Phil Torrens wrote: >So it looks like I may have to re-gelcoat my venerable old kayak <<snip>> >1.Grind/dust/buff off the old gelcoat with a drill attachment and sanding disks. Check one of your local paint stores or rental shops to see if they have any random-orbital sanders for rent. It would be well worth $10 or 15 to use one of these babies to sand off your old gelcoat. They really do a nice, smooth job, while still sanding qretty aggressively. >2. Prep the surface with a wipe down of MEK (methyl ethyl ketone). If you don't want to use Nasty Stuff like MEK, you could wash it down with a hose and an old rag to get all the sanding dust off. With a thoroughly sanded hull, you shouldn't have any bonding problems. Make sure your work area is warm enough to allow the gelcoat to cure. It's also slightly stinky, so make sure it's relatively well-ventilated, or that you can get out of the area while it's curing. >A couple of questions: I read suggestions that putting a layer of Saran Wrap >over the gelcoat will keep it from curing too quickly, and make it more >durable. Saran wrap is a good cover for a repair, but it will, like you said, leave whorls and wrinkles if you use it all over the boat. If it's warm enough, an overnight cure would be long enough to mask off a lower gelcoat area and move to the upper area. As for "factory smoothness" you can put on an adequate layer of gelcoat with the brush, and then use 200-grit and progressively finer sandpapers to get to a really smooth finish. You could even buff after the final sanding. Shawn -- Shawn W. Baker 0 46°53'N © 1999 ____©/______ 114°06'W ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ baker_at_montana.com 0 http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jan 05 2000 - 07:29:26 PST
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