Continuing with hull repairs for SMEDLEY, we built up 4 oz fiberglass cloth to lay over the internal backer patches. We used about 4 layers of cloth per hole, with the idea to leave some room for fairing compound and then gelcoat to add to the thickness, hoping to arrive with a new surface that is flush with the original hull surface. We used TotalBoat THIXO Fast Cure thickened epoxy adhesive to wet out the cloth along with TotalBoat THIXO PRO to add some thickness to the new patch. Why Fast Cure? Because that is what we had. I would have preferred THIXO Low Viscosity to wet out the cloth layers, but we didn't have any.
Log of SMEDLEY.
As it turned out, the Fast Cure does tack up within minutes, which is not a bad thing when working on curved surfaces. We like thickened epoxies, they fill gaps and stay in place, unlike a thin, "straight" epoxy that can run down the side of a hole or out of a crack.
We laid out the 4 layers and wet them out. It is important to get the cloth completely soaked with resin, as any dry spots will fail or trap water at later dates.
Where we had installed internal backer patches earlier, we smoothed on a layer of THIXO PRO.
When the epoxy soaks in, the cloth will change appearance, it will be semi transparent.
We also smoothed a bit of THIXO PRO into the seam of the trial patch area. We like how we were able to make a repair inside and then reuse the cutout for the access hole. This are will need very little fairing and only a small amount of gelcoat.
SMall amout of THIXO PRO to smooth out some notches.
We had planned to paint over the repairs with epoxy based paint, but changed our mind to try a gelcoat coating, as per original factory design. Gelcoat is a polyester based system, think of it it as a thicker, harder paint. But polyester based systems will not stick to epoxy. The way we will get around that is by using a primer over the repair areas that works with both polyester and epoxy, the primer will act as a "bridge" between the two coating sytsems.
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Log of SMEDLEY.
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