Top side fiberglass repairs and preparations for painting
The plan right now is to finish the deck repairs and removal of all of the hardware in preparation for a paint job using awl grip paint before the end of fall. Anne has removed most of the hardware and I am doing fiberglass repair and fairing. There were a lot of holes and cracks where water was seeping in. I figured the best way to deal with this problem would be to re-fiberglass everything around the cockpit sole, fair out everything and paint it. Then cut through and install the new instrument gauges and engine control systems.
Everything was removed
I picked up some books on fiberglass repair. One entitled ''The Fiberglass Boat Repair Manual'' by Allan H. Vaitses I found useful as background on how a boat is built and it contains good inside tips on various repairs. The other books I purchased were the various editions by West System. They are good for technical applications of fiberglass repair. One of the greatest websites I found on complete boat restoration with many tips available is: www.triton381.com The author of this website has wonderfully written and illustrated his two year project on the restoration of a Triton sailboat. Other websites I found useful are the Gougeon Brothers, Inc www.westsystem.com .
August 2004
The first step was to clean up the surfaces to be repaired with acetone solvent. I purchased a Hitachi grinder and bought some 36 grit sanding disks and started grinding out a beveled surface around the holes I was repairing. The beveled area was 12 times larger than the thickness of the fiberglass I was grinding. Once I finished grinding I vacuumed up all of the glass dust and re-cleaned the ground surface with acetone again. I used Coosa board panels for the laminated fiberglass backing. This material is lightweight, strong and waterproof. I laminated starting with two pieces of matt alternating roven and matt until I leveled it out with the existing panel. I ended my lamination with two pieces of matt. I precut the pieces starting with my matt fiberglass the same size as the beveled opening and making each piece progressively smaller. I finished up with a piece of release fabric firmly squeegee over the entire repair. Each piece of fiberglass was thoroughly wetted out with properly mixed West System epoxy using a slow hardener. After the epoxy kicked I removed the release fabric, this gave me a smooth surface to fair over.
Grinder with 36 grit disk
**Protective equipment and clothing is a must when grinding fiberglass.
The next day I came back and sanded the repaired area smooth using 60 grit paper. I cleaned vacuumed and washed the surface with Interlux 216 solvent and faired the surface using at West System epoxy mixed with 410 microlite. I had some trouble working with the West System product. It was a definite learning curve. The mixing had to be just right. Too little 410 and the fairing compound would run. The mixing pot would also heat up very quickly as I thickened the mixture with the 410. I remedied both problems by adding more 410 and mixed the fairing compound on a flat board. Spreading the fairing compound out slowed down the exothermic heating of the mixture giving me more time to fair out the surfaces.
Sanding the surface down also took up some time. Starting with 60 grit I worked down to 220 grit. I also had to go back and re-fair the repair anywhere from 3 to 4 times before I was happy with the job. Later on someone told me about Awl-Fair made by US Paint, the same company that makes Awl grip paint. It comes in two cans, fairing compound base and converter. I bought some and found it easy to mix, went on easy two coats usually does it and sanded great! I'm now using Awl-Fair for the larger repair jobs above the water line.
Various stages of fiberglass repairs.
After removing all of the hardware on the deck we found many small holes where cleats were moved and holes where sealed with I believe marine tex. Before we started work on the deck Anne had mapped it out with drawings and notes and I took many pictures of the deck. We decided to fill and fair everything with West System epoxy mixed with 407/410 fairing fillers. We wanted to make sure that the deck was watertight. The deck is remarkably solid for being 34 years old. I have checked out the core material at cutout sections for vents and ports and found minimal damage to the core material. If I did find any damage to core material in these openings I injected epoxy mixed with 403 high density filler into the damaged or voided areas. On top of the cabin there where two small spinnaker winches mounted using stainless sheet metal screws. One of the winches apparently held with the original four screws, while the starboard side winch had been re-seated many times by the amount of holes I found filled in under the winch. I drilled out all of the holes and found most of the core material was gone just under where the winch was mounted. I injected four cups of epoxy mixed with 403 filler and filled the void up. When I remount the spinnaker winches I will drill through to the inside of the cabin and bolt the winches in with backer plates and bond them in with epoxy. Some of the hardware holes where drilled through the deck and the hardware was bolted on from under the deck. We filled these holes in with foam soaked in epoxy and pushed into the hole. After the epoxies cures I will sand the plugs down and paint over them. When we remount the hardware I will drill through the same holes locating them from underneath the deck.
Anne filling in through deck holes with foam soaked in epoxy, each hole was drilled out and cleaned with acetone. Deck fairing with 407/410 filler.
Various stages of deck fairing
October 18, 2004
Most of the deck fairing and sanding is just about complete. I did go back to the west system for topside fairing. When we decided to fill in all of the small holes created from 34 years of various hardware mounts I wanted to make sure that everything was filled in and water tight. Epoxy seemed to be the best choice. You can see we even filled in all of the toe rail mounting holes. Anne first drilled them out and cleaning them with acetone and than tape off the bottom of the hole inside the cabin she than injected epoxy mixed with West System 403 inside each hole. We than ground off a bit of the fiberglass on top of the hole, cleaned them off again with acetone and Anne faired them out using West System 407 high density filler. I hope to complete all of the fairing and sanding by the weekend and next week apply 2 coats of AwlGrip high build epoxy primer to all of the smooth surface areas topside
Cofferdam
I found out from reading various websites that water splashing over the sides into the cockpit trends to flow into the engine compartment through the steering pedestal seal. I read on one website that a way to remedy this is to insert a cofferdam under the pedestal. Basically I must cut a section of plastic PVC pipe the same diameter as the cable hole on the deck and epoxy it in leaving a 2 or 3 inch lip that the pedestal will fit over. If any water penetrates the seal under the pedestal it will be block from entering into the engine compartment by the PVC pipe that is sticking up into the pedestal in effect damming the water. I will include pictures and specifics of this repair when I complete it sometime next week.
Instead of using a PVC pipe I used fiberglass tape saturated with epoxy. I also used a generous amount of tape to guard against epoxy drips. The steering pedestal fit perfectly over the cofferdam.
November 9, 2004
Work is still progressing although slowly now that fall is in full swing here in Maryland. I'm sorry to say the temperature and weather patterns are not cooperating with my work schedule. We have completed all of the fairing on the deck, removed all of the deck hardware including stanchion bases, tubes, lifelines and we have removed 2 of the 6 port lights. The port lights turned out to be another surprise project. They where sealed into the coach roof with gobs of heavy duty sealant. Scott and I used a heat gun and small pry bar to ease the frames out trying not to bend or damage the old frames. Easier said then done! It took well over an hour to remove each of the two larger port lights. The frames are old and in poor shape. What I would like to do is polish them and have new lexan installed. This would be much cheaper than having new port lights built for the Morgan.
One of two of the larger port lights being removed from the Morgan
All of the deck hardware is now at home. I have set up a polishing table and purchased polishing wheels and compounds to polish the various aluminum, brass and stainless steel items. I found a chrome plating company that will re-chrome plate the lifeline bases, small winch covers and other small hardware pieces in need of new chrome plating. The price works out to less than half of the price of a buying a new piece.
June 18, 2005
I've worked on the boat for 5 days so far this year and finally have started painting the deck. The deck was a mess when we first arrived this summer. I started cleaning it off using Simple Green and a scrub brush. This gave me a chance to inspect all of the faring I did last fall to make sure I didn't miss anything. I did find a few problems and corrected them and I finally began cleaning the surface with Awl Prep surface cleaner using the wash and wipe method. One rag soaked with awl prep is used to wash a section of the surface and a clean dry rag is used to wipe the dirt and possible surface contaminates off. I purchased a box of paper disposable rags and throw them over the side after a few wipes. I wore my respirator and used disposable vinyl gloves throughout the cleaning process
Before painting the deck looked just horrible with many spots faired and sanded I worried if the paint would cover them properly leaving a smooth surface behind. I purchased a quart of Awl Grip 545 base gray primer and one quart of primer converter. This is a epoxy base primer that dries to about 3 mils in thickness. The 545 primer has to be mixed thoroughly before adding the converter. The primer base and converter are mixed at a 1 to 1 ratio. You have to let the final mix set for 15 minutes for induction to take place, induction is where the base and converter cross link chemically.
I used gray base primer for two reasons. One I wanted some surface contrast to check for any imperfections and I also wanted to make sure I have proper coverage when I apply my gloss white topcoat .
I used a 7 inch 1/4 nap mohair roller to apply the mixed primer to the surface. At first I tried in vain to tip off the primer but all I got was brush marks, so I finally just rolled it on. I had to use a little T0006 reducer in the pot from time to time this kept the mixture from getting to thick and helped spread it out while rolling. I will apply two coats let it dry and hand sand the smooth areas with 220 grit paper. I'm not going to worry about sanding the non slip areas seeing as I'll be applying Grip Tex non skid particles over the top coat paint.
When you apply primer or topcoat to your boat a good respirator is vital. If you read the warnings on the label they state that central nervous system and brain damage could result with out the use of a proper respirator not to mention if you don't use a respirator you would probably pass out from the fumes this stuff gives off and fall off the deck.
The primer covered the fairing repairs wonderfully. I was totally surprised how it looked after one coat.
I had preformed about 10 large repairs in this cockpit area (view some of the pictures of deck repairs above), once the primer was applied you would never know.
June 26, 2005
I sanded down the first coat of primer and then swept and sprayed off the decks with water, I washed everything down with Awl Prep surface cleaner using the wash and wipe method. I purchased 1 gallon each of 545 primer and primer converter. I then applied a second coat of 545 primer, I thinned it out a little more using T0006 reducer made for epoxy primers. Thinning it helped to spread it out a little better not leaving as many roller and brush marks that are a pain to remove by hand sanding.
I let the second coat dry over night and came back the next day and began sanding the deck by hand again using a 3M Stikit hand block and 220 grit 3M Stikit paper. My supplier recommended this system to me, the paper sands like a dream and changing paper is a breeze. Just roll out the sand paper, stick the hand sander over the paper, rip off a piece and continue sanding. It still took over 3 hours to complete all the deck sanding.
Hand sanding the deck, Stikit sanding block and paper
After cleaning the deck for a second time I began masking off my non slip areas using 3M vinyl tape. It was recommended by my supplier and hopefully will last on the deck at least two weeks. It was easy to stretch out and allowed me to easily make the curves I needed to match up with the old non skid pattern. I used a quarter to round off my corners lining up the quarter in the corners and cutting around it with a new box cutter blade.
I had planned on applying my first coat of paint this weekend but a heat wave rolled into our area with 90 plus degree heat. One drawback to using dark colored gray primer is the deck heats up fast once the sun gets up past 10AM. By the time I had prepped everything this morning it was 10:15 AM and the deck was to hot to apply the first coat of top coat paint. Awl Grip recommends maximum boat surface temperature to be between 90 and 105 degrees and they state if you are applying paint at that temperature you have to reduce it up to 35% by volume. The normal recommended reduction of paint using T0031 topcoat reducer is 10 to 20 % by volume. My plan is to leave extra early later this week and start painting by 8:00AM. Hopefully I'll be able to dry any morning moisture on the deck by wiping it down with Awl Prep cleaner.
Taping off the non skid areas.
July 1st, 2005
I drove up to Annapolis last Thursday morning and arrived about 7:15AM. It is approximately a 1 hour and 40 minutes drive from my home. It had rained hard the night before and the decks where still wet. I started wiping off the decks with dry rags and then washed and wiped them with Awl Prep cleaner. I mixed the top coat according to Awl Grip's directions mixing 1 part paint to 1/2 part converter. I reduced the mixture with Awl Grip T0031 top coat reducer at 20 percent by volume. You have to wait 15 minutes after mixing the paint for induction to take place. In the mean time I finished prepping the deck using an Awl Grip tack cloth going over everything before applying the first coat.
At 8:45AM I began painting using a 2&1/2 inch Europe brush, a badger style brush made for applying topside paints. I started at the mast and worked my way down the coach roof towards the cockpit area trying to keep a wet edge as I moved along. The paint was going on very nice, leveling out almost instantly to a smooth finish. It wasn't fully covering the gray primer as I expected and the oyster white paint was uneven in density due to the dark gray primer. As the morning raced on the sun began to rise and the gray primer began to heat up causing my brush to drag when applying paint. I had to use more and more reducer in order to keep the brush flowing. By 11AM the decks where hot again luckily I was just about finished.
My biggest problem was trying to keep a wet edge all the way down to the cockpit area, and in more then one area I failed. But I kept going knowing I would be applying at least 3 coats with sanding in between each coat. I don't think I can do the entire deck by myself without leaving noticeable seams in the paint. The learning curve is telling me I need to draft a second person to begin painting from the stern forward meeting up with me near the coach roof. I plan on going back later this week hopefully with my wife Anne to sand down the deck with 320 paper, clean and apply the 2nd coat. (Pictures to follow)
July 07, 2005
2nd coat of top coat paint
I arrived at the boat yard by 8AM yesterday morning, the decks were covered in water from another rain storm the night before. I began by wiping off the deck, once it was dry I started sanding using the Stikit block and this time 320 grit paper. It didn't take much effort to sand the paint down to the primer so I was extra careful. When the paint is mixed and reduced it has the same consistency as half & half cream. The manufacture says it dries to a 3 mil thickness giving you a very thin coating. I spent extra time sanding down all of my runs and trying to even out the first coat. It took about 3 hours of hand sanding to prep it for the second coat.
I had sanded through allot of paint and the gray primer was showing through in many places, So I decided to call the first coat of top coat my 3rd coat of primer. I cleaned the deck with awl prep and tacked it off with awl grip tack cloths. Once again I mixed the paint 1 part paint to 1/2 part converter, waited 15 minutes and added 20 percent by volume the reducer. I only mixed 16 ounces this time. For my first coat I had mixed 24 ounces and had way too much paint left over.
As with all projects the learning curve started to kick in this time. I had gone back to the www.triton381.com site and re-read the procedures used to paint the deck of the Triton. The author of that site said he would paint about 2 feet a side and switch over to the other side maintaining a wet edge through out. I did the same thing starting at the bottom of the rise at the front of the coach roof and working my way back painting between two to three feet at a time on each side. I found that you have to apply the paint to a section carefully tipping it out once the section is complete. Awl Grip seems to be somewhat forgiving as to keeping a wet edge. More than once when I arrived back at a section that I had previously painted, I thought I might have waited too long. I applied a little more paint to that area and found that the paint blended beautifully. I worked my way back towards the cockpit doing two to three feet per side right around the lazarette down into the cockpit drain area and back along the bottom floor panels of the cockpit. It took about 2 1/2 hours to complete the deck.
The paint was covering much better this time. But you could still see the gray primer in many areas. Once the second coat was complete and I stood up to take a look at the entire job. I had to squint my eyes from the brightness of the glossy white paint. I determined that the gloss oyster white paint was too bright for the deck. So for my third and forth coats I will add Awl Grip flatting agent to my paint at a mix of 50%, 1 part paint to 1/2 part converter to 1/2 part flatting agent. This should according to the manufacture give me a semi gloss coating.
All toll: 3 hours of sanding, about an hour to clean and prep the deck, 2 1/2 hours to paint and 30 minutes of cleanup.
A word on gray primer.
The gray primer has been difficult to deal with. The first
thing I noticed was its difficulty in covering with a lighter color paint. I now
have determined that I will need to apply 5 coats of paint instead of 3 coats. I
also noticed that once the first coat of oyster white was applied the white or
glossy parts of the deck where much cooler than the still primed non skid areas.
Kneeling on the non skid areas of the deck is still painful, there is a great
deal of heat that the gray primer absorbs. Still I'll know when I have good
coverage of paint or when the primer is completely covered. But I'm not sure
weather I would use it again to prime a deck.
July 10, after sanding the second application of top coat down I noticed that if I got carried away sanding, the gray primer would begin to show through. This added benefited saved me on more than one occasion. I now realize that white primer would be hard to detect during sanding, so I would use gray primer again for this reason.
Second top coat sanded, if you look closely you can see where the gray primer came through during sanding, a good thing!
July 10, 2005
Third coat of Top Coat applied
Third application of top coat.
I used the same procedures for the third application of top coat as I used for the second coat, with 3 hours of hand sanding. The only thing different this time was I added Awl Grip flattening agent to the paint mix; 1 part paint to 1/2 part converter to 1/2 part flattening agent and finally 20 % by volume reducer. I mixed 12 ounces this time and that covered the deck with out too much left over. When I opened the flattening agent it was like old putty with about 2 inches of liquid on top. I had to pour off the liquid into a larger container and scoop out the paste and added it to the liquid to mix it. Then I poured it back into the can after using what I needed for the paint.
The deck will need at least two more coats to get the proper coverage I'm looking for but I'm happy with the results so far! The semi gloss is just what I was looking for. As the learning curve progresses I realize I might have been applying a thinner coat of paint then necessary. If you apply too much paint the coat will sag requiring additional sanding. Too little paint requires additional coats.
July 11, 2005
4th application of top coat applied.
I sanded down the deck today but only lightly sanded it. It took a little over an hour. I have already removed most of the runs and sags and now I'm just smoothing out the surface before applying the paint. Looking at the dry 3rd coat of paint I felt that I had taken out a little too much gloss, so when I mixed the paint today I only added 1/4 part flattening agent to the mix. The application went on without a hitch, the paint is starting to cover some minor flaws I had neglected during fairing. After the third coat I really noticed a difference in the way the paint looks on the deck surface, I'm very happy I decided to go with the more expensive Awl Grip paint. I'm going to apply a fifth coat tomorrow and reevaluate the deck after it dries. I think I will need to apply a 6th coat to insure proper coverage over some areas that where heavily sanded.
October 23, 2005
The Learning Curve is Directly Proportional to the Money Spent when working on a Boat!
I was out of town on business for most of August and September. When I came back to the boat at the end of September I had already applied 6 coats of AwlGrip and was still not happy with the results. The paint job was fine in fact it look great. But my preparation of the surface in some places just looked awful! I was most concerned with the starboard side coach roof. I had faired out all of the holes left from years of hardware being installed and removed. I could see dimples and imperfections on the surface from my poor fairing job. The more I looked at it the more discouraged I became. So I took out my palm sander and started sanding all of the areas that looked bad right down to the fiberglass. I used fine grit sandpaper and just spent allot of time trying to smooth the surface out. I think I could have eliminated a lot of the problems by using a palm sander for my most of my final sanding work. The 5 inch orbital sander is too aggressive and often leaves small gouges in the fiberglass. The palm sander takes longer to complete an area but gives a smoother finish. Also I could have applied several coats of awl-quik sanding surfacer which has a dry film thickness of 3 mills, you can recoat after 4 hours and it sands easily. However it must be applied over 545 epoxy primer. In any case the re-painting of the deck is going along well now, I'm very happy with the results and am presently trying to finish the deck painting before the outside temperature drops below 55 degrees F. I'll have more pictures as I near completion of the deck.
October 27, 2005
Installed Plexiglass into polished frames
See polishing frames procedure
I used Sikaflex 295 UV adhesive to bed the plexiglass into the frames. I started off masking the frames and primed the edges with Sikaflex primer. As careful as I tried to be I still got some adhesive on the edges of the frames and plexiglass. I was able to remove it with mineral spirits but the mineral spirits also removed the Zoop seal coating on the frames. I will have to re-apply the Zoop coating before installing the port lights.
Note: if you use mineral sprits to remove the adhesive from the plexiglass clean the solvent off immediately after with plexiglass cleaner. I have read that mineral spirits and other solvents cause tinny fractures in the plexiglass that later on could lead to "solvent crazing".
October 31, 2005
Hopefully one more coat to go!
It was a beautiful day here in Maryland today. The temperature was 70 degrees with almost no wind, a perfect day for painting. I got an early start on painting the deck. I had hand sanded the deck last Saturday and all I had to do this morning was clean the surface with Awl Prep and wipe it down. The paint was going on beautifully, with almost no problems except around halfway through the paint job a small swarm of termites started landing on my fresh paint. I watched some of them break free by pulling their wings off and leaving them in the paint. Others just stayed frozen on the freshly painted surface waiting for me to come back and pull them out. Frustrating but typical.
November 6, 2005
I went back to the boat to start priming the hull (see hull prep and painting) and did a quick inspection of the deck. I had painted it again after the termite swarm had settled on the deck and found that the cooler night temperatures we have been having here in Maryland caused the paint to dry poorly. The gloss finish was almost not there. So I will have to wait until spring and try again. In the mean time I will put a winter cover over the deck this weekend. Pictures and procedures will follow.
October, 2006
I have to start out by saying this deck has seen allot of paint! If I told you how much you wouldn't believe me. I finally made some time and started painting the deck again. I was unhappy with my prep work last year so I sanded allot of the deck down and re-faired and re-primed parts of the coach roof and handed sanded the rest. The pictures below are shots of the second coat so far this fall and I'm finally happy with it.
I have to start the painting early in the morning, It takes about two hours (not counting hand sanding) to clean, dry and surface prep the deck before painting. This morning I arrived at 7:30 AM, I had a dry clean surface by 10AM. I finished painting by 11:40 this morning. The early start gives the paint enough time to dry before evening. I found out if I start painting in the afternoon the paint is still wet at night and it doesn't cure properly leaving the paint finish dull.
One problem I have encountered is in order for me to keep a wet edge on my paint I have to switch boat sides often, I find that I sometimes pick up the painting on the opposite side of the boat and miss a small section maybe a few inches in size. By the time I notice it it's too late to paint it. This is probably a good reason why you need two painters painting one on each side of the boat. For the final coat I will employ my wife to help if nothing else she could just watch and point out runs, drips and missed sections. In today's paint mix I added some AwlGrip flatting agent but the gloss is still a little too high and I will add more next time.
June 2007
I think I painted the final coat of yes full gloss to the top deck and it looks great (paint wise). I had allot of cleanup on the deck after winter and last falls engine installation. There was grease and chips in the paint all around the cockpit area that had to be cleaned and sanded. When I finally was ready to paint the shrink wrap top helped out by cutting down on direct sunlight making the deck cool and easy to see the paint application. As I said this final application looks stunning except for a few small spots the didn't cover very well, mostly edges. I've already order a small Preval sprayer, a small self-contained sprayer that can spray up to 16 oz of paint. I will tape off these small areas and spray them with Awlgrip and hopefully they will cover and not be too noticeable. Next step is to remove the 3M vinyl tape that has been on the boat since June of 2005 and then re-taping with 3M vinyl again, prep the non skid areas by sanding, priming with Awlgrip 545 and painting with Awlgrip topcoat flatten out and sprinkling on Awlgrip GripTex.
Ready to remove the tape and start on the non skid areas.
The Preval sprayer didn't work so I'll keep this short, I sanded down the entire deck again and applied another coat of paint and this last coat even though I did again miss a few spots referred to in the paint business as a holiday, this one is a keeper!
Removing the 3M vinyl tape after 2 years
I removed all of the 3M vinyl tape from the deck within a few hours with out much trouble, this done after the tape was on the deck for more than two years.
Non Skid Prep and Paint, August-September 2007
I started prepping the deck for the application of the non skid surface. After removing the tape I cleaned and wiped down the deck areas around the old non skid sections. Anne and I then started re-taping those areas with 3M fine line plastic vinyl tape. We moved the tape line about a 1/4 inch over the gloss area and rounded off the corners using a quarter and razor knife. Once the taping was completed I sanded down the non skid areas again using 80 and 100 grit paper. There was a lot of oyster white paint drips on these areas and I wanted to clean them up and re prime them with white 545 primer. Once the primer dried I mixed up about 20 ounces of topcoat and flattening agent (G3013) at a 1:1 ratio between paint and flattening agent this gave me a flat finish. You can also mix to a semi-gloss color by using a ratio of 1 part paint to 1/2 part G3013 agent.
I did each section of non skid one at a time first applying the paint then waiting ten minutes until the paint becomes a little tacky. I then punched 4 holes in the top of the GripTex can and started sprinkling the powdered particles onto the paint. Trial and error eventually led me to hold the can several feet from the surface and broadcast the powdered GripTex over the painted area almost like you're dusting a cake with powdered sugar. The next day I vacuumed off the surface sucking up any GripTex that didn't stick and then painted the surface with again 20 ounces of topcoat flat mixed paint but that 20 ounces wasn't nearly enough to cover the nonskid so I had to mix up another 20 ounces to finish the deck, covering the nonskid used up almost double the paint. It looked great but I missed some spots and had to sprinkle more GripTex on the bare spots and repaint the next day. I eventually covered the non skid areas with 3 coats just to give it a good tough cover seeing as this will be a working deck. I used 5 and 1/2 quarts of Grip Tex extra course, course and fine. I think I would have used less if I was more experienced at the procedure. This process really is no stress where you don't have to worry about adding reducer, tipping paint and keeping a wet edge. The final application looked great and sets off the glossy areas on the deck nicely. Someone said to me that I should have used a different color to accentuate between the white glossy areas and the non skid areas. I guess I'm a bit too practical, especially after working on the deck for a few summers with the gray primer soaking up the sun and the heat making it unbearable to kneel on. White paint was the only color I was going to paint that deck with. I also wanted the white non skid areas as flat as possible which will hopefully be a little easier on the eyes when sailing.
Photos of deck before and after tape removal.
Installing Portlights
I have to preface this section by saying; trying to restore these old portlights was a mistake. I couldn't fine a company to re-manufacture these frames that was at the time within my price range. I know that eventually I will have to bite the bullet and remove these old frames and install new ones.
I started out cleaning up the portlight cutouts first with a razor knife cutting and digging out as much of the old caulk as I could. I then started using my Dremel tool alternating between a course sanding band and a grout removal bit. Once I removed most of the caulk I faired and filled in some holes in the cut out with epoxy and made it water tight.
I used 3M Marine Sealant 101 which is recommended for the installation of port lights. This sealant has a cure time of 3 weeks and I'll will only know if it was really the right stuff to use for portlight installation after it has cured and I'm out on the bay in stormy weather so stay tuned.
The next day I lightly sanded the inside and outside of the cut out to give the sealant a good surface to stick to. I then put a generous bead of caulk around the inside of the port light frame and placed the frame into the cutout being careful not to press it in to tightly. I will let the caulk set up inside the cutout before tightening down the frames. Allowing the caulk to cure in this way will hopefully form a watertight gasket seal around the portlight. I then used a caulking tool to carefully remove any excess caulk and 3M adhesive remover to wipe down the frames and coach roof removing as much of the caulk as possible.
Of course I did run into difficulties with the larger frames. The smaller frames fitted fine with no problem but the larger frames need to bend slightly with the contours of the coach roof. I had to tighten the ends lightly which drew in the center section too tightly. I'm hoping that once the sealant fully cures and I tighten the frames all the way around I'll still have a water tight seal.
Cleaned and prepped cutout, generous bead of caulk around portlight frame
Using the caulking tool (highly recomended)
Various photos of the Portlight installation.