New projects in the shed.

[Rip it up]

Just a little update of the latest projects in my shed.

Seat extension. Old Gelcoat molded cruisecraft seat. Cut and widened to suit a fuller figured Australian bum.








And a 16ft runabout conversion from windscreen to walkthrough wavebreaker.

Initial stages at the moment but will get full respray when completed.
Gutted of all dash area.



All cut out with bulkheads underneath for support.




Current progress on the screen.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[brett62]

Mate can see you have done this few times. Looks great.

I know who to ask about glass work now LOL

I have a few bits to do. I have a little repair to do where the paint stripper removed some of the gel coat below the water line (removing anti foul). I was told to use gel coat and not flow coat below the water line. Can you confirm if that is correct.

[Rip it up]

Gelcoat versus flowcoat is minimal difference.

Gelcoat is pigmented resin with uv stabilisers to project from the sun. This naturally is used in female molds to produce the external surface then remain tacky on the inside to allow the first layer of glass to chemically bond.

Flowcoat is simply gelcoat with a wax additive to allow it the cure to a hard surface when used on repairs or fabricated parts. You can get spraying or brushing gelcoat/flowcoat. It simply gets a "thickening" agent to make it brush better and less sag. You can turn gelcoat into flowcoat with a wax in styrene additive purchased from resin supply shop. It is often done.

Those seats for example, I used a 4L tin of white gelcoat and a little yellow oxide auto shop tint to colour match to the old seat (which was only polished not resprayed.) when the colour was good in a 1L batch I separated it into two 500ml batches. Left one as spraying gelcoat and put it through a 2.4mm HVLP gun. And hit the seat with 2 coats. Then a day later I added 3% wax to the other batch and sprayed the now "flowcoat" over the tacky gelcoat surface to get a decent thickness.

So my recommendation is use a manufacturers flowcoat. Or make your own with gelcoat and wax. It's cheaper to buy brush flowcoat in a 1L can and just get it done without the chemistry mixing.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair shop.

[FisHard]

I reckon leave the wave breaker as timber grain and clear coat it!

[brett62]

Thanks Damo for that information. Look forward to more photos as you progress with the projects.

Gelcoat versus flowcoat is minimal difference.

Gelcoat is pigmented resin with uv stabilisers to project from the sun. This naturally is used in female molds to produce the external surface then remain tacky on the inside to allow the first layer of glass to chemically bond.

Flowcoat is simply gelcoat with a wax additive to allow it the cure to a hard surface when used on repairs or fabricated parts. You can get spraying or brushing gelcoat/flowcoat. It simply gets a "thickening" agent to make it brush better and less sag. You can turn gelcoat into flowcoat with a wax in styrene additive purchased from resin supply shop. It is often done.

Those seats for example, I used a 4L tin of white gelcoat and a little yellow oxide auto shop tint to colour match to the old seat (which was only polished not resprayed.) when the colour was good in a 1L batch I separated it into two 500ml batches. Left one as spraying gelcoat and put it through a 2.4mm HVLP gun. And hit the seat with 2 coats. Then a day later I added 3% wax to the other batch and sprayed the now "flowcoat" over the tacky gelcoat surface to get a decent thickness.

So my recommendation is use a manufacturers flowcoat. Or make your own with gelcoat and wax. It's cheaper to buy brush flowcoat in a 1L can and just get it done without the chemistry mixing.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair shop.