Charlie's Superboat resto

[CharlieN]

The way I read the deck failure is the lifeline bases were never sealed letting water in for decades. The railing around the pit has a recent sealant applied to it. That area is not wet but is also up high and under the cover.

The balsa is full of water, the inner glass skin was a dry layup with a loose fill cloth. The samples I cut out could be used as window screen.
Once the deck delaminated it collapsed allowing the area to pond, this water soaking the carpet and filling the front bilge.
From what I am told very few of these were carpeted up front. This one will not be when it returns to life.

[Coryc]

Yeah I wouldn't put anything back up there. Then again it probably wouldn't hurt to have some weight up front. That's what I figured about the lifeline bases not being sealed. Did you check out the stringers yet? How's the paint etc?

[CharlieN]

Visually the stringers look good. I have not tested beyond visual yet. The front tank bulkhead is also visually good.
The rear tank bulkhead has many screw holes near the top rear face that scare me, they are dark in color. But as you commented on the dark appearance this thing looks like an inboard that had a leaky motor, it is filthy back there. The hull I have tapped on inside and out, not found anything that scares me yet.

The exterior needs full paint. The bottom has some minor gouges, it sat in the South Shore long Island salt for a year or two and has bottom growth, so till that get cleaned off the truth will not be known.
The hull sides and top deck show allot of stress. It looks like a thin gel which is nice in that all the stress cracks are shallow and should blend over with paint. I expect there are many here with experience on what is needed for paint prep. I will be going with Imron or Awlgrip, I prefer Imron. May look at other systems as well.

I will be mounting the hull on my rotisserie when it comes to refinishing it. I have had many cars and a number of aircraft on it but this will be the first boat since my Glastron can not mount up to the stern due to the hull extensions.

[Coryc]

As far as paint prep your gonna wanna sand the whole thing down. Then spray high build primer on it. At that point you sand the high build with 220 on a d/a. At this point is when your gonna wanna fill any holes with filler. Then go back and sand that down smooth. UV lighting works well for high build and provides great visibility. Once everything is sanded smooth and everything is filled clean the boat off extremely well and your ready for your second coat of primer. This will be a coat of epoxy primer. Epoxy primer takes longer to set than high build primer and unlike high build you need more than good lighting to sand it smooth. The proper way to sand epoxy primer is to spray low spot finder over the entire boat. It acts as a black "dust" and gets down in all the low spots of the primer. You then sand with a D/A and no less than 320. When the black low spot remover is gone in the area you are sanding the. Your done sanding in that area and move on to the next. Paint is all in prep and this step specifically will determine the finish on the boat.

[CharlieN]

For the initial sanding of the oxidized surface is that an 80 grit or 180 type job?

[Coryc]

180, maybe even 220. You don't want to go to rough because then you will need to lay such a thick layer of high build to fill it in.

[CharlieN]

Thank you for all this, although I have sprayed many gallons of Imron in the past it has all been aircraft which after stripping was just a wash with MEK a conversion with Alodine then coat of Variprime followed by paint.
The actual make things smooth I have done little of and I need to get up to speed with. I kind of got a laugh last year since I had not sprayed anything in a long time and once i got working with my old Optima gun I forgot how much I like to paint. The world of materials have sure changed over the years.

[Coryc]

Nicee, well if ya need any other info or pics to show you. Pm me I can give you my # and help you out with what you need. I also am completely redoing a 21' Superboat and really have made it a beast.

[OFFSHORE GINGER]

Hey guy in the past Imron has always been an all time favorite for me also , and to tell you the truth as mentioned above ( sanding with just a D.A. ) is not the best way to go depending on just how flat ( no waves ) you really would like the surface to look like because long boarding can , and will make a very big difference , and not to mention that the longer the board weather it be machine or hand the straighter the surface .

[OFFSHORE GINGER]

Quick note , prior to what was mentioned in post # 19 i would suggest using Dura -Tec 's high build primer which can be sprayed up to 50 mill's wet on wet and basically filling everything in ( low spots , pits , holes , ) prior to primer along with using a guide coat ( Dry or Spray ) to find those low spots that need to be fillied with filler .

[CharlieN]

I have both hand & air long boards, a few of each so I can have different grit. I also have LONG boards, 3' and 4' both flexible and stiff that I used the rolls of long board paper with I also have convex surface boards as well as many shaped foam blocks. These were used when building composite aircraft back in the '80s. We did not use high build primers, the structure had to be right. Those were rewarding and fun times.
Since the beginning of the'90s I have been building road race and rally cars. Only painting I have done has been the inner structure, I left all exterior "make it pretty work" to those much more efficient than me.

[CharlieN]

For the guide coat, is that still a lacquer rattle can or I expect this has evolved as well?

[Coryc]

Yup comes in a rattle can, I didn't mention the hand sanding/ longboard because quite honestly you seem like you have some experience and didn't feel I needed to tell ya that. haha

[Coryc]

IMO its pointless to use guide coat on high build primer because your only gonna be spraying an epoxy primer over that. The Epoxy primer is what you want to make nice and uniform. That's what your gonna spray basecoat over. The High build acts as a first step and is where you want to fill any holes. by holes im not talking low spots in the primer, im talking screw holes, holes from railings, etc. You take a more aggressive approach to it.

[CharlieN]

I expected any hole filling would be with resin and flox or micro balloons before the sanding started.