67 SN Resto/Mod rev. 2

there are several

8122pbrainard wrote: TRBenj wrote: It's not your age, it's just poor taste.. I wasn't going to say anything and keep my mouth shut but now that you mentioned it, it's my thoughts exactly. I do at times try to be tactful!

Or maybe it's my young sense of smell that still works!

Good to hear from you Mike! A few weeks ago I was reading your original posts back when you picked this boat up (2009). I had to laugh when you mentioned your original plans for the hull after plucking a few items off of it.

WakeSlayer wrote: It needs stingers badly, lots of hull work, and all the usual stuff a neglected 41 year old boat needs. I was going to part out and make a flower bed out of it, but my addiction to these boats makes that impossible.

That would've saved me a ton of time and $$$!

So the SAN is sold? Someone got an awesome and pretty rare boat with the 502.   

Still moving forward on the SN. Progress has been real slow as of late with boating season in full swing.

As a recap, I was having a terrible time with the VE mixed with USC fairing compound. It wasn't ever curing. Maybe I just wasn't getting the MEKP mixed in good enough, I'm not sure. Regardless, I went a different route and bought some 3M premium marine filler. This is basically a VE version of Bondo. I bought a gallon of it and went to work. It was much easier to work with and set up very quickly. Sanding it was a bit harder than Bondo but not terrible. After numerous hours of mixing, spreading, and sanding I finally got the bottom and both hull sides finished (or at least what I thought was finished).

You can see pretty clearly I butchered this thing up pretty bad when I was grinding off the gel. I would've never thought I was gouging the glass like this, but it was bad. Oh well, that's why there's fairing compound.

The white spots are the 3m Filler, the real dark brown spots are the USC fairing compound.











I decided to use one more step in the fairing process and bought some Duratec VE Fairing Primer. This probably isn't necessary if you're 100% confident you have the hull fair. However, this is the first time (and last ) I've ever done this so I thought the extra insurance was worth it.

The Duratec VE fairing primer can be sprayed on which is what I chose to do. I used a HVLP gun at about 35-40psi line pressure with a 2.5mm tip. Duratec recommends 3.0-3.5mm tips for this primer, but the 2.5mm was the largest available for my gun. The garage was just about 74°F, and I was able to mixed 500g batches at a time without any issue of it starting to kick in the gun. I thinned the batches with 10% MEK. You can build this stuff up pretty thick if you choose to, but since the majority of the fairing was already complete, I was just using this as a final fairing coat.






I was able to sand this within 2 hrs and this stuff sands super easy. I've already found some spots that will need some more attention, primarily around the rubrail inside radius.

Once that is all complete, my next step will be using Duratec's VE Primer. This will be followed by Gel. This re-gel has been brutal, but I'm trying to just take it as it comes and make sure I'm not rushing through it and hopefully I'll be happy with the results.

wow plus 1   

Sorry, I did not knowingly post that rotten wood photo.

Wow my back hurts just looking at the pictures! Awesome work.

Are you sanding by hand? If so, don't worry- I hear finger prints eventually grow back.

Have you decided on a color yet?

TRBenj wrote: Wow my back hurts just looking at the pictures! Awesome work. Are you sanding by hand? If so, don't worry- I hear finger prints eventually grow back. Have you decided on a color yet?

99% of the sanding has been by hand with Dura-Blocks. Occasionally I would use the inline or DA to knock down a high spot right after applying the compound. The Dura-Blocks are pretty nice but yeah, I'm way over the sanding portion even though I still have a lot to do .

The color will be the original Powder Blue, or as close as I can come to matching it. You could say it's for the sake of keeping it exactly original, but I actually like that color the best anyway so that's what it's going to be.

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Started winter #3 with some more fairing around the inside radius just below the rub rail and then I was finally to a point where I was satisfied and ready to put down the final primer. One thing I have learned is how much easier PE/VE resins are to work with if you just give them some heat. Most labels I've seen say 60+ degrees and you're fine. I've found that even 70 doesn't quite set up fast enough to work with within the same day. Once I started getting the garage up to around 75, things went much smoother.

I used Duratec's VE primer with the same hvlp that I used before with the 2.5mm nozzle. Line pressure was around 38-40psi. I mixed 700g of primer with 2% MEKP and added about 8-10% of MEK to thin. I was able to spray that within about 10 minutes and never had an issue with it starting to kick in the gun. I bought 1 gallon but should have got 2. I used up the whole gallon just for the bottom and sides.

This primer laid down much smoother than the fairing primer. I did discover several pin holes that were visible after covering the boat with one color. I will fill these spots, give the whole boat another light longboard sanding, then I will be ready to gel. I feel like I'm comfortable shooting the resins so hopefully it goes well.

Pictures to follow.

Wow Craig! Are you planning on shooting the gel soon before it gets too cold out? How many gallons of gel do you think you will need?

Gary, the plan is to shoot the gel this upcoming weekend. The garage is heated/insulated so even if the temps drop I think I can get it up to 75° no problem.

I bought 5 gallons of gel and was hoping to do the whole boat with it. I think it should certainly be enough to do the bottom/sides.

I was a little to optimistic about how soon I would be shooting earlier this year and I went ahead and bought the gel back in February.... I know there is a shelf life and I tried to protect against that by spray some of that "Bloxygen" in the container to help preserve it. I am going to test shoot a scrap piece of wood or something and make sure it cures OK. I am certainly going to use fresh MEKP. Anyone have any horror stories about older gel that might make me think twice about it?

C-Bass wrote: I know there is a shelf life and I tried to protect against that by spray some of that "Bloxygen" in the container to help preserve it.

Craig,
Do you have ether a TIG or MIG (gas and not flux core) welder? I do and use the gas to protect all my finishes that may oxidize during storage. The Bloxygen is good but pretty pricey and welding gas very reasonable,

This will be one of the nicest ones out there ,,,,, Great work keep posting the awesome photos.

Wrapped up spraying the gel last night. Took about 6 hours of spraying, after which I was ready to ditch the respirator. I am pretty relieved as this was certainly a major milestone. This continues to be a learning process, and I definitely learned a few things about spraying gel:

#1. Even if you think your color match is right on the money, it will change once you mix it in with the "neutral" gelcoat. I had it matched exactly like the original powder blue, but once I mixed in the 20+ oz's of tint into the 5 gallon pale of neutral gel, it changed. So I scrambled to work back towards the original color but definitely did not achieve it. However, I just had to remind myself that I still like the color, and nobody outside of this forum will know what the original color is anyway...so who cares.

#2 Just because everything you've sprayed to this point (Duratec VE primers) needed 2% MEKP, that does not mean that the gel (US Composites) needs 2% MEKP. Cleaning out a HVLP that has gel starting to kick is not fun. Watching the rest of the gel boil in a container is kind of cool though.

#3 Duratec Hi-gloss additive is worth the money. If anyone is even thinking about spraying gel, I would highly recommend it. It extends the pot life, it thins the gel so it's easier to spray, it lets the gel flow better (less orange peel), and it allows for air cure without wax (although I did add wax for maximum hardness, per Fibreglast's advice.)



#4. You need a lot of acetone, I had 1-1/2 gallons of acetone and I almost ran out just on this spray alone, and all I was using it for was cleaning the gun out. I lost count but I mixed up & sprayed just over 20 batches of gel. Everyone of those is followed by a thorough cleaning of the gun, or you will have problems.

#5. You should take time to get the boat into a comfortable working position. After spraying for 5+ hours, I really wish the boat was a little lower to the ground. Trying to reach the keel while holding the gun full of gel, and not touching the side of the boat, got old fast.

I'm sure there are other things I've learned as well (like just pay to have someone do this for you ), but all in all, I am happy with how it turned out so far. The color in the pictures is a little misleading, so I will just say it is light blue. Obviously I have to start sanding it down now and hopefully I don't find out I'm too thin.

First off Craig,looking great. 2nd is your garage connected to the house,if so your wife is going to kill you Looking at the last couple of photos it looks like the boat is all the way down on the ground already,I'll bet it was quite the workout.I assume the "old" gel turned out ok? What gun did you use,got a picture and tip size? I used the Duratec on some console parts after the main part was done,it leaves a funny looking sheen on the part,which I can see in your pictures but sure smooths it out better. I never sanded or buffed those parts though because they were inside and I just wanted it done to cover the old color. I'm sure it will make a difference in your sanding project. Once again great job!