I have a small Boston Whaler tender that's been in the family since '75. It's in rough shape, the interior green is crazed and cracked and has many small places where the gelcoat has popped off the glass, the outside is 40yr old Imron. The Imron is hard as a rock, to the point that 40g on a DA mostly just polishes it and makes a mess. Damn I don't want to start with chemical stripper for several reasons, but after talking with a commercial sandblaster friend of mine I plan to let him sandblast the whole thing.
The idea is to remove the Imron on the outside of the hull, trying not to remove all the factory gelcoat, and mostly mechanically etch and clean up the factory gelcoat on the inside.
At this point would SPI epoxy be the right thing to apply to get a base to start on? The inside has textured panels in the floor that would be hard to sand without flattening out the pattern, and at that, some of the pattern is gone and I may try to cast a plug from the other areas to duplicate it, or may sand the hell out of all of it and go a different route. But I need to get a game plan for the first step after sandblasting. I can use West Systems products etc... and have before, but I have enough SPI epoxy to do the boat and the Vette I think. Also, I'm trying to think ahead how I'm going to sand the epoxy in the textured portions of the floor. I have used low pressure sandblasting for this type of thing, but man that will make a mess.
So would the SPI epoxy be ok to use on the outside of the hull ie: below the waterline? It would prob be left in the water over a long weekend at most. No antifouling paint needed.
The idea is to remove the Imron on the outside of the hull, trying not to remove all the factory gelcoat, and mostly mechanically etch and clean up the factory gelcoat on the inside.
At this point would SPI epoxy be the right thing to apply to get a base to start on? The inside has textured panels in the floor that would be hard to sand without flattening out the pattern, and at that, some of the pattern is gone and I may try to cast a plug from the other areas to duplicate it, or may sand the hell out of all of it and go a different route. But I need to get a game plan for the first step after sandblasting. I can use West Systems products etc... and have before, but I have enough SPI epoxy to do the boat and the Vette I think. Also, I'm trying to think ahead how I'm going to sand the epoxy in the textured portions of the floor. I have used low pressure sandblasting for this type of thing, but man that will make a mess.
So would the SPI epoxy be ok to use on the outside of the hull ie: below the waterline? It would prob be left in the water over a long weekend at most. No antifouling paint needed.