Infusion Plan

West System also has the 209 Extra Slow Hardener available, other than the 206. Maybe that might help the working life?. I have used some of the Araldite family of epoxy resins that have a 1.5 hour working window. I note that the longer set type resins appear to have a slightly higher ambient temperature to set properly.

It is certainly useful to have a choice of hardeners with any resin system so the corect one can be selected for the work in hand. Pity they stopped making the slow Aerolite ones, many years ago. Makes it very hard to lay up full length planking as contact life is sub 5 minutes with curent hardener on a warm day!.

For fairing, I have got in a habit of sealing, then a lot of microballoons, fairing that and a coat or two of clear resin, prior to paint.

Nice job on that hull btw, the end is definitely in sight.

 

Yes, I know what you mean, I had a big space, I was just ignorant and I could have been more careful for sure. The whole process sort of clogged my brain but now I see it from a different perspective ... I just know from now on, it's molds for me )) and there won't be a from now on till I have a proper shop where people aren't complaining about noise and fumes. ))

I have not seen that extra slow hardener, so glad to be past the fairing part. The more time you spend fairing, the better you get but I will go out of my way from now on to avoid that ridiculous step! The worst part about it is sanding and then cleanup after every coat you put down. If you could time it so you could put down all your coats without sanding in between it would work out much better.

As to the paint:

The Gator Base primer has been down for 68 hours, they say to wait 72 and then sand with 320 and paint the top coat. I hit it with the orbital sander 220 grit to see what would happen. Sanded off very easy, seems like too easy actually LOL. I sanded till the stipple was gone completely, a few passes with the sander, at that point it feels like glass, hard and very smooth. I have no doubt I could sand it all the way down without too much difficulty. I know my epoxy wouldn't be this easy to sand!!

It's clearly still green, I will give it another 6 hours and go back to it after work. I hope the decision to go with this coating doesn't nip me in the behind. The seller does say that it continues to harden.

 

Here is what I am sweating now ... when I drew the plan, I did not know that you should not have rocker aft, I had seen some power boats that had it. Lucky it's not too much and I hope, since I expect cruise speed in this boat to be 25-30 that it won't be an issue.

If I measure from the very back of the boat (sponsons) I have a nice flat plane going forward for just under 72 in, subtract 16 inches if I measure from the transom.

Hard for me to conceptualize what is going to happen especially with the tunnel being there. I assume that is going to be sucking the boat down unless I ventilate it.

So many ways to affect how a boat behaves ... imagine the tunnel prevents the porpoising by keeping the back part of boat sucked down, that could be a tool for a purpose built design ... as I understand that a little rocker also helps to maneuver when poling a boat. As you can see, I am an optomist ))



This will be a fun week, more paint tonight and Friday the sides get monstalined.

 

4 thin coats of the G2 rolled on. This silicone is slippery as hell. When I sanded the base the dust settled to the floor and it's like an ice skating rink in that place! I think the grey is going to go well with the military green. I will post better pics when all the paint is done.

here is lousy detail shot, the texture is pretty minimal




I don't think those little strakes are going to help keep me from sliding much, this paint is too slick lol ))

 

I gave up rolling ages ago - just can not get a flat paint job without stipple. I spray paint everything now, but i know its difficult unless you have the right somewhere to do it...

Looks good regardless mate, and yes, you dont want any rocker in the aft half of the boat or it will suck the hull down onto the water and slow you down some...

 

Groper, in case you ever want to roll instead of spray, Bateau.com or Boat builder central is selling a new paint from EMC (engineered marine coatings) which rolls on, no tipping, to a stipple-free finish. It's buffable if you do get any orange peel and easy to repair ... according to them. The examples I saw looked pretty nice, I almost went with that but I like the bullet proof monstaliner for topsides and watching these air boaters drive across dirt roads and grass fields sold me on the Gator Glide paint. The EMC is probably just as hard but not as good marketing angle )

I am thinking kiwigrip with very little texture for the deck, it's either that or sea deck. What are you using on your decks??

Rocker issues will have to wait till I test her

 

Plan was to roll on 2k poly urethane and then spray intergrip beads over the wet paint and let cure. Blow off the excess and then roll on another coat over the top. It's the way most larger sail boats are done.... buying pre made paints are expensive...

 

I wonder if that would work with monstaliner, might try an experiment with that. Thanks

 

Now she is the silver bullet )) ... primed and ready for monstaliner olive drab. I managed to fog out the offices again, one ac was not off and managed to pull fumes, spreading them throughout the work space, lucky it was just before quitting time so I spent a few hours opening doors and setting up fans to ventilate the building and fumes are gone today!! The extra coat of primer on sides looks good and smooth.

I will paint the bedliner on sides after work tonight. I have till 10pm, that is lockup time, but I can not start till about 5:30 pm so it will be tight getting two coats on with drying time in between

And tonight I think I know where each air intake is located LOL and it should not happen again!

 

You can really start to appreciate how big she is in the last pic. :idea:

 

she does have a lot more room than my current boat, will be a pleasure fishing or hanging out having a drink in the back country watching the sunset ))

Here is a pic of the olive drab painted on, can't tell if I like it yet

You are supposed to dry roll as the paint tacks to raise the texture, I did most of it ok, and then hit a section where the paint was a bit too tacky I guess and the roller started to deteriorate … got a few pieces stuck in the paint before I noticed and changed rollers. I will have to sand that out and touch it up but will probably wait till I get her outside, this paint fumes are too much.

I will snap a better pic with my real camera Monday.

 

Looks great mate - theres nothing like the feeling you get once the paint goes on and suddenly it looks all swank

 

Yep, I am feeling much better )) The fairing period was a lot of work with very little indication of progress, that was tough!

 

closeup, iphone pic but at least you can see texture. It looks rough but it's not and I wet it and I could see it being slippery with a little fish slime.

 

I almost want to drive down just to touch it. LOL.