Scupper repair

[McGillicuddy]

Hey guys thanks for persuading me to keep the scuppers - I think...The scuppers will remain. The epoxy is setting up in one scupper hole as we speak.

My process began with caving in the bottom flange a little and pushing them up into the cockpit.
Used a piece of PVC to tap them out. Port wood was dry and looked good, starboard was wet and pickled. That's definitely where the water ingress occurred, of course I knew that from watching the stream flow along the string when I'd open the port stern locker.

Straightened out a 1" brass pipe brush and cleaned out the surface rot and whatever sealant remained in the cylinder. Wasn't much of that, even on the brass tubes.


Sprayed the tubes with alcohol a few times through the week to try to eliminate any moisture in the wood. Hit it again with the brush, and then taped off the bottom. I straightened out an old weenie roller and soaked the roller pad in some acetone to clean and prep the hole best I could for better epoxy bond - at least to the resin.

I taped off the bottom and mixed up the epoxy. Foolishly mixed up enough epoxy for both holes. I wanted to pour in the epoxy after letting it warm up a bit concerned it would flow into the bilge if it was to thin. My plan was to pour in the epoxy and use a nitrile glove over a piece of 3/4" pvc to displace the epoxy and force it up the walls evenly leaving a cavity in the middle.

Should have lubed the glove. As it set up I tore the glove trying to get it out (knucklehead) leaving a glob of epoxy in the bottom. Now I'll drill it out. Should have just filled the whole thing and planned on drilling anyway. But dang, it was tough to find a 1" bit in this town. Settled for 1-1/64". Give me a little space for the sealer.

I may try the displacement technique again tomorrow. Maybe put some vaseline on a dowel this time...

[Bushwacker]

Gillie - both the BOW and West Marine stores here have empty caulk tubes pretty cheap. You can pour the thickened epoxy in them, and then it's real easy to pump the stuff into the holes. A half to 3/4 of a tube should be plenty to fill 2 holes. If you'll just stick a wood dowel in center of that PVC pipe in your picture, long enough to extend out top of scupper hole, and and then seal the PVC to hull with some cheap caulk like polyseamseal, you won't need so much epoxy and you'll have a nice soft "pilot core" that will make redrilling the hole much easier!

A couple of tips: 1.) put the resin and hardner in the fridge the night before to slow down the cure. (It tends to get pretty hot in the caulk tube and will cure quickly unless the resin is cold to start with!)

2.) Suggest you mask off the deck around the scupper holes. If you drip epoxy on that diamond pattern non-skid, it's tough to get off! I masked mine off and still managed to drip some on the deck . . . either didn't mask a big enough area, or I'm more of a klutz than I thought! When I did the anchor roller, I covered entire front deck! Denny

[McGillicuddy]

Denny thanks for the tips. The deck, gunwale and adjacent wall are covered in 2 layers of plastic wrap - the sticky saran wrap to keep it from moving. But maybe I'll mask it again to be sure. The other thought was to use some modeling clay for displacement instead of a dowel. I used straight epoxy on the first round to fill the gaps where the water had been penetrating. Did seep a little through the cracks in putty that encloses the block, which was exactly what I had hoped for to seal any cracks in the wood and glass.

The little yogurt cup less than half full would have flooded the hole, so it really doesn't take much.

Try again tomorrow...

I could definitely use any tips for keeping the adhesive out of the brass scupper tube when positioning it, as I suspect it and the hole will be covered in 3M 4200...