Need Help with some glass work, fairing/sanding ??s 31 BHM

[Surfishingboy]

Im new to fiberglass work and don't really have much experience but its time to learn. I have a few questions about what i should do with to my cabin walls on my 31 BHM.The fiberglass inside the cabin were never sanded and faired. But it has been painted. Is there anything i could do to get a decent clean look with out sanding the glass fibers all the way down? can you use a filler or fairing compound over the glass the way it is? Any Advice would help.

 

[Surfishingboy]

Also what is the best way to fix these tiny chips and little holes on here. the plan is to repaint the tops with interlux perfection and replace the old swivel rod holders with regular lee holders.

 

[F/V First Team]

Hog out the chipped area and fill with something that won't absorb water. I suggest Rage, it's super effective.

As far as your forward cabin area, there's enough wax and other contaminants that trying to fair or paint over that will leave you with a spotty finish. Best just to sand it all and go from there. Doesn't have to be a massive sanding, just flash grind back to bare material.

A good finish is dependent on your prep.

 

[steveinak]

inside the house i think i'd sand it down as nice as possible and paint it with some of that home depot paint powderpro was talking about in another thread. Pick a satin or flat finish so it doesn't show the imperfections so bad. After sanding give it a good cleaning with castrol super clean then acetone, that should get rid of a lot of the wax i would think. Like travis sez its all in the prep work.

 

[MDI45]

Where are located.....Long Island ?

 

[Surfishingboy]

The boat is in my buddy's back yard in Centereach.

 

[Toolate]

Working on the same thing Surfish- I def dont want to sand/grind the interior of my cabin and all the chop mat texture off of everything though- too much work and the boat wasnt built to look like that IMO.

I am a little nervous about adhesion of the new paint in the shiny parts left after sanding (orbital/DA using 60 then 120) the textured surfaces on the interior and not sure how best to proceed. Is this what you mean? I see a little shine in your interior close up pic.

First Team- you said bare metal?

Cool boat.

 

[F/V First Team]

Hog out the chipped area and fill with something that won't absorb water. I suggest Rage, it's super effective.

As far as your forward cabin area, there's enough wax and other contaminants that trying to fair or paint over that will leave you with a spotty finish. Best just to sand it all and go from there. Doesn't have to be a massive sanding, just flash grind back to bare material.

A good finish is dependent on your prep.

material ≠ metal

 

[El Mar]

I used a 3 or 4" wire cup brush on a 4" grinder to clean out the weave of glue and old pain on a previous non DE boat I owned. Don't get a real aggressive one.

Made the weave look almost freshly laid and took paint well. I used Tile Clad HS from Sherwin Williams. A high solids Epoxy paint that wears like concrete.

Something about brushing on Latex paint on a boat doesn't seem right to me. I know a few guys here have with good success but I'm not a believer yet.

Sorry for the big image, but this is what I used in 3".

 

[jwalka51]

Buy a very aggressive sander. The one that I have is made by Bosch and cost about $400. You cannot get one like it at Home Depot or your local hardware store. You will need to go to a specialty power tool store. Then get 40 grit paper for it. With that sander and 40 grit paper you can have that cabin down to bare glass in about 4-5 hours. Then just gel coat it. You will have a great finish that will last a long time.

And that sander will also be a life saver when it comes time to strip the bottom of the boat. Truth is that if you are gonna own a boat and do your own glass and paint work you are crazy not to invest in one of these. I laugh my ass off everytime I see someone sanding the bottom of there boat with a regular orbital sander. I say no wonder most of these idiots pay someone to do it. They don't even know that they are using the wrong tool.

 

[Bill]

For the chips if your going over the washrails with perfection I would grind it out quickly to clean it out and use quikfair ( it's epoxy based,don't tell travis) , you can use perfection over epoxy based fairing compound if you use the perfection primer etc...

For the hull I would use flap disks on an angle grinder then go back with a random orbit sander and if you want to use poly fair depending on what your going to use for a finish ( i think gelcoat would look best)

 

[F/V First Team]

Damnit, been using the wrong tool this whole time!

 

[F/V First Team]

( it's epoxy based,don't tell travis)

EPOXY!!!!! *shakes fists in air* :-x:-x:-x

 

[jnoon]

Buy a very aggressive sander. The one that I have is made by Bosch and cost about $400. You cannot get one like it at Home Depot or your local hardware store. You will need to go to a specialty power tool store. Then get 40 grit paper for it. With that sander and 40 grit paper you can have that cabin down to bare glass in about 4-5 hours. Then just gel coat it. You will have a great finish that will last a long time.

And that sander will also be a life saver when it comes time to strip the bottom of the boat. Truth is that if you are gonna own a boat and do your own glass and paint work you are crazy not to invest in one of these. I laugh my ass off everytime I see someone sanding the bottom of there boat with a regular orbital sander. I say no wonder most of these idiots pay someone to do it. They don't even know that they are using the wrong tool.

Are you talking about a belt sander to do the bottom of the hull? I can't imagine using a heavy belt sander upside down under the boat.

 

[jwalka51]

It's not a belt sander. It looks like a random orbit sander but it also has a positive rotation. It's like a random orbit combined with a grinder I guess. When I went to the power tool guy and told him what I was doing he said that this tool was designed for difficult sanding jobs in the marine industry.

I'm telling you guys, on a scale of 1-10, a random orbit sander is a 1 and this thing is a 10 in effectiveness.

Before I bought it I had never seen one before. All my other boat friends, both commercial and martini were blown away by this thing, just like I was.

Let me put it like this, if you put a 40 grit pad on it, and hold the sander in one spot with steady pressure, it will go through 1/8" of gel coat it less that 20 seconds. I took 4-5 layers of bottom paint off the bottom of my 26 webber cove by myself in less than 4 hours. And that was down to bare gel coat

 

[jwalka51]

Surely you must own one of these Travis??? Don't you run a boat shop and do glass work, and paint work on a regular basis???

 

[F/V First Team]

I try, it's always been a palm sander for me though. Unless it's a really bad bottom, then the grinders come out, but we normally only do OEM stuff, bare gelcoat and the first bottom paint system installed. Only regular re-painting that I do is on my own boat and I would be pissed to find someone out there with 40 grit whacking away on those sweet curves.

I've seen reverse gravity assist systems which look really neat, but I don't have the open floor space for those.

Do you have an image of the unit you're talking about? Maybe I do have one back in the archives and just don't use it.

 

[jwalka51]

Go to bosches web site. But here's the model. It is a model 1250-DEVS eccentric orbit sander / polisher. Has 5x the stock removal of a random orbit sander. If you go to the website, it is listed under one of the two sander categories.

But trust me, this thing is amazing. You have to use it to believe it. If you do a lot of sanding/ fairing on a professional level you cannot afford not to own one of these. The first day of use will offset the cost of the unit by man hours saved.

I highly recommend that you and everyone else here who is serios about working on their boats here invest in one of these units.

After the first 15 minutes of using it you will say to yourself, " how the hell have I done this shit without one of these all my life."

Honestly I cannot praise the thing enough. And you guys won't understand till you try one.

 

[Surfishingboy]

Sounds good im going to look into it today. Thanks for the help

 

[CaptMissMac]

Or a Model Number may help.

I have used about a dozen different types of sanding tools from grinders to all brands of heavy duty random orbit sanders in all sizes imagineable. Last year I bought a $50 palm sander in Home Depot that works off an air compressor. I only have a 30 gallon tank on my portable air compressor which is just about bare minimum in size for this kind of work. But this palm sander is the absolute best sanding tool I ever used to remove multiple coats of gelcoat, paint and fiberglass! Less messy than a grinder doesn't fling all that nasty stuff around. I've done some pretty fair sized jobs where I had to sand gelcoat down to the bare glass fibers for a repair. Best tool I ever used. If you have a small compressor this might be the way to go.