After discovering bubbles in the gelcoat on the bottom I almost gave up on her. I have Patriot Yacht Services coming by to look at the bubbles. Hopefully with his advice it wont be a nightmare. I looked at several V20 center consoles today. All had rotten floors and busted hatch lids. Sellers wanted $1000-$1500 just for the boat alone. All had some stringer rot. One was so bad I offered him $300 and he pretty much told me to leave. So back on my V20. I got her flipped over and back in the garage. At least it will be easier now to work on the bottom. I am going to paint it while its flipped. Interlux VC epoxy, over an eppxy barrier coat. This V keeps getting closer and closer to a death sentance but somehow everytime she wins me back over. Gonna be a brand new boat when I am finished.

To fix I would think its not that bad?? You will have to grind all the bubbles then re gel-coat it. But after all you have done and learned I think you can do it!!

Good Luck

That performance vc is a great product, painted about 4 coats with 30 minutes between coats and sanded down to my desired finish. Used a2000 for a primer because I had exposed fibers from my hull being in such bad shape. I sprayed a nice thick coat, sprayed with black spray paint, sanded with and orbital sander with 120 grit and then block sanded the low spots until all the black paint was gone. Repeated that process 4 times to get a great fair finish. Probably not necessary to do that many coats below the waterline but if you paint above the waterline with a gloss finish completely necessary.

Good info Tartuffe! What Patriot discussed with me for repair is to open EVERY BUBBLE (>1000), sand with 120, give it a good wipe down, then fill with thickened epoxy, fair with 3m underwater epoxy filler, then paint.

hey Jason, are you using an epoxy system on the whole boat?

Kracker, I am purchasing epoxy resin from US Composites to do the stringers, transom closure, and bracket. I will either use Interprotect 2000E or coat the entire bottom with epoxy for a barrier coat. I should be able to add fillers in to the US Composites epoxy for fairing. Heck even all the paint will be epoxy, Interlux Perfection and VC epoxy. I just hope my wallet can support all this.

Looks like just a bad case of gelcoat blisters. Personally I would sand with something a little more aggressive like 80 grit, wipe down, spray several coats of a2000 (4 or 5 coats) since you don't need to sand between coats the more the better and skip the part where you fill with thickened epoxy. I found that thickened epoxy and even epoxy resin with fillers can leave itty-bitty pinholes that are a real pain to fill.

That A2000 is some REALLY thick stuff that will need to be thinned 25% just to begin to get it through a gun with a 1.8 tip and forget the internal filter screen. The nice thing is that is puts down a thick coat to fair that adds a second layer of protection under your performance VC

One thing I would research if I do it again is vinylester. I never dreamed I would have gone through 21 gallons on epoxy on this project. I would still use epoxy on some items but my larger layups like the stringers that soaked up gallons in one layup probably could have been done with vinylester at a huge savings.

I overbuilt as well so you can probably get through with half as much. I'm 11 months into this project and almost ready to put the cap back on.

Which was my point exactly. Vinlyester is a great product to use. I used oily because I was on a serious budget. Buy vinyl is great for what your doing.

I will definately look into it. What resin is good for building a leaning post, livewell, tackle center. And a pilot house center console? Nothing will be mold built its all going to be glass covered Marine ply. I am shooting for an Everglades type console.