Rain water leaking into bilge - FIXED!

MD2020

New Member
Sep 3, 2018
19
Clearwater Fl
Boat Info
2010 Sea Ray 240 Sundancer
Engines
Mercruiser 5.0 MPI
IMG_0465.JPG IMG_0463.JPG Six Leaking screws.... Fixed (both sides). (2010 SeaRay 240 Sundancer) after a hard rain, my bilge always ended up with a couple cups of water. last storm I crawled into the engine compartment and saw that water was going in from the swim platform deck hinge plates, dripping down from all the bolts. Cleaned and 5200 sealed all plates and screws.
 
Last edited:
Good find!

One note... 5200 is more for gluing things, than simply sealing. Downside to this repair is that if you ever need to remove that hinge, there is a good chance you will tear the gelcoat from the fiberglass as the 5200 bonds stronger to the gelcoat than the gel does to the fiberglass. Also, 5200 isn't rated for UV exposure.
 
Good find!

One note... 5200 is more for gluing things, than simply sealing. Downside to this repair is that if you ever need to remove that hinge, there is a good chance you will tear the gelcoat from the fiberglass as the 5200 bonds stronger to the gelcoat than the gel does to the fiberglass. Also, 5200 isn't rated for UV exposure.
Noted - I did 5200 last month the hinge top area (which I removed for this repair), a hook tool peeled it up like old bathtub caulk - I was lucky. I was more obsessed with sealing out the last drop entering the engine compartment. I suppose Im a little over the top about my engine, keeping it dry, looking good and always doing maintenance. One of the good (or bad) things about having it on a trailer 20' from my home office. I'm surprised 5200 isn't UV resistant.
 
Since it's not meant as a sealant, and only to "glue", UV properties aren't important for this product since it would be hidden between the two pieces it is gluing together. Truth is, 5200 has very few areas around a boat where it is recommended. The problem is the internet - it's too easy to find people talking about 5200 like it's a one size fits all sealant without actually knowing what they're talking about.

May have been some contaminants on the surface, explaining why it pulled off so easy. I'm not positive, but there's a possibility that 5200 won't adhere well if the last sealant that was used was silicone based. Whenever silicone was previously used, it's hard to get a different formulation of sealant to adhere well. 5200 is a polyurethane based sealant - I don't "think" it has any silicone additive to it. A better, long term solution would be something like Boat Life's Life Seal.
 
5200 will work and it shouldn’t leak. It will yellow where you have it exposed and will be hard to clean off when it does. There is a 4200 UV version that would have been better for your use but you fixed what you wanted to fix. Finding and fixing a leak is very satisfying!
 
3M products are the most common around here. Do you have a recommendation for 3M by chance?
 
4200 and 5200 are 3M products
 
3M products are the most common around here. Do you have a recommendation for 3M by chance?
As a few mentioned above, 3M's 4000UV is a more appropriate product for this application. Personally, I've been using the Boat Life products for so long that they are pretty much all I use (and should be pretty easy to find at any decent marine store). I like that there is also only 2 products I need to choose from. But there's certainly nothing wrong with the 3M products as they are excellent products - and I have used them occasionally, as well. In fact, about 6 months ago I used 5200 to re-glue the inner door card to the outer door card of my old '97 528.

MD: At this point, though, I don't know if I'd go and start removing that 5200. It's done - leave it be and just keep an eye on it. It's not like the 5200 is going to fail catastrophically overnight.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,866
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top