Project - Aquasport 246CCP, 1979, Captain Koz II

[rhtrades]

coming along great.  are you applying gelcoat for the floor or a deck paint?  If gelcoat, how do you apply...brush or spray gun?  also, do you use gel coat with or wihtout wax? 
i'm currently doing some deck repairs....

[kaptainkoz]

Thank you! I appreciate the praise. First off I am an amateur taking on this project for my personal challenge and enjoying my trial and errors along the way. What I do may or may not be the way the pros would do it but I’m just enjoying the experience. With that said I prefer gel coat over paint because in my opinion it is easier to patch and fix later and besides the entire boat is gel coat so why not keep it. Yes, paint finished nicer ans may be easier to apply but it may get complicated later with fixing paint on existing gel coat.  Gel coat has a learning curve to apply it properly with minimal work fairing it smooth to make it look as good as paint. I have applied gel coat in molds by dump gun but I have never tried to do large presentable section like this floor with the hopes of good results. What I have learned through trial and error is spraying gel will yield better results than brushing it. It isn’t very consistent like good paint. Rolling and tipping doesn’t work as it is too thick and likes to stick to itself and glob. I am going to be spraying it with a dump gun. I think an HPLV gun is difficult because of the limited work time before it sets up in the gun and you need to dismantle for full cleaning. You don’t have to worry about clogging anything in a dump gun as you only have a large tip to clean. You can thin gel coat a small percentage with styrene (5%? I have to double check my percent) to make it shoot smoother but then you lose thickness and buildup and you may have to adjust tip size.  Also there are additives like Duratec which thins it, makes it easier to spray and gives gloss. I have not used the duratec yet nor will I for the floor as I don’t want it too shiny and slick. I will use it on the transom and the cap. Also I am going to spray non skid sections in a tan color gel later so no sense under coating with expensive duratec.
Sorry if I rambled but that’s about all I know. I think tonight may be the night I spray the floor so I will address some of your questions as I write about my experience spraying. I figure the floor is a safe starting point to practice with the dump gun because it’s easiest to sand versus curves and shapes on the cap. Also much of the floor is covered by the coffin box and center console so if I screw up bad I don’t need to fix the entire floor… just where it will show. If I have decent success with the floor then I will look to spray the transom after its rebuild. Then I would like to take on the rest of the cap to behind the rub rail. One step at a time. Let’s see how tonight goes. In the mean time keep asking around, search videos and websites and search other builds to get an understanding of the many techniques for both paint and gelcoat and go with the one that makes sense to you.

[kaptainkoz]

As for wax… you add wax to the last layer so it will cure fully. If you are doing multiple coats you want to apply the next layer to unwaxed gel. If you happen to wax and have a second thought you can lightly sand and clean wax with acetone. Gel will not fully cure without wax or PVA. It has to be encapsulated from oxygen to cure 100%.  PVA is a water soluble coating that you spray on and will film over the gel and can be washed off with water. I am cautious to introduce water in these builds so I have not used it yet.

[rhtrades]

Thanks very much.  This is all great info!  Please keep posting your progress and I would be very interested to know how it goes tonight after you spray the gelcoat.   Also, are you doing a diamond pattern for the deck...would be interested to know what you use to get a pattern...

[kaptainkoz]

I’ve seen diamond patterns used and that would be super cool but I think that may be past my ability and need. My thought is to mask off patterns with tape and leave shapes that look factory then spray them with  tan colored gel containing an anti slip additive like a mild grit sand.

[kaptainkoz]

First coat of gel coat is down. I definitely need more trial and error with the dump gun. It sputtered and shot heavy as it is designed to do. It did the trick of getting a layer down but it wasn’t elegant. I need to experiment with different tips to get it to where it will shoot a decently smooth coat. I think a smaller tip will shoot slower lighter and more even for future final layers. For now another dump layer or two for quick build will be good. This layer was just to seal the fiberglass for the winter but I’m hoping for a warm spell to go another coat or two.

This first layer is  like the 4 am last call lights coming on at the Bar and showing the truth… I have some fairing to do to make it look acceptable to me. I am impressed with how well the plywood floor sections went together as you have to almost know where the seams were to see anything.  The fairing around the tank tub, hatches and floor drains are definitely within range of correcting to near perfect. Definitely a proud moment for me.

[rhtrades]

for a first coat, that looks really good!  keep posting your progress!

[kaptainkoz]

Thank you. For the most part it’s good. Definitely need a few more thick coats of buildup. If you zoom in these are the areas that need attention and fairing…

[Duffy1470]

Very nice. Please keep us posted.

[kaptainkoz]

Thank you! I appreciate it. I will definitely post every step along the way. May be slower going now that the weather is cooling off but I have to cast the transom gunwale/cap and a motor rebuild which I can pull off in a heated garage. Stay tuned

[kaptainkoz]

The weather is too cold to do anything but think. I remember suggestions of rolling the first coat of gel coat and now I understand why. When I sprayed it with the dump gun it settled on top of the fibers of the 1708 and did not seep into the valleys. Think of falling snow on leaves. It’s too thick to seep down into the crevices. So I will roll the next coat to push the gel coat down into the crevices. Basically now I wish I would have rolled the first coat. Is it a big deal?… no. It’s not going to make much of a difference but I would have preferred it that way now that I understand the properties of it a little better. Learning moment.  A sprayed first coat did show me the areas I need to fair so it had some positives.  Once the weather breaks I will fair the ugly spots, roll and tip, sand then continue spraying even layers.

[RickK]

After I had a similar first experience I started looking at a dump gun as a way to quickly get gelcoat onto a surface and then I deal with it with a roller. I do my finish spraying with a cheap Harbor Freight HVLP gun.

[kaptainkoz]

I did use a dump but I should have rolled it after. I know people use HPLV’s but I would think you have to work super quick. I didn’t clean the tip between one refill and it started to clog a bit. It took 4 dump gun cups to coat the floor.  The nice thing about the “cheap” Amazon dump gun is that it comes with 6 tips so I want to experiment with a smaller tip to see if I can get HPLV results with the dump gun using a smaller tip. The floor I’m not super worried about as so little of it will show in white as I intend on spraying anti skid patterns in tan. Plus when you factor in a the center console, coffin box and seating there isn’t much floor visible. Also the yet to be made fast tank cover accounts for a lot of the useable floor space. That’s also why I went gel coat over paint …. You can sand it down and go over it as many times as you want to get a desired finish. If this coat was paint I would be very disappointed in the finish with the amount of imperfections I need to fix but didn’t see them until after 1st coat. It’s all some good learning curve material that I like to share to maybe teach the next guy what to look out for.