Boat Restoration Project

Alright i took the advice and sanded a good amount of the gelcoat off the platform, then rolled on a heavy coat of resin. After it cured you could still see the weave but it wasn't nearly as pronounced. I've since rolled on a heavy coat if gelcoat and that reduced the visible weave even further. Its still there but its certainly improved. I'll have pics up soon
thanks again for the help guys, it's been much appreciated.

 

Catastrophe!
Its been almost a week since i applied the last coat of gelcoat and it hasnt fully cured. I've used this brand gelcoat before (marpro) and in these weather conditions (mid 80 degrees and somewhat humid) i sanded nearly all of the previous gelcoat off yet this coat still can be scraped off. I fear i'll have to start over almost completely. Sanding the gelcoat off seems impossible however due to the fact that it nearly instantly gums up any sandpaper.
any thought on removing uncured gelcoat??

 

WHY ARE YOU BLAMING THE PRODUCT ?? HOW ABOUT BLAMING THE PERSON USING THE PRODUCT INSTEAD !!
if the humidity is high and the temprature is low what did you do to counteract those conditions ??
What about building a tent and getting it warm and lower the humidity ??
What about adding a little more catalyst !!, can usually fo to 2.5 % or 2.75 % ???
Just think !! if you have taking a little more procaution non of this would have happened !! :

 

Hey man settle down! I wasn't blaming the product at all. I was simply providing as much information as possible to eliminate all the variables that may have caused this. I was trying to say i used the same product in the same conditions for the same application yet this time it wasn't successful. I'm sure in one way or another it's my fault however. And i said the temperature was in the 80's, not very low at all i wouldnt say.

 

Alright i did some more research and have developed a new plan of action. It seems as though i was initially lead in the wrong direction by the guys at the gelcoat shop. What i plan to do is remove what i've done with acetone and scrubbers. After that i'll purchase a new spray gun with a tip size of 2.4 and soray two heavy coats of unwaxed gelcoat and a third light coat of waxed gelcoat.
I understand the unwaxed coats will not cure without being covered and i was wondering if anyone could help in choosing eithet pva or plastic wrap
What are the pros and cons to each method?
I'vr also read patchaid is a useful product for this method

 

It sounds like you forgot the catalyst in the stuff that didn't cure.

I've never noticed any problem with humidity and cure. In the Keys and here in GA all work has been outside, usually under a roof but sometimes not. Whenever we coated an interior with gelcoat, we usually only put on one coat and we usually used a roller.

An unwaxed gelcoat or an unwaxed laminating resin will cure, but the surface will remain tacky. The next layer of resin or gc will chemically bond to it real good. With a waxed one, the wax floats to the surface and seals off the air allowing the resin/gc to fully cure and the surface will be hard and not tacky.

So you don't want to use waxed, or pva or plastic until the finish coat. If you used waxed resin or gc, you don't need pva or plastic.

http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/

http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/pdf/polyester/SurfAgent.pdf

http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/pdf/gelcoat/Gelcoat.pdf

 

Yeah i agree it seems as though i forgoy thr catalyst though i know for sure i put it in. I was putting 4cc for every pint.
So you only use a single waxed coat for the interior? Interesting. It seems like one coat wouldnt quite be thick enough to handle sanding and waxing for a couple decades but i suppose i applied it too thin.
Are you saying its not necessary to use pva on the unwaxed as long as i plan to apply a final coat of waxed gc? My understanding was i still needed to allow the unwaxed to atleast partially cure before the next coat

 

Oh and thankyou much for the links, i'll definitely check them out

 

Keep it simple and basic !!!

Sound like a little hit and miss what you are doing !! and its no wonder your get into strife !!
Learn some absolute basics of things and you never have problems .
Use scales and weigh you materials !!
Measure the catalyst in cc is ok
gell coat needs to be 1.5% as a absolute minimum measurement !!!
if you are doing a surface coat with gel coat use wax in the mix !!

Stop mucking about with pva and sheets of plasitic its waste of time and you will create a mess you are wasting you time and wasteing matreials . do the job once and move on !!!

I've never noticed any problem with humidity and cure. In the Keys and here in GA all work has been outside, usually under a roof but sometimes not
Working outside is quite differant from working inside . And yes humidity in the high 90% will affect the cure but sounds like you been living the charmed life !!

 

Tunnels,
You certainly seem as though you have years of professional experience to accredit your advice but you're the only person who has advised against multiple coats of gc. I may only be a novice but it still seems logical to have two coats of unwaxed and a final coat of waxed.
Unless i misread what you said.. perhaps you meant to carry on with the 2 unwaxed coats and simply disregard pva or plastic

 

All the years of coating outside and inside stuff have always used a roller about 4 to 6 inchs wide a hand full of Carbo sill in the gel coat to thicken a little !! used 2 % catalyst !! and 20 ml to 50 ml of styrene wax and mixed !! never once ever have i had a problem with ,not going off, or sticky !! it works !!its fool proof and never have to worry !! dosent get any simpler than that !!
Styrene wax takes all the sticky away .
One company i worked we made our own ,Melted candles in warmed stryrene thats all it is !! even fairing coats of gelcoat and filler we loaded wax into it to help make it sand easy and not fill up the sand paper
Have a nice day !! keep life simple and live and enjoy each day !!

 

Wow, it's been some time since this post but a dramatic turn of events has brought me back to it.
As has happened to so many with good intentions, I became overwhelmed with the amount of work remaining and put this project on the backburner. After months of the boat sitting in the yard and my girlfriend nagging at me about it, I sold it, the motor, and trailer for a measely 300 bucks.

Shortly after selling it I got a job restoring a yacht at a boat yard and after a few months I realized the mistake I made ditching my boat. I called the buyer in desperation and surprisingly he hadn't touched it since he brought it home and was willing to sell it back to me for the price he paid. I picked it up the next day.
Armed with nearly a year's worth of experience in yacht restoration I'm tackling this project full force once again! I'm hoping to give the boat its debut splash by next weekend and I'll be posting pics the whole way.

As for determining what went wrong the first go around I'm fairly certain the gelcoat pot was contaminated with something. Many people shared ideas on how to deal with the uncured gelcoat and of them I found removing with acetone was the most efficient, though still terribly time consuming. For giggles I tried wetsanding the gelcoat with 100 grit and a jitterbug. To my astonishment the uncured gelcoat sanded off with ease leaving a smooth surface ready to paint underneath! I'm planning completing sanding and painting this week.
Thanks again to those who helped.

I'll be posting pictures soon of the project!

 

The larger boat is the one i've been working on. it's a 1983 43' Ocean Alexander getting a full resto from head to toe. I painted the hull blue and the interior white, Oyster white to be exact. The paint I used was by Color By Design called Brilliance. It's an epoxy primer followed by urethane topcoat. My understanding is it's very similar to Awlgrip. I shot the paint with a hopper gun and 1.3mm tip. Went on great with minimal orange peel and few runs.
I had some leftover oyster white and used it on my skiff. I only had enough to do the hull and unfortunately can't afford to do the interior of the skiff. I'm still planning on using gelcoat for the interior, but am now going to be using a nonskid silica additive on most of it. I'll keep the pictures coming

 

I wanted to add a livewell custom fit to under the center console so i opted for 1/4" honeycomb material for the job. It was easy to give it the rounded shape by putting it a wooden box i had.
I lined the box with wax paper to prevent sticking and glassed the inside so it would hold its shape when i removed it from the mold.
once out of the mold i glassed the bottom on the livewell and wrapped the outside of it in mat also. i wrapped everything in wax paper and plastic wrap so it would hold tight.
last, i matted the inside of it and again lined with wax paper then filled the whole thing with sand to push the mat against the walls of the livewell.
I'll be removing the wax, sand, plastic, and tape tonight to see the results