.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby dctwebman » Sun Jun 07, 2020 10:16 pm

Greenlake,
Any chance you could post some detailed pictures of the floor that came in the DS I. Your description is very good and I could make one from your description, but I would like to recreate the floor as much as original as possible. I have a 1971 DS I that I've had for a long time. It did not have a floor when I got it but I can tell it had one at one time. A previous owner I assume removed it because he had it set up for racing.
My sail number is 1771
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby GreenLake » Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:08 am

The only ready image I have is of some of the slats after I took the floorboards apart, sanded them and stained them.
1984

Someone else posted a link to bunch of pictures in another thread and they include several of the floor boards.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/db8d325hk22h3ez/AADvDWCp0j5vmLb2Xx9F6AyQa?dl=0
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby GreenLake » Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:11 am

Searching the forum for "drawings" I did find the following "instructions" where to locate a PDF of drawings. See here.

Following up on those instructions I located the post that gives the location of a PDF with drawings.

Now, while those other discussions might well be interesting in their own right, here's the link to the document: DS1-FloorBoards [PDF].

Ironically, I was the one who uploaded them into a general file area for their creator, but clearly didn't remember that.

Hope this will give you all the stuff you need.

PS: as discussed in the earlier thread, there are some details in the drawings that do not match the setup for my boat. The differences are mainly in the tip area of the forward sections. You may want to make a partial cardboard pattern in that area and confirm. Also, the "slot" for the paddle to be used as a boom crutch is a complication not worth recreating (unless you are desperate to create a historically accurate restoration). I simply doubt this particular design quirk ever caught on with owners (certainly not after they replaced the paddle for the first time).
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby dctwebman » Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:50 pm

Thank you so much. That PDF and other pictures I've found. Plus all the threads I've
found on here I should be good. I haven't had my boat on the water in 10 years. I will be doing a lot of cleaning. I'll take before and after pictures.
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Re: Patching floor of DS I

Postby GreenLake » Wed Jun 10, 2020 12:36 am

Good luck and can't wait to see your results.

And I hope you'll enjoy not just fixing your boat, but sailing her as well.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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