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Sooooo, I’ve had a lot of experience with sticky boat goo. But now I must turned to the collective for this question. I know that regular gel coat doesn’t stick to epoxy. Since I e used west epoxy through out my latest project for maximum adhesion, that means I can’t use a gel coat finish option.
But what if I have the epoxy a topcoat of vinylester resin, sort of like a primer, and then I could gel coat over top of that…? Right? Or is that “just not how it works, ixnaaaaayyyy”?
I wanted to use the official Mac gel coat that was available from blue water at one time, to redo the area where I have tabbed a partition to the boat. I may paint the partition itself, or cover it with a variety of options, but gelcoating the tabbing seemed to be the easiest way to do that bit. On a prior project I used teak trim to cover the tabbing. While that looked “ok” I’d like to improve my cosmetic mojo here.
I can fair the tabbing well enough for gelcoat to look acceptable.
Thanks for your input

A few notes: for everyone wondering why I used epoxy and not a polyester based resin. I normally use good quality polyester for repairs and additions, unless plywood is involved. Epoxy adhesion is the best for wood and it adheres to old polyester boat structures well too.
Thanks!

Ix

Hi Ixneigh!

The basic rule is you can EPOXY over Vinylester but you cants do it the other way round.
If you apply Vinylester resins will tend to delaminate from epoxy resin surfaces.

Might I suggest painting?
One can thicken an epoxy paint a variety of ways to build up thickness if you find you need to.

Best Regards
Over Easy

Looks like it’s gonna be pigmented epoxy resin or epoxy paint.

How did you get all that sticky glue off?

Oh. Well it can be rubbed off with an eraser but I only had a little one. I’ll need to get a few larger erasers. It does sand off ok, but you still need the eraser to remove the bits in the crevices. I’m just going to lightly sand it, remove the old glue bits, and smooth it with epoxy compound. Then I will paint it with white tinted epoxy for now.

Hi Ixneigh!

Will this one do?

https://ca.pinterest.com/pin/this-100-e ... 932379526/



Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hahaha actually that would probably work great. The old rubber cement comes off fairly easily but I’m now wondering if some temporary coating could be applied and then peeled off taking the adhesive with it.

Hi Ixneigh!

Just think of how using the eraser is gonna buff up your arms!
A couple days of that and you’ll be ready for the arm wrestling championship!
(I’d have to suspend it with a spring ‘cause I ain’t gonna even start carrying that thing around, never mind attempting to use it! )

There are a variety of “rubber” cements out there…
Everything from the old school stuff to contact types.

You probably already know this but for those that might not here’s a couple suggestions.
(Making sure that it’s a Well ventilated area, with thick nitrile gloves, and with someone else acting as observer well out of the area of course!)
Have you tried using a small bit of alcohol on a cloth to soften/dissolve/remove the rubber cement?
If that didn’t work the next would be to try small amounts of paint thinner.
Next would be acetone (but now that’s moving into a progressively more hazardous arena both a chemical, environmental, health, flammable aspect.)
Last would be MEK but you really want to be REALLY CAREFUL and have the proper rated personal protective equipment including an approved respirator for it.

Generally I’ve found that the alcohol will loosen/debond many pliable adhesives with a good textured cloth and a little elbow grease.

Note: I’ve had mixed results attempting to over-paint adhesives.
Sometimes the paint won’t stick leading to an orange peel type condition.
Other times it appears to stick only to ‘pop’ or ‘craze’ or ‘crack’ off localized areas later on.

Let us know how it goes.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Actually I did find the ideal solution.
I’ve been using a cordless drill with a two inch Rolock sanding disc attachment to do the prep work for this project, with 60 grit discs. This is a slow but much less arduous method than a larger grinder. As well as the 60 grit, which did take off much of the old rubber cement, I have some abrasive fiber discs which work very very well for removing it from the nooks and crannies. They get off enough that I feel confident applying epoxy resin or paste over it.

Ix

What about something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Global-Rubbe ... B07L1BVQB7

Oh that would do great. I’m already done with the removal but I might still get one of those just to take off some old vinyl lettering. It would probably also remove sealant goops, and residue from sloppy application (who? Me?!?)

Ix