Dinghy maintenance

[blackrose]

What's the best way of treating the outside of this fiberglass boat? If there's a waterproof, flexible paint that's easy to apply I'd rather do that than gelcoats which I have no knowledge about. The closeup picture is the outside which feels like the coating has gone completely. The inside needs rubbing down and painting too as the paint is flaking off.

[Detling]

I used 2 pack International Perfection on the bottom of a topper which the kids had about 12 years ago it worked very well and  looked good 5+ years when we sold the boat. Gave it all a good sand with an electric sander I think 120 wet and dry, to get a matt clean surface, before painting.

 

[blackrose]

49 minutes ago, Detling said:

I used 2 pack International Perfection on the bottom of a topper which the kids had about 12 years ago it worked very well and  looked good 5+ years when we sold the boat. Gave it all a good sand with an electric sander I think 120 wet and dry, to get a matt clean surface, before painting.

 

Is that some sort of flexible 2 pack for fibreglass boats?

[Tonka]

Loads of info on this site https://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/category/boat-repair/fiberglass-boat-repair/

Hopefully you will find what you need

[LadyG]

Sail Life on youtube has a fibreglass boat, he uses West System Epoxy manual. The  PEELWRAP looks good.

 

Just slapping on a coat of paint is going to be disappointing

Edited March 21, 2019 by LadyG

[blackrose]

Thanks. Any views on this? It seems simple enough to use - undercoat and topcoats.

 

https://www.supplyshed.biz/product/fibreglass-boat-paint/

 

 

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, LadyG said:

Sail Life on youtube hs a fibreglass boat, he uses West system Epoxy manual. The  PEELWRAP looks good

I have the west epoxy manual and also the "Gougeons brothers on boat construction", but had never thought about using them to coat the bottom of my dinghy

[Murflynn]

I have just sheathed a plywood boat with epoxy glass and finished it with a coat of resin covered with peel ply.  The peel ply just pulls off leaving (in my case) a slightly textured surface that needed filling and sanding to get it really smooth, but it wouldn't be necessary for a dinghy.  As suggested above, prepare the surface, then apply a coat of epoxy, apply the peel ply and roller it in.  Next day (if the conditions are right for curing) pull off the peel ply (which is like a greasy woven nylon cloth).  

[blackrose]

4 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

I have just sheathed a plywood boat with epoxy glass and finished it with a coat of resin covered with peel ply.  The peel ply just pulls off leaving (in my case) a slightly textured surface that needed filling and sanding to get it really smooth, but it wouldn't be necessary for a dinghy.  As suggested above, prepare the surface, then apply a coat of epoxy, apply the peel ply and roller it in.  Next day (if the conditions are right for curing) pull off the peel ply (which is like a greasy woven nylon cloth).  

Thanks but it sounds too involved and to expensive. I don't really want to start resin coating it. I just want something I can paint on, job done. The fibreglass on the dinghy is fine, it just needs a coat of something. I think I'm going to use the Supplyshed paint I posted the link to above.

[Tonka]

8 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Thanks but it sounds too involved and to expensive. I don't really want to start resin coating it. I just want something I can paint on, job done. The fibreglass on the dinghy is fine, it just needs a coat of something. I think I'm going to use the Supplyshed paint I posted the link to above.

It is epoxy coating and not resin coating. If you want a shiny finish instead of peel ply you can use an acrylic sheet or there is a special peel ply which is brown which leaves a smooth shiny surface when removed.

[bizzard]

For a knock about GRP dinghy I'd just use a single Polyurethane paint after a light sanding.

[blackrose]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

Sail Life on youtube has a fibreglass boat, he uses West System Epoxy manual. The  PEELWRAP looks good.

 

Just slapping on a coat of paint is going to be disappointing

I tried to look it up on Youtube but there are loads of Sail Life videos and I couldn't find the correct one.

 

 

3 hours ago, Tonka said:

It is epoxy coating and not resin coating. If you want a shiny finish instead of peel ply you can use an acrylic sheet or there is a special peel ply which is brown which leaves a smooth shiny surface when removed.

Epoxy is a type of resin isn't it? Epoxy resin? https://www.westsystem.com/105-epoxy-resin/

 

Anyway, I found these instructions on peel ply but it seems to involve adding fibreglass which isn't what I want to do?

 

https://www.epoxycraft.com/asked-hamish-whats-great-peel-ply/

 

I'm a bit confused about what peel ply actually is and how it's applied. 

Edited March 21, 2019 by blackrose

[rusty69]

8 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I tried to look it up on Youtube but there are loads of Sail Life videos and I couldn't find the correct one.

 

 

Epoxy is a type of resin isn't it? Epoxy resin?

 

Anyway, I found these instructions on peel ply but it seems to involve adding fibreglass which isn't what I want to do?

 

https://www.epoxycraft.com/asked-hamish-whats-great-peel-ply/

 

I'm a bit confused about what peel ply actually is and how it's applied. 

This is the only sail life I watch, but he has loads of clips. I suspect Epoxy is huge overkill for for an old dinghy like that,as has been said

 

 

[Tonka]

peelply is a cloth which is applied when you epoxy to give you a finish and you remove the peelply when the epoxy is cured. Epoxy does not have the smell of resin which the other resin has. Whish I could explain it better

[zenataomm]

Slosh paint over it.

[Guest]

We used to fix up GRP dinghies as kids, then wreck them again.
If the gelcoat had deteriorated so that the matting was exposed, you could get gel coat repair paste that you treated these areas with (think Plastic Padding made a version.) sometimes we used car body filler for very small areas.  After that it was rub down and paint, using anything that we could liberate. Never did anything very technical and they all floated and looked the part.

11 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

Slosh paint over it.

A lad had a grp dinghy in our marina that he found on top of a skip.  He slapped some ex WD army green paint on it. It came out really well.

[blackrose]

26 minutes ago, Tonka said:

peelply is a cloth which is applied when you epoxy to give you a finish and you remove the peelply when the epoxy is cured. Epoxy does not have the smell of resin which the other resin has. Whish I could explain it better

So no glass fibre matting involved? I can only think that you roller on the epoxy and then add the cloth? I'm not after any particular finish so what would be the point of the cloth exactly - why can't I just paint on the epoxy? Could I paint the epoxy after that?

22 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

Slosh paint over it.

That's what I was thinking in the first place.

 

If peel ply is easy and not too expensive to do I might give it a go, but not if it means adding matting.

Edited March 21, 2019 by blackrose

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, blackrose said:

So no glass fibre matting involved? 

Peel ply is just a release fabric.

 

This is a good read about fibreglass repair using epoxy resin:-

 

https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/Fiberglass-Manual-2015.pdf

 

I reckon your dinghy though just need a clean, rubdown and stick the most cost effective paint you can get hold of. It won't last many years before it will need doing again though.

[Tonka]

 

1 minute ago, blackrose said:

So no glass fibre matting involved? 

Not unless you want to. You could use carbon matting or carbon Kevlar matting but the choice is yours depending on budget and what you want to achieve

[blackrose]

6 minutes ago, Tonka said:

 

Not unless you want to. You could use carbon matting or carbon Kevlar matting but the choice is yours depending on budget and what you want to achieve

No I don't want to. The dinghy is thick and heavy enough as it is. 

[blackrose]

10 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Peel ply is just a release fabric.

 

This is a good read about fibreglass repair using epoxy resin:-

 

https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/Fiberglass-Manual-2015.pdf

 

I reckon your dinghy though just need a clean, rubdown and stick the most cost effective paint you can get hold of. It won't last many years before it will need doing again though.

Thanks, so if I want to epoxy coat the outside it looks like I don't need peel ply at all as all that's doing is giving a surface finish that I'm not interested in? I could just prep the surface, add a couple of coats of epoxy and then a couple of coats of compatible paint to finish it and give it some UV protection?

[rusty69]

8 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Thanks, so if I want to epoxy coat the outside it looks like I don't need peel ply at all as all that's doing is giving a surface finish that I'm not interested in? I could just prep the surface, add a couple of coats of epoxy and then a couple of coats of compatible paint to finish it and give it some UV protection?

Have you tried a pressure washer on it to get the muck off? I personally wouldn't bother with the expense of epoxy unless the gel coat has been compromised. What does the inside look like?

[blackrose]

19 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Have you tried a pressure washer on it to get the muck off? I personally wouldn't bother with the expense of epoxy unless the gel coat has been compromised. What does the inside look like?

No I only got the dinghy back to the boat today.  I was my only dinghy on the Avon. I'm going to pressure wash it asap.

 

It needs a few repairs inside as the double hull is leaking from the inside meaning it was full of water. I've drained all the water out now so I'm just going to let it dry out and whack some Stixall in to fix the holes. I was even thinking of filling the space between the hulls with expanding foam, but I'd probably just end up tearing the thing apart so I'll scrap that idea. The inside paint has all peeled off so that needs redoing too and the guy who had it lost the internal deckboards so I was planning to get a pallet or two and cutting them to size for the inside.

 

I've just worked out that this kit of epoxy would give about 6m2 coverage so only really enough for one and a half coats over the outside. I think two coats would be too expensive so I'll scrap the epoxy idea too and just paint it.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/system-1-2kg-resin-special-hardener/dp/B00LM5F31I/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1553202249&sr=8-6&keywords=west+system+epoxy

 

[BilgePump]

The dinghy is polyester resin so any work with epoxy needs to be careful with cleaning and quantities. Just seems overkill really. Is this one of those 'Ace' dinghies about 8' and double skin so weighty? I had one with holes where a wooden skeg had been attached. Rubbed that area back on outside, filled holes with Sikaflex, a few long lines of glass mat and polyester resin and then just used black gloss paint below the waterline. It did the job and looked reasonable enough for an old dinghy. I know the gelcoat is the key barrier but so many old smashed and battered dinghies full of chunks out of the gelcoat are still in use without any repairs. It will begin to compromise the GRP beneath but pretty slowly. 

[rusty69]

4 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

I've just worked out that this kit of epoxy would give about 6m2 coverage so only really enough for one and a half coats over the outside. I think two coats would be too expensive so I'll scrap the epoxy idea too and just paint it

West epoxy is always expensive. Cheaper epoxies are available, but still overkill imo.