Just started new project...NEED HELP!

[fishKILLER1987]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

This boat had been sitting in the water for quite some time and has accumulated a hefty amount of barnacles along the bottom of the hull. I have heard that pressure washing is a good way to remove barnacles, but is there anything that I can spray on before hand that will make the barnacles come off a little easier??

Thanks.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

This boat had been sitting in the water for quite some time and has accumulated a hefty amount of barnacles along the bottom of the hull. I have heard that pressure washing is a good way to remove barnacles, but is there anything that I can spray on before hand that will make the barnacles come off a little easier??

Thanks.

Ayuh,... You're going to find that a Putty Knife will be the 1st tool you'll wanta start with...

 

[jonesg]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

It got bottom painted from the photo, I think you'll end up sanding or soda blasting the remnants, they stick like stink.

 

[fishKILLER1987]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Yeah I was thinking I would start with some good scraping with a putty knife. So would a pressure washer help at all in this situation? Or do I need to just skip that all together and bring out the big guns??

 

[jonesg]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

If the black is bottom paint they'll take it with them, if its black gelcoat they'll have to blasted off. They took the paint off my outboard skeg.
Its like trying to sand oyster shells.

 

[fishKILLER1987]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Ahh...ok I understand now. Im not sure if its paint or gelcoat on the bottom. How can I tell??

 

[SBTOM]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Wow, that is an awesome boat you have there! Just a suggestion as a suggestion, as opposed to formica, I recently used thin sheet metal with a wax mold release to do essentially the same thing. The real advantage was that it was flexible enough that it could match the contours of the hull. Instead of screwing it in place, I used VHB tape which doubled as a seal. Good luck with this project, I can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[jonesg]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Yrs ago I was into glass molding, a printer gave me some 4 foot square sheets of printing lithoplate, it works great for what you suggest.
Formica, alum weatherguard for roofing, lithoplate, it all works.

Another method is to wax the other side of the boat and pop a mold off that.
Using tool resin will give a near perfect mirror finish to the mold, any molding done with regular resin always seems to have pinholes etc.

The neat thing about a glass mold is you can "adjust" the shape to fit exactly by applying carefull heat with a heatgun.

If it were mine I would start the repair by spraying gelcoat ( if the external molding is a good fit,) then proceed with the layup. That reduces the external repair to a simple crack fix along the joint of the old and new glass on the outside.

 

[fishKILLER1987]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Excellent advice. All good ideas that I will heavily consider before I begin to glass. The top side of the hull where the tree fell onto the vessel is going to be the hardest to fix in my opinion. It has a tricky shape to it so maybe the best thing for me to do in that situation is pop a mold off the opposite side so I can ensure that the side Im trying to fix comes out perfect.


Also, I have a question about some deep scrapes into the side of the hull. Can this be fixed by just applying new gelcoat or is would something like this require fiberglass??

 

[oops!]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

if the fiberglass isnt compromised....its just a gellcoat repair.....
if the glass is gouged....you will have to repair it first.


dont worry bud......when you get done this boat.....that repair will not scare you at all.

 

[fishKILLER1987]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

HaHa...Well, I sure hope so. I began scraping off the barnacles yesterday and then I did a little wet sanding to bring back the gel coat. It seemed to work pretty good. I'll post pics later on today if I get a chance. Im about to begin another day's work on her.

In the picture I posted in my last post, you can see that the gouges are so deep that they seem to have penetrated the gelcoat and dug into the glass just a bit. Is a repair like this going to require me to lay some fiberglass down first, or can I get away with just a good dose of gelcoat to cover it??

 

[jonesg]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Grind down to virgin glass then go back with original material, if it was matting then do the same and build it back til almost flush, then gelcoat with milled fiber, sand that then finish with gelcoat and sand til you're sick of it.

Follow this link for some pro direction w/ pics. Yours is just a bigger version but the steps are the same.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=320710&highlight=yachtdr

 

[fishKILLER1987]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

Alright...I had a super busy weekend so there wasnt much time to work on the boat. But I did manage to begin the cleanup process. I began by scraping off the barnacles with a putty knife. It was a very slow process, but really worked well. The barnacles took alot of the color with them so Im going to be looking into new gelcoat for the bottom. However, I'm not sure the bottom is gel coat. Its almost like a gigantic decal...Any ideas???

After scraping for a long time, I did some wet sanding on a small section to kind of test my abilities and the outcome was good. I started with 400g sand paper because 600g was simply not cutting it. The gelcoat immediately started to come off as soon as I started sanding, but I had to sand real deep to get the stains off. I am not sure how deep I can safely sand, but I want to get rid of the stains completely. Is it safe to just keep sanding until the stains are gone??

I took a couple pics of the work I did and seperated the section with a piece of tape to show the difference between what I had and hadn't done. You can see in the first picture that I didn't completely remove the discoloration. I would like to eventually remove all stains.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated...Thanx.

 

[jonesg]

Re: Just started new project...NEED HELP!

I don't know about doing a gelcoat except in a mold, painting with it is a different kettle, it doesn't go on smooth like paint at all.
It will take some sanding to smooth it out and its not the easiest thing to sand. If brushed on ther brush marks remain, it doesn't flow like paint, its err..gel.

The previous owner of my boat brushed glecoat on and it was so bad looking I used an angle grinder to knock it down then painted it with marine paint.

I suppose it depends how deep you go to remove the barnacles, if you don't peirce the gelcoat then bottom paint might be an option.