Gibco Flexmold

[mariedukat]

Has anyone used the Gibco Flexmold for an entire deck. I'm not talking about plug-and-mold. I'm talking about a one-off deck treatment, designing patterns directly on deck. Any experience to share? Thanks

[Dan H]

No experience with Gibco as yet. I was going to use it but decided on something else for the whole deck.
However, for smaller areas, I have been experimenting with using florescent fixture light difusers. They come in a variety of patterns. I used one once, for a trial and it worked pretty good. It had a lot of porosity in it becasue of the way I did it. It was just a cheap and quick test to see what would happen.
For my next try, I plan on using a PVA sprayed on the difuser. After it dries pour gelcoat on the difuser until it's full. Wait unit it tacks a little, flip it over on the part and let it cure. I have to run more tests. I am going to try it on the anchor cover and the like.
Gibco is expensive.
I plan on using www.sanitred.com. Check it out. It looks like the cat's meow.

[mariedukat]

DAn, thanks for the response. We have the Gibco mold and all the gelcoat and Duratec on hand (I'm building in Paraguay). But since we're running out of time, We are really chickening out of doing the entire deck with Gibco. After reading some of the other threads ("Teach me about gelcoat"), we are thinking of using gelcoat + 10% Duratec + 5% paraffin + 2% MEPK, slightly tinged gray, and just roll it on. On the very critical areas, add quartz beads to the mixture and roll that on (i.e. steps, windlass areas). This is quick and will allow us to keep on "rolling." But since I have the flexmold, I might do the hatch covers that way... see the boat at www.dominocatamaran.blogspot.com if you'd like.
thanks

[mariedukat]

Re/ Sanitred, I actually used it for an outdoors deck in California. Great product. Didn't think of it for marine application: looked heavy, too heavy for the cat.