Closing in on Fair Decks

[jhenson]

After several months of deck core work and fairing, including 10 sheet of core material, I am approaching deck paint. Unfortunately, I am also about to run out of suitable weather. The temperature this week will be in the 40’s.









I have re-arranged some other pictures of the work so far on my photo bucket site.

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h127/ ... 14/Aeolus/

Joe

[Tim]

You've been busy, sneakily working away down there with no fanfare. Looks like you've made good progress. Congrats!

[Quetzalsailor]

Looks great, Joe,

Your pics bring back 40 year old memories of preparing my '53 Studebaker for paint after finishing welding and filling patches at rust and other body damage. The next step on a car body is to spray 'sanding' primer and wet sand them out, continuing spraying, glazing and sanding until the wet surface gives good reflections. Sanding acoss fillers of different properties leaves ghosts (some fillers sand more readily than others) showing in the first coats of primer.

I do not recall folks talking about sanding primers on boat work. What's done under Awlgrip or similar marine topcoats?

(Working up to deck refinishing on Q)

[jhenson]

Thanks Tim.

What's done under Awlgrip or similar marine topcoats?

I guess the process is similar to prepping a car for paint, though with the compatible marine primer. I can’t say with any experience, since I now move into uncharted waters myself. I still have yet to resolve what paint system or color I will be using.

Joe

[georgefmys]

I'm at the same place as you with a project -have replaced all deck core and skin. Have been fairing with thickened West System[it's getting old fast]. The next step will be to roll on several heavy coats of 2-part epoxy primer.I use a product from Sherwin-Williams called epoxy-polyamide,comes in twin 5-gal pails and [I'm told] similar chemistry to Interprotect or Awlgrip 545-and it's cheap! Pros: its heavy so builds up better than 545-has wide overcoat times with no sanding-sands very well-seems to cure very well in cool weather. Cons:Believe it only comes in the 5-gal pails-only comes in gray[white would be nice]-andof course it's not an Awlgrip product...so we use it as high build primer and then spray 545 before applying topcoat. A neat trick I learned with fairing that works especially well on large deck areas is to mix a batch of this primer then slowly add colloidal silica [Cab-o-sil] until desired consistency. Plop it onto a scrap of plywood and spread with a soft, wide squeegee. Found this to feather out nicely -you can then roll another coat unthickened to seal any minor porosity. No amine blush to deal with either. Any topoating system should work over this ,though I would certainly re-prime with approved product . Use a foam roller on smooth surfaces to avoid adding texture.

[Zach]

I've been enjoying working with Awl Fair, awlgrips fairing compound... Mix it up and it doens't take on air, so you don't have pin holes in the filler. A drywall knife with a hard handle spreads it out thin enough that a little goes a real long way. Long, long pot life.


The coolest one I've learned lately, is using food coloring as the guide coat. Mix up with denatured alcohol, smear on... doesn't clog sandpaper, and when the rag drys out you dump in more alcohol. (kind of like boat builders.... grin.)

Zach