Re: West System
 

Good work Air...sounds like ya brought Hammer around...didja have to get tuff w/him...slap him around a little??.. ;) ;D ;D...

Re: West System
 

Airslot sicked his ankle biting dog on me until I promised not to paint the botom.
Sanded down the gouges today in the hull. Weather was great. Didnt add the West System, but I wanted to.
Had a guy looking at it today when I was sanding and he said I should add in a peice of cloth for extra strenght
along the keel strike. So Sunday I'll be wetting cloth and slapping her on hopefuuly.

Re: West System
 

Why did he think your keel needed to be strengthened...what lead him to believe that??...did he measure thickness of existing? Layin' new glass along the bottom of your boat is gonna take a lot of the hydro-dynamics out of it... ;) :D...lookin' at your pics, it doesn't need anything... 8)as is...

Re: West System
 

I have a buddys whaler here and it was at a fire, the bow has all the gel coat lifted like chiped paint, I am going to have to grind it all down and then fill, sand and paint.
I will have pics in a week or so and show you what I am up against. Then I will have to figure out what is the best way to attack it?

Re: West System
 

Reel,
the hull and west system went well today. However I did take back the 406 west system powder for 407 instead for fairing. The hull didnt need any cloth, but the was one deep stop on the keel at the stern, maybe 3/16 deep. So I added in some cloth. I did all the work and my fiberglass guy took there and took me through the steps. So I know how to sand it down, prep it, and use west system. But the hard part is Monday when I begin to sand it, blending it in with the rest of the hull.
So I;ll be all day doing that, maybe reapplying a coat to fill any dings or whatever. Pctures to follow.

Re: West System
 

Hammer...sounds great...you gonna have a super-slick hull when done ;)...

Re: West System
 

Damm, forgot to take the camera. Well, didnt get much done today, the guy next to my boat was painting, so I held off on sanding until 5pm. Managed to get some done. Tuesday I hope to tidy up the appearance of teh sanding job, then decide on what primer to use. Interlux 2000E I am guessing.

Mind Fart ......Once sanded and primed, Am I able to put gelcoat over it ???? or just use touch up paint and leave it alone ??

Re: West System
 

Hammer, The repair work on your hull goes like this... gelcoat or paint.


Although some people say you can gelcoat over West System, the official ord is, you cant. I'm sure you can't over primer either. Gelcoat is a polyester based product and needs to stick with polyester substrates like your fiberglass hull, or repairs with polyeter resin.

West System as you know is an epoxy. Prime it and paint it. If you are going to leave it in the water at all, you might need to barrier coat those touched up spots to keep from blistering, I'm not sure about that, maybe someone else can chime in on that question.

I'm telling you guys, I really recomend the Devoe paints, very resonable.

Re: West System
 

Hammer,

Polyester resin is most used in boat hulls due to cost and epoxy is a much tougher and much more expensive polymer. It is not generally used for boat hulls for cost reasons. The only problem with epoxy other than cost is that UV rays cause it to deteriorate if not coated with paint gel coat or some other UV blocking coating.

I have not tried using gel coat over epoxy, but I don't see why if the epoxy is properly cured, cleaned, sanded and primed that gel coat wouldn't adhere to the epoxy. I would go for polyurethane paint because I think paint is much easier to match in color and definitely easier to apply. Most gel coat that I have seen is sprayed into the boat mold and then covered with resin and glass and will not cure properly in open air. I think that you would have to cover the gel coat with non-stick plastic to keep out the air in order to cure. Maybe there is a gel coat that cures in open air. I haven't heard of it. Just my $.02!!

Ed G.

Re: West System
 

Thanks guys. I was speaking to a guy at the boat yard yesturday and he was saying to paint the bottom with a
"Hard bottom paint" ??
Not a antifoul paint. Ok, off to the boat yard for a few pictures. So I can post them : )