Cost/Effort of interior refurbish

[Woodonglass]

For the bottom of the deck really no need. It'll cure just fine after a while Just take longer. On the top, it depends on what your final finish is gunna be.

 

[nola mike]

The rest of the deck is already cured poly, so was going to try the rustoleum route. Thought about gelcoat, but that seems like a lot more work, and I'm not sure it would be any better. What do you make of those exposed stringers? Is that typical?

 

[Woodonglass]

Yeah some MFG's left the stringers exposed. Go Figure!!!!:facepalm:
Gelcoat is actually the most durable but kinda pricey. Not hard to apply at all. Easy to get a textured finish. If you gelcoat NO WAX on the Resin. If you Paint Wax the Last coat of resin and then after it's cured light sanding and wipe down with acetone before painting. Use hardener in the Rustoleum for your deck

 

[nola mike]

Gel coat I'd need to sand the rest of the deck, right? That seems like a lot more prep for minimal(?) benefit over painting. If I don't like the paint, I can always sand down and gel coat later. Got the deck cut, finished the shower, so tomorrow I get to spend some time with the boat.

 

[nola mike]

Well...Got the deck done with mixed results. I was so anxious to lay the poly that i forgot to screw the deck down. Seems solid, but not sure if I should put screws through my nice deck at this point. Wasn't sure if the csm was supposed to cover the sides or not. I tried, but it wouldn't lay down. That have me a bump and bubble that I'll have to fix. Also went through almost 3 qts of resin, which seems like a lot. Lastly, not all the biax seemed all the way wetted; there were white spots regardless of how much resin I applied. The spots don't seem bubbled, but who knows. All in all it came out ok, and certainly better than what was there. A lot of the deck is straight plywood. Much of my boat appears to have been constructed in a "half glassed" manner.

 

[nola mike]

 

[nola mike]

I tried putting down some rustoleum, but am not happy with the results. The problem is that the floor is not very smooth, and every imperfection shows up. The original construction had haphazard thicknesses of glass, with some areas having very little if any. Taking out all the seats left a lot more bumps. The new thought is to put down one thick layer of glass over everything, which I'm hoping will at least smooth out the rough transitions, and then gelcoat. Don't know what i need to do to not turn everything into a big project, but oh well. The seats won't be ready until early august anyway, so i can't do much else anyway. The plan is:
1. Smooth/sand everything, get to fresh glass
2. Wash with acetone.
3. lay down a layer of cloth (10 oz?)
3a. Is the correct process to lay down a layer of resin, lay the cloth, and then wet it out?
4. Paint on a layer of gelcoat

 

[Woodonglass]

Nope, roll out the resin first then apply the fabric so the resin will come UP through the cloth. Add more resin when and where needed.

 

[nola mike]

Do I need another layer of csm? If yes, am I better off with biaxial? If no, what about 18oz woven roving?

 

[JASinIL2006]

When I glassed my deck, I used a couple layers of CSM and finished with a layer of 6 oz. cloth. It looked nice, but you could still see imperfections, and of course you could see the fabric texture. If you really want it to look smooth, you could get some fairing compound to mix with some resin. You trowel it on, then sand to desired smoothness. You could use PB to fair, too, but it's much harder to sand than fairing compound and resin.

 

[Woodonglass]

I would NOT advise using 18oz WR on your deck. I'd do as JAS did, A layer of CSM and then a final layer of 6oz fabric. But...as he stated you WILL still see any and all imperfections in the deck. Resin and Glass will NOT hide them.

 

[nola mike]

Since I'm in it this far...
Took a grinder and smoothed out everything as best as I could. Looks much nicer, although it did introduce a couple of holes at seams. Plan to fill these with PB. Ended up ordering more 1708, and resin, and gelcoat (this is getting spendy). Also poured in some foam, which was easier to work with than I had feared. Remembered to epoxy all the holes that I drilled in the transom and stringers. Hopefully going to finish up on Tuesday. Last question before then:
For the gelcoat, should I add a non-stick additive, or is a thick roll on good enough? I've read it both ways. I won't be out in any nor'easters, but don't want it to be a slip n' slide either. Everyone on board will have bare feet pretty much exclusively.

 

[nola mike]

Managed to sand everything smooth and level, which took about 3 hours and a lot of itching. Put down the new glass and almost (maybe did?) Have a disaster. I did 5 batches of resin, and on the last one (which i mixed on the boat) noticed that I had mixed surfacing wax instead of MEKP. I THINK it was only the 5th batch that I made that mistake. So I pulled up the last piece of fabric, and put down a catalyzed layer of resin/glass/resin. That was a mess, but it went down ok. The rest of the deck hardened OK, as did the last piece after it was redone. Thought about what to do at that point, and since it was tacky I just went over it with gel coat. Looked really good when I was done. Mixed it with some rustoleum pumice texture on one of the coats. Used 3 total. Now, almost 48 hours later, the whole surface is still tacky. Not just the part that I screwed up on. So now I'm not sure what to do, or what's going on. Any suggestions? I have more gel coat leftover, as well as styrene that I didn't use. Was thinking about mixing a thin coat and laying it down (the gel coat went on fine with a roller, so I didn't thin it). Any other thoughts? I used 1/2 oz wax to 1 qt gel coat on the final coat.

 

[nola mike]

I put a small test coat (8 oz) over part of the tacky surface, and it seems to have hardened fine. Not sure what happened, I'll do the rest of the deck tomorrow.

 

[Woodonglass]

You need more surfacing wax in the final coat. It's mixed at a 10% ratio sooo. a quart of GC = 32oz 10% of 32 is 3.2 soooo, you should have use 3.2oz to make it cure properly. It WILL become Non-Tacky after several days even if you don't use wax so a little bit is better than nothing. Up your ration and I'll bet you'll get better results.

 

[nola mike]

Hmm, both the instructions and the bottle say 2oz/gallon. The coat I just put on was *slightly* more than that. Any harm from putting too much? I want to use the boat this weekend, so I'll just coat again tomorrow.

 

[nola mike]

A couple of pics of the progress. The first I'd after sanding/before glass. Second is after gel coat. Much more uniform surface; the gel coat actually hides imperfections well. Pretty easy to work with, just like paint. Not sure what the trick is when doing multiple coats of resin, I tracked grass into the boat before realizing everything wad sticking to my shoes. I ended up taping trash bags over my legs. Not glamorous, but it worked.

 

[Woodonglass]

Hmm, both the instructions and the bottle say 2oz/gallon. The coat I just put on was *slightly* more than that. Any harm from putting too much? I want to use the boat this weekend, so I'll just coat again tomorrow.

This might be helpful...http://www.bertram31.com/proj/tips/re-gelcoating.htm

 

[nola mike]

Quick update (pics next week when I get back to the boat, I've been busy boating!): Got the gel coat issues figured out, and it came out pretty nice. Built some plywood boxes for the new configuration, and got some of my seats (I need some custom work done still, trying to decide whether to go it myself or hire out). Carpeted the exposed boxes. I LOVE the new seating arrangement (L shaped bench, 2 helm seats), as does the wife. The only recent oops is that *someone* MAY have cut through the hull with a sawzall while on the water. And had water start gushing through. And high-tailed it back to the pull out. Maybe. Hoping that's happened to someone else before...

 

[nola mike]

Long time no update! FINALLY got (almost) everything done. I ended up getting the 2 sundeck panels upholstered by someone else after cutting the plywood and getting all the supplies. Also had the corner cushion on the bench upholstered, and the bow seats. The bow seatbacks I did myself, and also the cockpit side trim panels. The bench seatbacks were pontoon seats (aft, the starboard back I did), and the captain's chairs are awesome. Looked all over creation for those damn upholstery buttons. To all with a similar issue, they are "dura-snaps". I sent a guy on ebay some vinyl and he made me up a bunch for $1/each. You need a special press to cover the snaps, and the machinery was too expensive to make it worthwhile. Pics to follow.