Subject: Stringers
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 07:26:11 -0400Hello - I found your site, and you may be just the source I need.
I have a 1971 Trojan 'house cruiser' - a rare bird. There appears to be rot in the wood core of the engine room stringers. I have had the engines pulled for the winter, and I am searching for a treatment that is less radical than sawing the stringers out and glassing in new ones.
There are 4 stringers to treat, spanning a distance of 5 1/2 feet on each stringer.
Any information on injectable, water-displacing treatments would be hugely appreciated.
and thank you in advance ... Wayne G.
Wayne:
Well, it's doable. First, drill a series of 3/8" holes on the tops of the stringers, about 5" apart. Drill one small drain hole at the down side base of each stringer. Now, let it sit all winter so that the interior wood will get as dry as possible. If you're ambitious, get a small air pump and a bit of hose and pump air through the holes all winter.
Come Spring and nice lets-get-the-boat-in-the-water weather, buy some of out Clear Pentrating Epoxy (CPES) and starting on the high end pour it into the holes one by one until it starts to run out the drain hole at the bottom. Let it cure a couple of days and then do it again. Let that cure. Now, come back with our Layup & Laminating Resin and simply fill the stringers with that -- pour it in until it will take no more. Then use our Fill-It putty to close all the holes. Re-mount your engine and off you go.
What have you done? Well, you've penetrated all the interior wood with a very thin epoxy, giving it back strength and killing or encasing all fungal spores that caused your rot to begin with. Then you've filled in all vacant spaces with a premium epoxy liquid that will molecularly bond with the CPES. Harder and stronger than wood. Then you've capped the whole thing off with a white epoxy putty that also bonds with the interior structure.
How much will you need? I'd probably get the 2 gallon unit of the Penetrating Epoxy, two 2 quart kits of the L&L Epoxy and one 2 pint kit of the Fill-It Epoxy Putty. You may need more resin -- hard to tell when one doesn't know how much wood is left in there.
Yes, we do ship to Canada, but require payment in US Dollars via money order (US Banks will not yet accept Canadian Credit cards digitally without huge financial penalities to the vendors).
BTW, don't even think about just pouring any old resin in the holes and hoping for the best. Our CPES is the only product on the market with the consistency and carrier solvents to penetrate the rot-producing fungal growth, and the only one carrying alcohol in the solvent to displace any resident moisture.
If you have more questions, shoot me an e-mail.
Doc