Reply To: Boat Maintenance
Hi Graham,
Funny old thing, but the first question in my mind for 1835 is very similar! The ply on the deck is cosmetically not too good, but not so bad it’s delaminated. My plan is to remove the varnish that’s left with a hot air gun, but I’m going to try it first on a patch near one of the cockpit inspection hatches. I’m pretty sure the wood won’t get so hot as to affect the underside of the deck, but I want to be certain. Failing that, I thought I’d use a fairly coarse sand paper (probably aluminium oxide) to sand the varnish remnants off, but with a fair bit of caution so as not to remove too much of the ply.
I’ve got a couple of small repairs to do to the deck, but then the plan is a relatively light sanding job, epoxy coat, second sand, second epoxy coat followed by a very fine sand to prepare for paint while leaving a good epoxy coat. At the moment I’m planning to use 2 pack paint, but I haven’t decided for sure.
My intention is to get a good finish that’s durable and won’t need much maintenance. The epoxy coatings are possibly a bit overkill, but I have a big box of west system in the garage bought a few years ago for another project, never used and is now sliding past its sell by date. I used epoxy coating with UV varnish on top on a new boat some time ago and it lasted extremely well (10+ years light use living outside under a cover), but I also used it to renovate an old boat and it was not so successful. Within a year it seemed to lift much like varnish can. I suspect it may just have been a bit cold when I applied the epoxy, but I also wonder whether the previous varnish meant the epoxy did not bond so well with the wood.
So I too would appreciate any lessons from previous experience on removing old varnish and preparing for paint. Any comments on using an epoxy coat, was paint more durable than varnish, etc? I’ve also wondered about getting carried away and adding a surprising amount of weight, hence I’m going to try to keep a record of the weight of the hull right from when I get it into the garage.
Like Graham, thanks in advance for any advice offered.
