Repair - restoration - painting deck and cockpit

[hectoretc]

Happy pre-new years to all,

As I'm working my way through my boat repairs and restorations this winter, I am seeing lots of small & medium gel-coat chips, smudges that just won't wash out (or even bleach out) and those kinds of things, and starting to think maybe I should paint the upper surfaces this spring.
I know everything looks much worse under incandescent light in the pole barn and once it's back outside in the sun maybe it won't be so bad, but for now I'm doing some planning prep, just in case.

I've looked through the forum and other than a conversation about the pros and cons of various paint products, there's not been much discussion on topside painting. As I've been working around the foredeck I've become more focused on the very large repair performed by some previous owner or agent thereof.

[thumb=1148] [thumb=1149]

It's easy to see in this picture that there was a substantial foredeck repair done at some point and whatever the patching material was (be it Marine-Tex or Gel-coat or whatever) it left a smooth surface running across the anti-slip texturing of the foredeck, and is very noticeable.

So... is anyone aware of a way to even "sort of" restore a non-skid look to this smooth surface? Maybe a not legitimate, but conceivable answer could be sanding the smooth surface down, re-coating with a layer of some hardening material (bondo, body putty, fiberglass, epoxy??) and then applying a reverse textured mask over the top to reproduce the texture into the coating? Or maybe there is there a imprint roller that can be used to create textured paint jobs? Or is all of this simply a fools errand, this kind of restoration is not possible short of cutting off the deck and entirely replacing with new base material. Be that the case I'll probably just paint over the top and live with it.

I suppose another alternative would be to smooth coat all of the textured surface of the foredeck so it's the same (flat), and then add some non-slip materials (grit or whatever it is) again to the final coat.

Has anyone ever taken on a restoration such as this with any success?
Maybe it will look better outside and I'll talk myself out of the obvious excessive labor this will take.

Thanks - Scott

[kokko]

good old boat has several articles about restoring the nonskid with products such as kiwi grip I think it is your best bet. It is a textured paint for just such repairs

[GreenLake]

If you are repairing a small spot, then using a "texture mask" might be feasible (modeling clay may or may not work - I've heard it mention but never tried it).

But I'd think this repair calls for simply creating a new non-skid surface to make the whole look consistent.

[jdoorly]

Gosh Scott, if you fix everything this winter what will you do next winter?

I'm thinking about paint and non-skid too! When I painted some concrete steps some years ago I just added sand to the last coat which worked very well at the time but I sold the house and can only guess that the bits of grit wore away at some point like sandpaper does. Preventing slips is important but the surface should not be so aggressive that you can't sit on it (think of those single little grains of sand that can cause such discomfort). I hear that you can buy bags of moderately aggressive anti-skid that you can mix into just about any paint, and then there's lots of expensive solutions. There are also 'stick-on' rolls of nicely textured stuff that you cut with a scissors, but they might be a bit heavy for a DS.

If I go ahead with painting I'll probably use epoxy with filler to smooth the old textured anti-skid, then a primer and color coat, then tape the deck non-anti-skid sections, add anti-skid to the paint (and maybe darken the paint a shade or 2 and do the finish coat.

[hectoretc]

Gosh Scott, if you fix everything this winter what will you do next winter?

I refuse to allow myself to think about next winter. Besides, paint get's kinda funky when you apply it below freezing so it is actually more of a spring project. I'm kinda hoping once I get the boat outside I'll decide it doesn't look so bad in the sunlight and can procrastinate that particular project until later, but I need to be prepared just in case.

Fortunately, it's been a very mild winter so far in the mighty Minne-snow-ta. It's bouncing around the freezing mark and has been as much in the 40's as the 20's so far. Makes it a lot more tolerable to work in the pole barn on the boat which is why I'm probably getting much more "started" than I would have planned on for this winter (idle hands and the devil's workshop and all of that).

I probably won't start anything new after New Years. Plenty to finish up, and much of it will require warm weather for the final touches. Assuming we do eventually get snow and cold, that'll slow me down a bit. I need to be thoughful about how fiberglass gets in brittle cold, and I probably shouldn't be bouncing around in the boat in those temperatures. Might end up putting a foot through the cockpit floor, and that would be counter-productive.

Thanks - Scott

[UCanoe_2]

Australian boat designer Michael Storer uses sugar to make boat surfaces non-skid. Mask the surface as needed and paint. Sprinkle on ordinary sugar while the paint is wet. When the paint is dry, wash off the sugar and you have a non-skid surface.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/slip ... ace-78913/

[jdoorly]

Cool, I wonder if sand would work or if the process requires a disolving medium. It's probably worth experimenting with different grades of sand.

[UCanoe_2]

Jay, sand would provide a non-skid surface, but would abrade your skin. The cool thing about using sugar (or salt, or any other soluble substance), is that only paint remains on the boat. And it's cheap.

[hectoretc]

Greetings and happy 2012 to all.

Given some of the suggestions contained in this thread, I googled "repairing textured fiberglass surfaces" and found this discussion:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/fiberg ... 26324.html

It also talks about making a mold impression from a good portion of non-skid deck and alternatives to that if anyone else is interested.

Thanks - Scott