Sanding nonskid

[south river]

I'm rebuilding a 1984 222 and am currently working on the floor.  The old floor was beat up and I've decided to clean it up, sand the nonskid down and reapply an nonskid.  Well as i'm sanding down the old nonskid, as i sand enough to get it smooth, i'm uncovering very small cavities in the glass. When i say very small, i mean about the size of a pinhead.     I'm looking for some advice.  Thanks!  Mike

[mshugg]

Small voids in the gel coat are not at all unusual.  How are you replacing the nonskid?  Gel coat with non skid additive?  Paint with non skid additive?  Something like Kiwi Grip?  Each requires a different degree of preparation.

If you’re painting or useing Kiwi, high build primer will fill the pin holes.  You could probably apply the Kiwi over your gel without primer.  For the gel, you probably need to open up the holes with something like a Dremel, and fill, before non skid.

[south river]

Planning on priming and painting with Perfection and an additive.  So as a continuation of the question, I stopped sanding when the cavities started showing up. At this point, if you run your fingernail across the surface, you can still tell there was some nonskid there.  So my question is, how much will the primer coverup.  This is my first rodeo!  Thanks!!

[mshugg]

The high build will fill in minor surface dips, and it will give you a pretty good idea of where you stand.  As long as you stay with the interlux products, you can go back and fil imperfections afternoon primer, and of course, you can allways sand more.

When it comes to paint, two things are true:  only you can decide the level of finish that will satisfy you, and your preparation determines the finished quality.