Help with my restoration. Nida stringers/deck

[War Whoop]

Originally Posted by kpiazzisi

OK.....what about the sanding question? Is the light hand sanding I did good enough? I don't want to grind the fibers, I think you were the one that cautioned me about doing that in an earlier post.

you are going to figure out a way,sponge backed sanding pad, Red Scotch brite, flap wheel ,there is a way without grinding down the laminate and yes a light sanding.NO shiny laminate.

[kpiazzisi]

Does the Duratec require that there be absolutely no shinny laminate? What about adding a layer of mat with epoxy resin onto the existing laminate. I think I may have asked this before, but is it acceptable to have some shinny low spots if an epoxy resin laminate will be the next layer? If so, it might be easier just to do a light sanding of the biax (one direction of the biax will be abrated and the other will not) and then put down the mat. I can sand the shiz out of the mat?

[War Whoop]

Originally Posted by kpiazzisi

Does the Duratec require that there be absolutely no shinny laminate? What about adding a layer of mat with epoxy resin onto the existing laminate. I think I may have asked this before, but is it acceptable to have some shinny low spots if an epoxy resin laminate will be the next layer? If so, it might be easier just to do a light sanding of the biax (one direction of the biax will be abrated and the other will not) and then put down the mat. I can sand the shiz out of the mat?

Mat? Do a test and see if the binder breaks down in your epoxy,you will still need to give the epoxy a toe hold some scotch brite or the like.

[kpiazzisi]

The bite would be all the strands of the biax running in the same direction. Those are the high spots that got sanded with a sanding block. The lows are the strands running perpendicular the the sanded strands. I went to Home depot and no scotch bite pad there. I still don't think Scotch brite pad will get into the lower grooves. Again, I thought with epoxy, it would be OK to have some shinny spots on the laminate, since epoxy will bond the the sites that are abrated? I made some fairing compound and applied that to one of the pannels as a test. I lightly sanded the panel and then applied the fairiing compound. I applied it over some shinny laminate (the lows), but this should be OK since it's epoxy ....right?

[War Whoop]

First of all you are NOT fairing the surface just abrading it and need only to break the shine is all,a sanding block it the wrong tool to use,a soft piece of upholstery foam behind some 80 grit would work better and sanding in the direction of the top glass may allow you to get more surface roughed up.

The red Scotch brite is all I ever used and stuck it on a DA for large areas.

Epoxy does not Chemically bond it needs a mechanical lock.

[kpiazzisi]

OK....I will try the scotch brite.

[kpiazzisi]

I've talked with Cook Composite reps as well as Duratec reps. I think the Duratec is the best bet for getting a polyester or vinylester based product to form a mechanical bond onto a fully cured, cleaned and abbrated epoxy laminate. The rep for Duatec recomended their Vinylester product due to Vinylester being a better moisture barrier under the Polyester Gelcoat. He said I would have less of an issue with Gelcoat blistering with the Vinylester product.

The Duratec product is high build easy sand. I believe I can build up 20 to 40 mills. I would much rather sand surface primer then sand the epoxy fairing compound. The fairing compound I applied to my test panel a couple of days ago was difficult to sand. I have a lot of areas on the inside of the hull above the floor that are very rough. The high build primer may smooth this out (once block sanded).

I think I am just going to go with the duratec and finish with the Gelcoat sprayed out of a dump gun.

[War Whoop]

They (Hawkeye)have a 005 White in a VE primer ,if you are going white it would provide a good base also with the gelcoat you can spray a nonskid as well,use a Griptex Fine and it will spray through a paint spray gun.

[kpiazzisi]

Yes, I am going with white, so that will probably be the one I use. Good to know that I can spray grip tex. I was wondering about how to do that, because most of the time the gelcoat needs to be color sanded and buffed out....right? Color sanding the non skid would just make it flat and defeat the point of using non skid.

Maybe build a base without the non skid. Then let it dry and wet sand with a 220 or 320 sand paper. Then apply the final, thinner coat with the non skid additive?

[War Whoop]

Originally Posted by kpiazzisi

Yes, I am going with white, so that will probably be the one I use. Good to know that I can spray grip tex. I was wondering about how to do that, because most of the time the gelcoat needs to be color sanded and buffed out....right? Color sanding the non skid would just make it flat and defeat the point of using non skid.

Maybe build a base without the non skid. Then let it dry and wet sand with a 220 or 320 sand paper. Then apply the final, thinner coat with the non skid additive?

You could knock it down with 180 under the nonskid,if you are leaving a brite area around the perimeter or making a pattern, then you have to of course sand and buff/tape off those places before spraying the Griptex.

[kpiazzisi]

Have you seen the flex mold by Glibco. MAS epoxies is the retailers who sells the product to the public. I think I am going to go this route insted of the grip tex stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoOtHe4g9m0

[War Whoop]

Originally Posted by kpiazzisi

Have you seen the flex mold by Glibco. MAS epoxies is the retailers who sells the product to the public. I think I am going to go this route insted of the grip tex stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoOtHe4g9m0

We have been using that for years on tooling ,making small repairs is no problem ,But creating Non skid over large areas is a different story with gelcoat and a squeegee.

[kpiazzisi]

I am back at it.

Foam - I have placed the two part foam in most of the floor (back section left). The

Transom - I used 3 layers of the Coosa Blue water with two layers of 24 oz roving over that.

Motor Mounts - I made these out of wood. I am not crazy about putting wood back into the boat after spending so much money avoiding wood, but I wanted someting sturdy. I am looking for some opinions on these. I haven't decided if I want to use them. I still can do go fiberglass/composite on these if I change my mind. I could make the sides out of two layers Nida with a very thick laminate on both side. The tops of the mount could be a pourable transom material. I could then laminate the whole thing. What do you think. The wood mounts are already made, but if you all think it's tacky (like I do) then let me know.