14' wooden clinker refurbishing

[frangord]

i put her under very dry cover 25 years ago , now i'm ready to give her a face lift, i need help in a few areas.
1)interior blanking esp. bilge. i've scraped, cleaned and degreased as best i could. but still she's old and weathered. what kind of paint will best hold to old ,possibly still greasy, interior blanks.
2)part of bow stem pulled away ,well above water line, top to part way down(split). i want to treat it for rot and join it back on. very securely. epoxy adhesive ??? what product
3) i need to fill some small holes 1/4" and cracks 1/4-3/8" in the deck. want to fill, sand and paint. ????? what product
4) want to paint over old varnish. what product???

thanks for advice gord ps your answers can be criptic to save you time

[Thorne]

We'll need a bit more info, possibly photos, before we can give advice worth anything.

What boat design, what woods used where, what sort of decking, condition of old varnish, etc??? What sort of fasteners, condition of same, and what waters do you plan on using her in?

Check out my pages on restoring a fir over oak dory skiff -- had some rot but little cracking, so my solutions may be different than yours should be:

http://www.luckhardt.com/dory1.html

Without much info, I'd say to 'wood' (thats boaty-speak for sanding/stripping all paint and varnish off) the whole boat, use gloves and strong degreasers or at least TSP on the questionable bilge area. Strip the old varnish off with heatgun or scraper, prime with CPES, then paint with marine grade oil paint.

I'm a fan of Smith & Co products, aka "rot doctor", particularly the winter formula CPES and the epoxy fairing compound. His epoxy is slow-cure but seems to hold oak and other woods very well. He also makes an epoxy just for oily woods like teak and oak -
http://www.smithandcompany.org/

You can't magically restore rotted wood no matter what product you use, but you can remove the rotted parts, replace the bad wood with new good stuff, and protect the fix with various coatings. It may hold or it may fail, depending on the wood, use, water condtions, fasteners, etc -- so use caution in your repairs.