Blisters Help!!!

SGTLaser

SGTLaser

New Member
Hey everbody, I have a problem. About 200 of them. Any thoughts on what to do? They are about the sive of the tip of your little finger. I ground out one side, but I was woundering if I should even bother with the other side. They only go down throught the first layer of glass and they are all dry. Any thoughts would be helpful
 
Wow. Was the boat left in the water for an extended period of time or was the hull left full of water?

May not be worth messing with at all depending on how you plan to use the boat. If you are considering racing I'd say deal w/them, but if no then ignore them.
 
As far as I know, the boat was out of the water. As soon as I can get the pics to go through I'll get them up. I decided since I had a day off work, to grind them out and fill them. what a pain in the a@#. Since I'll be racing, I figured I would take your advice. Just goes to show you that if you buy a 300 dollar boat, that's exactly what you get. Maybe one more trip overseas and I can convince the wife to let me get a new one.
 
If they are 1/16" or less in depth you can fill them with just gelcoat since that is probably what you removed. Go to West Marine and get some resin and hardner and a color kit. Mix it up to match the color as close as possible, patch and cover with wax paper and tape until the patch gets hard. The wax paper trick will minimize any sanding needed.
 
let's try again
 

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OMG........................That's waaaaaaayyy beyond what I invisioned. Honestly, I'm not sure she can be brought back to racing form. Weight would be my big concern at this point. You need to keep the finished hull within a few pounds of 130.
 
I think that I'll be able to do that. The filler that I'm using from Polyguard is pretty light. I also sanded off a good bit of the old gelcoat trying to pop the blisters. But my plan is to try to regelcoat the hull of the boat. But if the weight gets to be to much, have you ever heard of someone using AWLGRIP for the hull of their boat. I have acsess to the materials for free, but I don't know if it will hold up well under water.
 
awlgrip is good it stiffens your boat cause i think there is some gelcoat in it i havent used it on my laser but my dad does on his pearson 35
 
Yikes!

I'm not sure what you need is advice, more like encouragement to complete a big job you've started.

It feels good to bring an old boat back to life and sailing trim.

Don't worry about going for perfect, just wrestle the job to the ground so you can get it sailing again.

I can't imagine what caused it to get that way in the first place, but if I were you I'd take extra care after you're done to keep water out of the thing. Check for leaks. Store it out of the rain if you can. Make sure to drain thoroughly after sailing.
 
Press lightly and use sharp sandpaper.
That filler job is going to be awfully difficult to sand back to a nice fair surface.

You will probably need to prime the boat and sand it at least once or three times to get it back to fair. Don't use the Awlgrip Hi Build primer. It shrinks in the summer heat and shows all the imperfections it was supposed to fill.

Using Awlgrip?
I would sand the filler as well as I could, prime with Awlgrip 545 Primer and then spray on the topcoat.
If you are not experienced with two package urethane paint...find a painter who is and bribe him sufficiently to be your paint spraying hero....Anybody who works on car bodies and does good work there can read the diretions and do a kick as job with Awlgrip.

If I were doing it I would use gelcoat as both the primer and topcoat and get it done in one step.... but you have already done a whole lotta stuff that I would never ever have done the same way.

The comments above are like an answer to: "The fleet has already rounded the weather mark and you ar halfway up the weather leg. What next.....?"
I would go ahead and continue in the race hoping to either catch somebody or maybe catch a couple good waves.

Keep working on it...In a few weeks it will be finished and pretty... well worth the effort.
 
Well, here is the latest info. I got all the blisters filled. Ended up using 3M Vinylester to fair it out, and currently on the third coat of gelcoat. It's starting to take shape very well. got more pics, will post soon. Thought about using Awlgrip cause I had a bunch left over from other jobs, But I think the gelcoat helped to fair out the boat, and it will last longer.
 
here's the pic's
 

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Just in case any one was wondering what the finished product looked like.
 

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Excellent job. I like the stripe. It reminds me of the old 12 meter "Canada". I'm sure this boat will be much faster!

From the early pictures this boat was pretty far gone. How does the deck look?
 
Doesn't look bad, but it's really soft. I have a race on the next weekend, so I'll have to wait for a break so I can get that done. I'll be sure to send pics again.
 
Fantastic results from a lot of hard work, congrats..

It would be really great if you shared some of your steps, such as what type of gun and nozzle size you sprayed with, if you thinned the gelcoat (and with what if you did), power or hand sanding, and what your method of polishing was to bring up the shine.
 
In a nut shell here is everything that I did.
1. Sand the hull down with 120 or 80 grit paper. I had paint on the bottom of mine, so that had to go.
2. Fix any imperfections that you can see. For exaple, the boat was appartently hit hard in three different spots, visible by the stress cracks that I saw. They go in a circle around the point of impact. I ground those out with a grinder and 36 grit grinding wheel. dish them out enough to allow the new glass room. then glass it and fair it. just get it close as you can to the right shape. the blisters that I had I just ground out and faired, no glass needed.
3. Wipe with actone. and get ready to shoot gelcoat.
4. the gelcoat that I used was Polyguard white with wax added. I thined it out with fast patch, for every quart that I shot, I put about 75% gelcoat, 20% Fastpatch, 5% actone. Then ad the mekp. bout a 1/4 oz per quart. The gun that I used was a 15 dollar Harbor frieght siphon feed. It did alright, but created a lot of overspray, looking back now, I would spend the extra money and get a hvlp gun. whatever you use make sure that it can feed it. even thined out it was thick.
5. Spray. don't try to put it on too thick. I did lots of thin coats, it takes a little over 2 quarts to cover the hull. so we just sprayed a coat and by the time that we were done, the spot that we started on was tacked up enough for another coat. try to get as much gelcoat on the bow and the edges as possible. this is were we burnt though finishing.
6. after it cures, about a day if you do it right, wipe with acetone and start sanding. if it is on pretty smooth, start with 400 grit. if not, try 320 or even 220. use a pencil to mark the whole boat before you start, easier to keep track of what you did. so, what we did was sand with 400, 800, 1000. then buffed with 3m hi gloss gelcoat compound.
7. boot stripe was primed with awlgrip 545 primer and sprayed with sunfast red. Gun was Lowes Kobalt gravity feed . $33 well spent. Asome gun.

Things not to do!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't use spraypaint to serve as a guide coat. It gums up the paper and kakes sanding a pain.
We also tried to use west marine finishing gelcoat, and had very bad results with it. My suggestion, stick to the polyguard. better product and way cheaper. (ebay, $51 per gallon shipped.

Machined sanded all grits exp 400, long board that one and you should end up with a good boat.
 
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