Styene thinner is nasty stuff

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Bill Reichert
Deckhand
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:23 pm
Sailboat: Venture 25

Styene thinner is nasty stuff

Post by Bill Reichert »

I decided to do things the hard way on a small boat and apply new gelcoat. All is going well except that I opened the gelcoat inside the basement. The result was a spectacular headache for 3 days. Thank goodness I have a commercial spray booth fan that I used to air out the house for two days.
Bill Reichert
Deckhand
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:23 pm
Sailboat: Venture 25

Re: Styene thinner is nasty stuff

Post by Bill Reichert »

I discovered that the auto parts fiberglass catalyst works fine. I first
epoxied about 200 chips in the topsides on the Rebel and sanded them down. I
found that stabbing with a solder brush (Harbor Freight) kept the non skid
textured. This was a crinkled non skid not the diamond pattern. I also
discovered that US Composites bright blue and dark yellow tints came Very close
to the non skid on the Venture. Unfortunately, it wasn't very close to the
Rebel color.
I also discovered that it is NOT necessary to fill the hairline cracks in the
old gelcoat. The new gel coat does that by itself.
Harbor freight 4" brushes worked fine for the smooth areas. 12 for $4.95.
I still have to do the cockpit seats but the wide brush should make that a 1/2
hour job.

Then I have to wet sand the whole thing. I used to apply 9 coat lacquer
finishes on pianos. So I'm used to sanding till my fingers bleed. It shouldn't
be that bad though.
Oh, I used the gel coat straight and didn't have to use styrene thinner.
I think it is going to look good for a 42 year old boat.

I discovered that the new gel coat loads up the wet or dry sand paper. So I tried some TSP (trisodium phosphate) detergent in the water and now the paper doesn't load up.
I have also learned the Get coat doesn't like to be applied in direct sun light.
And the new gel coat will be much more level than the original as I am sanding through to the original in high spots.

Since this is the MacGregor site I will mention that this is a trial for my V24! :)
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