Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

[juancgar]

Hello everyone.

I've ben a member on here for a while, just behind the scenes and reading posts, learning what i could to do this project. Well, i've been working on this boat for quite some time now and so far not too bad of a hick up/screw up that i couldn't fix. But today i had an OH $hi!# moment.......
here is the back ground: After months of demo, grinding, glassing, resin, construction, glassing, sanding and more sanding was all done, i finally got to the gel coat stage. this is my ( OH $H#T ) roller, paint can, evercoat bottle flying across the back yard and cursing the boating gods moment. i did just like the instructions said as far as mixing. I got this evercoat mix to apply after the gel has been applied to finish the cure process. i did some trial spots on a different board and finally got the process down.
I applied the gelcoat to the bow deck and it looked great. was even better than expected. I was very happy with my craftsmanship even though applied with roller........ glossy and smooth as can be. so i applied the evercoat and that is when it happened. :facepalm: it jacked it all up!!!!! looks worse than an orange peel. I'm really at a loss as to why this happened. the trial look amazing, now this.
So, i guess i will wait for it to cure, sand and go at it again. Except, this time i will not apply the ever coat and let it cure in its own. There are some spots that i did not apply the evercoat to and still looks good. Would appreciate any suggestions?

 

[juancgar]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

went out to look at it again..............i think i need a beer.:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

 

[oops!]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

make it a case.

what is evercoat?...and why did you use it on gellcoat?

gellcoat is a stand alone product.

however......gellcoat is a fantastic product.....you can do anything with it....including......sand it......that means sand it off.....and anything over it.
you wanna see shiney , smooth and flat?.......wait till after your done.

but sorry....it looks like more sanding is involved.

i think the reason your evercoat stuff alligated was because you more than likely used waxed gellcoat and the evercoat didnt bond to the wax

 

[juancgar]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

Sorry, Evercoat is the brand. i purchased the gel coat and the additive from "West marine". The label on the gel coat says to apply a coat of PVA over the gel coat to complete curing. no where on either of these say to wait to apply, so i just applied immediately after. probably should have waited.

Well, on another note. Despite all the bow deck, i applied gelcoat to the transome without the PVA and it looks really good. but still pretty tacky.
In your big build post, you had mentioned that the wax was gumming up your sand paper and you wiped it down with "Acetone". i tried that on one of the corners. uh, it didn't work. it made it even more tacky, lol.....
I think i'm gonna do another trial, but this time wait till the gel coat starts curing to apply the PVA stuff and see how that works.

here are some pics of the transome:
View attachment 115293 View attachment 115294

View attachment 115295
there is a pic of a corner, that is where i wiped with acetone. you can kinda see how its dull after wiping.

 

[Sleeper-6]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

I could be wrong, but I thought that the PVA needs to be sprayed over the Gel to seal the surface. If you are applying it with a roller maybe it is getting worked into the surface and messing things all up.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

And the winner is sleeper 6. Looks like that to me also, but I haven't fooled with gel but a few times.

 

[juancgar]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

yes sir, i was spraying with bottle. but it still dispersed like dawn on an oil slick. lol....

well, after several failed attempts, i finally got the correct formula. I decided to put the PVA in my spray gun, waited till the gel coat semi cured and applied. works like a charm...... man what a nerve racking day though. It only took 1/4 gal of gelcoat to figure out. As to why it did it on the deck and not the initial trials is a mystery to me. i did every thing the same exact way.
either way, here are some pics of the new results.

View attachment 115320 View attachment 115321

there are some minor blemishes and orange peel but nothing that a little sanding wont take care of.

oh, on another note, i've got two gallons of white 2 part epoxy paint ( carbo line, carbogaurd pt A & pt B) from a buddy of mine. Label says it's marine grade. was thinking of putting it on the main deck where most of the traffic will be. what do you guys think? or should i stick to gel coat? have searched high and low, but havent found anything regarding using one or the other. ( this gell stuff is such a pain in the rear) he, he.

thanks guys.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: Critchfield 18ft restoration. gel coat stage..... i think?

Stick with Gel. No paint and I mean no paint will old up to traffic like gel will.