Barrier coat before bottom paint?

[Bob James]

Since Winter Dream'n #118 was new she has had yearly coats of VC 17 - I sail in fresh water - Lake Erie. I am doing some fiberglass repair for cracks around the prop strut probably caused by a failing cutlass bearing that I just replaced two weeks ago. My question is after the repair - about 1 foot square area - should I use a barrier coat such as VC tar before the VC 17. How many coats should I use and is there any special prep to do before or during the process other thancleaning with a VC solvent?

 

[Witzend]

Cracks around the strut..Hmmm.. better check the strut alignment mine was way off causing the cutlass bearing to fail. Rather than digging out the strut and shimming it, I drilled it out and epoxied in the new one.

 

[Jeff75]

barrier coat,,

My humble suggestion would be to use Interprotect 2000 for the area, but that may depend on what the barrier coat is at present. If you do decide to use the 2000,, sand down to a clean hull,,, wipe down with a cleaner , then apply the Interprotect 2000,,, 4 coats should do for the small area,,, can be applied while previous coat is tacky, 1 quart should do for that small of an area. Then apply your VC 17 after its dry.

 

[Bob James]

Re: barrier coat,,

Jeff: Thanks for the post - that's exactly what we did earlier this week. It turns out that most of the damage was just loose gel coat with one deeper crack behind the strut. The IP 2000 was tacky for recoat after about a long hour and we put the VC17 down when the IP was tacky (so called finger print test) per the directions. The boat will launch in about two weeks and we'll reallign the shaft and hope that the most of the vibrations caused by the failing CB will be gone as well.