laminating a wood veneer to fiber glass gel-coat

[jshipchips]

Anyone have any experience laminating a wood veneer to gel-coat? I am looking to apply a 10 or 20 ml veneer sheet of white ash to the deck of a 1965 18’ circle race boat. The gel-coat is in perfect condition, no cracks or chips, just some light oxidation. I have used west system in the past and I am leaning towards there products, in less someone has a better product for this application. I am looking for any suggestions or experience I can get.

Thank You for any info.

Jim

[Bob Smalser]

By all means also try here where the glass builders live:

http://boatdesign.net/forums/

[JimConlin]

How thick? 10-20 ml (milliliters) won't go far.

Why white ash? Its decay resistance is low.

[Buddy Sharpton]

Vacuum bagging and epoxy WILL get the job done. I have extensively refit my boats INTERIOR with solid and veneer ash furnishings and ceilings. But its out of the weather.

In a similar vein, I want to remake my Ford Explorer into a 50's woodie. I have made a test panel using polester resin and fiberglass to make a splashed casting right over the door. Then vacuum bag 1/8" mahogany veneer to the glass panel. The margins are covered with ash strips and then the whole overlaid with boat cloth and WEST epoxy with the 207 special hardner used for "bright" kayaks and such. The panels will be made to affix with stainless screws into imbedded threaded inserts in the car so panels can be easily removed for revarnishing as needed.

But I would wonder if you could possibly protect a walking surface like a deck well enough from the inevitable dings and scratches before a dark spot sets in. I chase these on my varnished ash tiller, boom crutch, and belaying pins on my wooden catboat. The Mahogany coamings, seats, centerboard trunk, toerails, transom are MUCH more forgiving. And any darkening can be bleached away. Not so the ash. Perhaps if you glassed over the deck as well. But it would be a slippery rascal. Practical enough for a runabout I suppose, but tough on a sailboat's foredeck crew or in anchoring.

I've never seen a boat with ash decks. Teak, mahogany, fir, yellow pine, port orford pine, rarely cedar, yes.

Seems ash would look odd as a deck, would blacken quickly in the chips, and probably rot too soon as well.

But to answer your question, it will adhere very well to polyester and glass with epoxy.

[paladin]

why not use Butternut veneer....?

[kc8pql]

I'm sure you can get it on and get it to stick. I'm not at all sure that the veneer won't check and eventually crack. The potential problem is caused by the different ways the to materials move. The polyester resin/fiberglass expands and contracts more or less evenly in all directions with changes in temp. The wood moves primarily across the grain with changes in moisture. The wood, being the weaker of the two, will be the one to give. In cabinetmaking it's common practice to laminate on a crossbanding veneer first and then apply the face veneer at a right angle to the crossbanding making a sort of two ply plywood that is diminsionally more stable that a single layer.

Ken