by curifin » Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:38 pm
Thanks for the encouragement! It is so very nice to have a user group with experience to talk to.
@seandwyer - I read all your posts with gusto - most helpful, thank you for taking the time to post!
I ground down to good wood and laid up a combination of chopped strand and woven cloth, put like 3 coats of 406 (thickened to snot) west, sanding with 40 grit in between and topped with 3 coats neat epoxy.... I feel pretty good about it.... kicked it several times hard and hurt my foot but no cracking or detectable movement.... makes a nice solid "thump"!
@K.C. - I was too cheap for an air rig but I have a dewalt RO hooked to my shop vac... its doing the job but man.... it was the little nooks and crannies that were killing me.... basically everyone the old factory gel coat met the chalky pink with grey flecked "pink" hull coating. I was using a combination of pressing the edge of the sanding disk in and then hand sanding with what was left of the disk.... good lord.
This afternoon, I had a breakthrough though! The Dremmel with these puffy "buffing"/"cleaning" ends eat through crap and old gelcoat like a saw...... i can hold the shop vac head at an angle and viola, instant removal and no dust! If you have not tried this I highly recommend it - WAY WAY WAY better than the sanding discs, the grinding cones, or the "flap disk". You go through the little suckers pretty quick but they mold to the nook you are sanding and just eat through that crap..... WORLD of difference - I did the edges of both seat tanks in like 20 minutes.
I have determined to coat the entire inside with PPG Aquapon (thanks for the rec!) in white except the seat tanks, which I will tape off and then do in flattened white perfection to match the deck - am planning on using the flattening agent and simply wearing good deck shoes - the intergrip looks like too much trouble and seems to produce more variable results. I am going to epoxy the entire interior, the wood reinforcers under the thwarts and cuddy, which the PO had encapsulated in epoxy, were all dinged up and honestly, at this point I just want something I can pressure wash out when I am cleaning up the boat. A nice, clean, white uniform and hard surface would be great. I have ground the old encapsulation coat back to wood and think a couple of coats of epoxy will seal that sucker up and make it nice, hard, and smooth. That has been my major dilemma.... what to use and how to pain the inside. The factory had the forward tank, keelson, keel trunk cap, and seats done in gelcoat and the rest in "something hard." Keeping this two tone job would be a LOT of extra painting work to do it right - So I pretty much decided the tank, keelson, and supports can all be one type/color/finish, and the keel cap, seats, and deck can match.....
I priced Sherwin Williams Tile Clad, 200 bucks for the 2 gal kit - yikes! The Aquapon looks like a better deal at about 100 bucks for 2 gal kit 1 gal of base and 1 gal of reactor. My other option I was seriously considering was simply using freaking performance epoxy on the entire inside.... I think a 1 gal kit would do it and it is the same price as the tile clad...... I want epoxy on the inside so it looks like Aquapon wins.
I finished prepping the rudder and finally dropped the centerboard! Its ON NOW! - all in pretty good shape... A few dings on the centerboard but the pivot joint is good. The PO either did, or had someone do, a good amount of "race quality" work on the rudder and centerboard. Both are smoothly sanded and shaped gel.... I am planning on filling, fairing and painting with performance epoxy - 4 coats and then sand like hell for a slick, and from what I read, extremely hard finish.
I think waterline down will be performance epoxy with waterline up in blue.
1970 DS1 "Denial"
1993 Beneteau First 210 "Dory"