Hello,

Several years ago I built the Dumas Donzi. When I installed the motor's I epoxy'd wood motor mounts to the hull. Recently, I bought some new motors that require me to take the old wood mounts out. Does anyone know how I can break the epoxy bond loose from the hull to install the new motors? Any ideas would help.

Thanks.

I applied heat to break up some epoxy on a FG hull. Would it be easier just to cut them out?

Ryan

Unless the epoxy is really brittle from age and can be easily chipped away, I'd suggest using a good ol' Dremel. It has so many attachments for fine cutting, sanding, etc. May get messy with epoxy dust, though so I'd keep a mask handy too.

I used a dremel to remove the motor mounts on my Dauntless.

-Rich.

There are three basic ways of getting rid of epoxy, melt it, dissolve it, or grind it. Which you use depends on what's easiest for you and what's around that epoxy. If whatever it's stuck to will melt/burn quicker than the epoxy, don't try melting it. If whatever it's stuck to will be affected by what's used to dissolve epoxy, don't do that. If you can be careful enough, grinding away the old epoxy (if you can reach it!) tends to be the safest method, BUT, that's not always practical either. So, pick the method that you think you can handle considering all the "Oops's" involved. Then repair the "oop's"...
- 'Doc

Thanks for the information, I apprecaite it. Fortunatly, I just had to take screw driver under the motor mount and they popped right out. I was shocked at how easily they came out. The new motors are installed and it should be ready to go. Thanks again!!

'Bare' epoxy doesn't have much strength, it's the glasscloth that makes a Dremel necessary to get it out once it has cured.

If you used only epoxy without glasscloth for your new motor mounts, they will pop out just as easily.

Regards, Jan.

Epoxy will stick to polyester resin fiberglass but not as good as using polyester resin on a polyester resin fiberglass hull.

In my experience it takes a really sharp blow to pop the epoxy loose, and such a blow extrenally would probably result in a hull breach so I've always used the screwdriver method. If it pops loose just re-glue it in the same place altho it's never happened to me. Bk sends