Gelcoat Voids Are Not Fun

[Bugs]

Hi all,

So this week, at the suggestion of a friend, I rented a power-washer to remove the old flaky anti-foul coat. Doing so revealed what I believe to be gelcoat voids. There is absolutely no wetness, toxic / stinky fluids. I have revealed hundreds of them and fibers of what I believe to be the skin-up mat behind. I've decided to stop the power-washing for the moment, thinking perhaps I am causing more of a pain for myself than necessary…

I am curious of your thoughts on a couple of options:

Should I continue to power-wash and reveal all the “loose” voids and then repair? My thought here is to go ahead and get it over with.

Should I just scrape (by hand) the rest of the anti-foul coat off, sand, epoxy fill the current crop of voids, sand again, probably barrier coat (might as well, since there is some sort of void problem) and then anti-foul-coat, then sail.

Picasa Web Albums - BugsBunny

If you don’t mind looking closely at the last pic in the album, you will find “bubbles” that haven’t been removed. These are what makes me wonder if this is a sign that I should continue removing all the “bubbles” as some look to have hairline fractures on their edge that I wonder, if in time, will allow water inside, causing future damage. Or will a solid couple of coats of barrier (Interlux2000e) take care of it?

Finally, to those who have done epoxy filling under a boat -on a trailer- do you have recommendations as to how to make this process quick but effective? Don’t worry about the safety advice, I am very familiar with nasty chems and metals and take over-the-top precautions.

Thanks tons!

 

[BobM]

Tough luck. I looked at a boat that was COVERED with gelcoat blisters like this. I walked. As far as I know it is still on the market. Those were all over the topsides. I had a few blemishes along the water line of my old boat. I was very concerned about them at first, but then gave in to the fact that my $1000 boat was never destined to be perfect and just sailed her instead. Only you can decide how much they bother you.

 

[captdave]

How old is your boat? Do you know it's history? It appears that there is "blue" under the white "gelcoat". If I were to guess, I think an old bottom was performed where they either used filler or an epoxy coat was performed to repair blisters. This was followed by barrier/bottom paint. Who knows... In any event, I would say to continue with the power wash, dry and fill/sand the bottom and shoot epoxy/barrier/bottom paint.

 

[RichH]

NEVER EVER EVER use a power washer on Gelcoat !!! you just learned the hard way why :-(

 

[jibes138]

Filling the blisters

I will be really hard to try to get a filler material to get into each one of the little pits without trapping air bubbles in them due to the irregular and sharp edges of each pit. I'd suggest some back breaking sanding to smooth it all out, but by then you'll have already removed most of the gel coat. Not sure what they charge to "peel" a boat bottom but it might be worth it not to have the aggravation. sounds like a big job, or as suggested just fill it and as best you can and move on to sail it. Is the boat kept on a trailer or in the water most of the time? If on a trailer it is probably pretty dry. Last time I stripped bottom paint I just used a good paint scraper and some mustle. The chemical strippers are a PITA then you have all the paper and mess to deal with. All kinds of gooey chemical laden paint slime. Scraping it just leaves chunks of paint and dust. A good respirator and goggles are a must. I've seen families in boat yards with little kids sanding bottoms and not even wearing cheap disposable dust masks. To me that is child abuse by ignorant people and they should be arrested for it.

 

[Tim R.]

Power washing gelcoat is fine if done properly. That did not cause these blisters and probably did you a favor by opening them up. Let them dry and fill with thicked West System epoxy. Sand and repaint. Go sailing, have fun and do not worry about this.

 

[Bugs]

Gelcoat Voids

Thanks all for the thoughts,

To answer some questions from responding posts: The boat is a Catalina 22 from 1986. It doesn't appear that it's had any bottom repairs before. Talking with Catalina it sounds as if the blue colour is from overspray or skin-up mat...

I am leaning toward the rationale that continuing to powerwash will expose all the loose voids and, unfortunately, cause more work for me. My logic being "do it right one time instead of halfway 3 times". If they are popping out it's because it's their time to go.

My question now is practical: assuming I choose an appropriate epoxy (I can't remember what type is recommended on gelcoat, but I'll look again), how realistic is it to simply "spatula it on". Having never physically done this work is it really so simple? Simply squirt a bit on the affected area and then "Squeegee" it into the holes? I just want to know that (as I will be working against gravity under the boat) that the epoxy isn't going to just plop out of the holes once I fill them. Is the stuff so thick and pasty?

Do I really need to dremel them out first?

http://picasaweb.google.com/6ug56unny

Am I better off to get some syringes and squirt into holes; and then spatula; and then sand flush after cure? Or skip the syringe (sounds silly now that I ask)? I only ask because of the air pockets comment -it seems reasonable that I could get bubbles trapped inside the voids as I fill them...

Thanks everyone for taking the time!

 

[Napa Ed]

I wouldn't get to fussy about it. You're boat doesn't have the resale value to justify the cost. You could spend more on bottom work than the boat is worth. I'd blast off the rest, rough sand and drag some filler into the pits with a spatula. Re-sand and paint. These defects are superficial and won't cause your boat to sink. Paint and go sailing.