Rudder refurb. Gel first or 2000E

[william3045]

I just rebuilt the rudder on my H23. After last season i found cracks on the leading and trailing edges so i ground them out, filled them with resin and microbaloons, reshaped, and laid 2 strips of glass all the way around the edges front, rear, and bottom and feathered them in. now it is time to repaint and re-gel. my question is: which should i put down first....2000E or gel? the gel is hard as nails and i will roll both on. also, it looks to me like it wouldn't hurt to lay a base of finish resin down on the complete rudder before i do either just to give some additional sealing and smoothing and then sand it before laying either the gel or 2000E. recommendations?william

 

[Gerry, GMJ Marine]

rudder re-furb

William,Now that you've done what sounds like a good repair you should as you thought apply a sealer coat of epoxy resin over the repair. Straight resin, no fillers. A little trick I like to use for this step is to heat the mix a little with a heat gun to thin it out. This helps it flow a bit easier to fill in those pesky pin holes. Flow on a nice smooth coat over the repair. When it cures give it and the rest of the rudder a uniform sanding with 80 grit sandpaper. Now you're ready to apply barrier coat. You don't need to apply gelcoat over the repair because you used epoxy for the repair. I've used the Inter-Protect for many barrier coat jobs and consider it a very good product. Follow the application schedule and you should be fine. Good luck.