Durabak #2

We have all but finished applying the durabak to the flooring and top cap, and we still have 2 gal. left..so we are looking at doing the interior side walls, some other spots and we are sure that there are some sections of the floor that will need another coat. I have to say that I am impressed with the tenacity of the product and how tough it seems to this point. Here da pics:

Top Side and Durabak

Since the last post we have sanded, primed again, sanded, rolled-n-tipped a top coat, sanded, and rolled-n-tipped a second coat of top coat. For a couple of skeptics, that method has really impressed us with the finish that we got. Our only regret is that we rolled and tipped the primer horizontally.

The vertical roll-n-tip method left us with a great result, especially for two guys doing a project boat...

The last thing that we did was to apply the first of two coats of durabak to the flooring and to choice spots on the top, side caps and dash. This stuff is thick, and I recommend thinning it very slightly (product allows upto 15% but we did about 5%). Thinning it, allowed the stuff to be more workable, we noticed that as the pot life expired, the roller would tend to "pull strands" as you went and these were getting onto spots that we did not want, so a little xylene and it was gone. One other recommendation is to pull the tape while the durabak is still pretty wet (5-10 minutes). Here are the pics:
(that is a reflection of a barrel, 10ft away, on the side)


Before we durabak'd it:

After:

1st coat of Primer

We spent about 16 hours sanding this weekend. We started on the bottom paint with sandblaster grinder pads, respirators, goggles and tyvex suits...Laying on your back roughing off bottom paint in August in NC is not a job I would send a resume in for. But we did it, up to the point where the trailer stopped us. Then we switched to sanding out all of the patched spots...Next came an air down, then we liberally rinsed the beast and re-tested the drainage for the entire boat, including the cuddy.

Acetone wipe down, then thinner solvent wipe down and primer. We actually rolled and tipped the primer, to hopefully save ourselves a little sanding time later.

Here are the pics (b4 and afters):

the spotty bottom paint still looks great! : )





we still have some sanding to do.