so I bought this boat..........

Greetings all! so I was driving a few months ago...and saw the most amazing thing! a sailboat in downtown Clarksville, even better, it was in my price range and complete (1970 Coronado 23 Surfrider). Needless to say it needed some TLC, mainly cleaning up corrosion, rewiring, and the issue i am dealing with now, paint and fiberglass repair, big issues, gelcoat is shot in some places and everywhere else there is about 50 layers of paint. After I gutted the boat and got it all cleaned up, I started to tackle the paint with a hand sander and 80 grit. after 3 weeks I finally had the top smoothed out, not to the gelcoat mind you, just had the existing paint leveled out and smooth to touch. Frankly I am at a loss right now, I dont know if I should strip down to bare glass and redo the gelcoat completely, or just smooth everything out and gelcoat over everything thats there. also I saw some cracks in the hull *scarey right* and so I sanded to see if they were gelcoat cracks or hull cracks, turned out to be hull cracks but not all the way through, just about 1/3 of the way, I sanded them out and feathered the edge but I need to know if I should just fill with resin or lay new glass in, does it matter? this is my first boat, I have some expirence with fiberglass and resin, not too much with gelcoat, and right now I am trying not to stall out with the project, a little hard considering I am in afghanistan right now (U.S. Army) but I am still trying to get a gameplan together for when I get back so I can have this thing in the water as soon as possible. Any help is appreciated!

 

Welcome, Nate. Thank you for serving.
Good luck with your new hole in the water. Don't get any holes in you.
Do the repairs with epoxy, not polyester, for a better outcome. The cracks could possibly be microscopic at the depth you went to and may need to be ground clear through with a full thickness patch applied. After the repair a good marine enamel may be better than trying to gelcoat.

 

I second the motion to paint; forget about even messing with gelcoat.

Damn; I wish I had thought to leave a boat behind that needed work before I headed off years ago; I'd have had something to study up on while I was gone, and more to look forward to on my return and discharge than simply listening to my hair grow.

Although I'm not going to lie to you; that was fun too.

It was amazing how many of my friends and enemies switched places back then, depending mostly on how long it had been since my last haircut. Of course, it was a different time and place. People judged and fought and hated over a lot of symbology that seems downright trivial and irrelevant now, looking at it from this end....

 

when you get to the gel coat use a 220 grit paper it will take a little longer but will be less work in the long run if you want it smooth.All you need to do is take the shine off it.

 

so it should be no prob to gelcoat over the existing stuff without taking it down to fiberglass?

 

I would remove the paint,scuff the gel coat,prime,sand then paint.

 

ok, now as far as the hull cracks, it looks like she ran aground once, chipped the gel coat in front of the keel and put four long cracks two in front of the keel and two behind. I checked the keel support inside the hull as well as all the ribs they are well bonded and intact, i checked these by releasing the jacks under the keel and allowing it to hang freely then took a ratchet strap and tightened fwd aft side to side while some friends were inside looking for expansion or distortion. none to be had. there are some blisters and believe it or not the guy painted over barnacles and rust I have heard of a pressure washer system that uses abrasive pumice sand to strip paint, there are a few vidos of this on youtube anyone have any input on what the quickest/cheapest way is to get this paint off?

 

Farrow system, thats what the too good to be true paint remover system is called. anyone heard of it?

 

Nate,

There is also blasting with baking soda which works pretty well, but there aren't any real shortcuts. I have always found that a heat gun and scraper, or chemical strippers are the best way to go. Once you get down to glass, and get it smooth and faired, follow the manufacturers recommendations for pair, not gel coat.

While gel cote is great for getting hulls out of molds, it not really the best product for protecting a hull. If the boat is going to be left on the trailer then a good two part epoxy paint is fine. If it is going to be left in the water then an epoxy barrier coat and either an ablative bottom paint or a burnish able paint like Baltaplate should be applied.

 

its going to be trailered for the most part, maybe in the water for a week, at the most two salt and fresh though, I was planning on just painting the crap out of it but people start talking about water intrusion and damage to the gel coat and I know mine is shot so I want to make sure that i do everything that I can right so it doesn't submarine on me the first time i put it back in the water. I am not planning on bottom paint, the end result should look something like the final paint pic i posted in the earlier message.isnt a two part epoxy paint the same thing as gelcoat?

 

Hell man, you got me fooled!

Troy, you had me believing your turn of duty had been in the current wars until your last line cued me in, making me realize you were talking about other times, when G.I.s were killed or worse far, far, while at home the 'american way of life' was being eaten by internal, leftist forces. The enemy has changed, however the turncoats have not. Alas, the existential threat is no longer an Israeli privilege.

 

If you gelcoat over paint, either it will lift the paint or peel off later, maybe both. The safest, cheapes and easiest finish to use is a good quality alkyd paint. Prime it first for better adhesion.

 

does anyone know where i can go to get original specs for my boat? the company is no longer and I could really use a diagram or five of the rigging and interior. also I was thinking about building some backing plates and the like to take the stress off the fiberglass hull, for example, I wanted to build a mast extension that would connect the mast with the keel, instead of having the mast just bolted to the cabin ceiling. also, what determines a boat to be open water safe? when this one is finished my wife and I are planning on taking it to Bimini and in the Gulf, that's only 45 miles *ish from the coast of Florida and I see 18 and 20 ft open hulls doing it all the time. I would rather not out sail the capabilities of my boat, it there a forum or an info center where i can get this information?

 

Some documentation may be found here: http://www.msogphotosite.com/PDF Page.html

More specifically, here: http://www.msogphotosite.com/MSOG/pdfpage/coronado23mark2.pdf