Newbie does everything wrong with surfski he is repairing... what's the next step?

Yes. Not really a choice in Minnesota. We had so dry and environment painting the hulls, we could not tack the dust off. The dust would literally pull back off the tack rag due to static. So, we ran two humidifiers and swamped the building floors to get rh up high enough last winter.

 

I bet! You have the opposite problem that I do. I'm in Florida... 90% humidity, always warm, non-climate controlled garage. How about I just ship some humid air to you?

 

Steve

You will not achieve a surface as fair as Fallguy's with a random orbit sander. Or any power sander. It is accomplished by hand with long boards. The relatively small area of power sanders tend to dig slight depressions. The long surface of longboards greatly prevent this. However, really bad techniques can and have de-faired surfaces.

Without pictures it is impossible to give focused advice.

You can achieve a wonderfully looking surfski. Either by spending an eternity now, or gradually over several annual repaints.

Either way good longboarding techniques will be required.

Gelcoat doesn't need priming (for adhesion) after sanding.

Rock scratches will be less noticeable if the paint color matches the gelcoat color.

Doing the prepatory sanding with a longboard will make it fairer with each successive repaint. If it takes longer than a couple of hours to hand longboard you are doing it wrong.

 

Thanks for the education, I really need it! I've learned the hard way now that circular sanders, random orbit sanders and quarter sheet sanders are of limited utility for something this size.

I wound up using a circular sander to power off the uneven gelcoat on the boat... after that I found hand sanding is best for anything that isn't major material removal. (as I should've already learned from you guys)...


The 1 part poly looks great compared to the what the boat was. It's not a commercial finish, but from more than 10 feet away it looks almost as good. Will putting the boat in the sun help with curing time? Humidity here is a b@tch, so figured at least there's strong sun too.

 

People are often surprised at how efficient good hand sanding techniques can be.

Looking good from ten feet away is better than most.

Wait an hour before putting it in the sunshine.

Goodluck

 

It feels like the paint has cured a bit, has been a few days. Any harm in leaving the boat out in direct sun during the day, even if we get some rain?

 

Good plan
Sun/heat good
Slight moisture OK
Don't keep it in the swimming pool all day for another week.

Are you happy with the results?

After you bang it about. Longboard and repaint. In the spring or fall. When it is pleasantly 70 and your not busy on the water.

 

I'm happy with the results, thanks to good advice here. It's not as good as it could be, but a learning experience. Due to humidity and being unsure of curing times I did minimal sanding between coats. Next painting I know some things to do better.

Irony is, my buddy who got me into surf-skis just passed away and his girlfriend is giving me two Epic V-8's he had... real bummer... Was looking forward to showing him the boat after it was fixed up. Now I got two nice new skis and nobody to go with.