Painting the floor of my vector

[fredsav]

What a disaster!!!! Removed , what seems to be the original carpet, and found only fiberglass. Therefore, decided to gelcoat it white. It will not cure... only small portions while harden and curl up on the edges. It's a mess. Has anybody had this happen to them? After many coats and mess, and removing with acetone and grinders, the floor is almost finished. Started on the sides and it's doing the same. The only thing the distributer and I could come up with is that the carpet glue is stopping the resin from curing. Any Ideas? I've been at this for over two weeks and used 2.5 gallons of gelcoat. Just a little frustrated..

[Techno]

Is it warm enough for it to cure? Is there a large night time temp drop? I'm thinking the curling might be from the last.

[fredsav]

Temp. is avg. 65 in there but, have kept it up to 72 since the problem began. Also have covered the boat and placed a ceramic heat before and after application. No Luck. Have found that the only thing that works now is to scrape off what Gelcoat I can and apply a good coat of pure resin with Microspheres, or microballons. This will harden so that I can sand it flat and start applying new gelcoat . Otherwise, it will not cure. The distributer does not understand why the resin mix will cure, but not the Gelcoat????

[Wile E. Coyote]

Gel Coat will not harden in outside air, you need to insulate it from the air. They sell a surfacing agent or wax that you mix in with the gel coat before you mix the catalyst. then roll or brush (or both) on. If your spyraing it there are other additives to help with the spraying. Clean the surface really good with acetone before you begin, as with all jobs surface preparation is the key. Wipe wet acetone on the surface and look for fisheyes or other discontinuities, it should wipe on smooth and evaporate at a constant rate leaving the base glass all one relatively similar color. Mix small batches and work small areas. The bigger the batch, the smaller the pot life.
Bill

[FCnLa]

You can add a parafin wax solution to the gel and it will be dry to the touch after it cures. You can also add a little resin to the gel too. This is what we call flow coat. That makes it thin enough that when shot out of a gun, it will flow out reasonably well.

Did you stir the gel up real good? Some of that stuff sits on the shelf for a long time.....

Good luck.:)

[sho305]

My friend knew a guy that worked at a boat manufacturer, and asked him what to use to paint his bilge and some other areas. He got a 5 gallon pail of stuff and he just painted it on with a brush. It stunk real bad, flowed out good, and was not mixed with anything. He gave him the rest back when done. Don't know what it was, but he said it was gelcoat and they used it on new boats. I asked him about catylist, and he said no. It looked good.

[Liqui-Fly]

It could be the air. If you haven't ruined it yet spray some PVA over the top of it and see what happens. Or cover with wax paper. It won't cure all that nice looking but it will give you a base to try again.

David

[sho305]

The suspense grows.....



What happened???

[fredsav]

End result was 2.75 gallons of gelcoat and half gallon of resin mixed with microballons ( or microspheres). So much for making the boat lighter and cleaner... Surface prep is the key, as stated by someone before. I have had enough experience( well almost enough) with fiberglass that this should not have been a problem. But, there was something, not mixing, not temp. There was either glue residue, a sealant, or epoxy reaction that I could not account for. Strange, but glad it's over. Thanks for the opinions and will post a pic if possible.