May 25, 2012
I took this day off of work to work on the boat. I wanted to get the deck ready to be Gel Coated which was ordered and received.
First I gave the deck a good sanding. It had been a while since we fiberglassed so I wanted to make sure that the surface was ready to receive the Gel Coat. After I was finished with the sanding I moved the boat outside for a good cleaning. Using an air compressor (Thanks Jack) I blew off the deck and then gave it a good acetone wash.
That pretty much took up the entire day. I had to wash the van because it got covered with dust. Sorry no pictures of the progress today.
May 26, 2012
The deck is now Gel Coated. The four person team of Jack, Sally, Nina and myself worked for a long time again to get this job accomplished.
We took the pigment for a gallon and added it directly to the container and then took turns shaking the can to thoroughly mix the color. I believe that it looks great!
The first coat I tried ended in failure as about half of the Gel Coat we had hardened in the pan. Which later on started to smoke and had to be removed from the garage. So we changed the mixture of hardener to Gel Coat from 1.5% to 1% hardener. The rest of the first coat went on well. We used smaller batches and I worked quicker.
Coats 2-5 we mixed in about 10% thinner and that made the gel better to spread and longer to work with. The fifth coat we added surfacing wax. Now we know why the wax was shipped in a glass container as it will eat through plastic!
I took this day off of work to work on the boat. I wanted to get the deck ready to be Gel Coated which was ordered and received.
First I gave the deck a good sanding. It had been a while since we fiberglassed so I wanted to make sure that the surface was ready to receive the Gel Coat. After I was finished with the sanding I moved the boat outside for a good cleaning. Using an air compressor (Thanks Jack) I blew off the deck and then gave it a good acetone wash.
That pretty much took up the entire day. I had to wash the van because it got covered with dust. Sorry no pictures of the progress today.
May 26, 2012
The deck is now Gel Coated. The four person team of Jack, Sally, Nina and myself worked for a long time again to get this job accomplished.
The first coat I tried ended in failure as about half of the Gel Coat we had hardened in the pan. Which later on started to smoke and had to be removed from the garage. So we changed the mixture of hardener to Gel Coat from 1.5% to 1% hardener. The rest of the first coat went on well. We used smaller batches and I worked quicker.Coats 2-5 we mixed in about 10% thinner and that made the gel better to spread and longer to work with. The fifth coat we added surfacing wax. Now we know why the wax was shipped in a glass container as it will eat through plastic!
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