Re: '78 Ebko Lebaron - Therapy
Thanks everyone...I owe it all to you...
OK...adult beverage in hand...had time to relax a little ...time for some details...
I've got an hour and 3 minutes of video..that only shows the top V of the hull and the backside being sprayed....lots of cursing, bitching, moaning from all parties involved...we had fun though...
Cast:
Troy as Trooper82 - Dressed to the gills in his zoot suit..safety glasses, Blue Latex gloves and respirator...
Son in law Scott-more like "outlaw" seeing that he would not wear any safety gear..even though I had a second set of everything I was wearing (he is an adult so let him make that decision) However, I do not condone such behaviour..so I will not be posting the video on Iboats...
Patty playing the Admiral - responsible for drinks and smokes...even some support with an actone dipped rag, telecommunications(phone calls) and light compressor duty...
Marsha - Director and NOT the audio specialist (or we wouldn't have to worry about all the cursing, bitching, moaning caught on the video...), she also was the main compressor keeper...keeping it alive till it built too much pressure and kicked the relief valve (think she wet herself)...ice, drink..cigs...
ok enough fun stuff the details...
I had to have the compressor back by 2:58 PM...I did not even get started on gel coating till 11:30...so my tensions were high... I ended up getting it back at like 3:06 so they didn't charge me any extra time...
Started out worried about the ratio for MEKP. I have always read 2% when doing gel coat. I was mixing 750ml of gel. 2% would be 15ml of MEKP. The instructions I was using from YD said to use 10cc per quart. This had me confused...750ml is roughly .79 of a quart. I decided to go with the 15ml of MEKP. I was adding 10% of MEK for thinning, which is 75ml...backed this down to 70ml on all but the first spray. I was worried about the time, did not want to have the gel kick in the pot/lines/gun...I was avraging about 7 minutes from the time MEKP was added till start of mixing next batch. I had 750ml buckets on standby already filled, so things were actually going quite fast. Now this is the first time I have ever sprayed gel coat, so there was a learning curve. Took me 3 batches to get where I was happy with how it was leaving the gun. HF pot worked well, but the gel was leaving the tip heavy on the lower side of the fan. I just learned to work with it....In hind sight wish I had just mixed some gel to use for practice...but I was worried I'd be wasting too much and was also worried about time. I had plent of time. The gun was emptying the 750ml in just a couple minutes. Over spray from doing the top, then climbing on that side and walking got gel all over my zoot soot bootys...which became a big problem...grass, dirt, leaves you name it it was stuck to my feet and I was walking on the boat....some acetone on a rag made quick work of cleaning that mess up thankfully...ripped the bootys off so I could walk..but I was done climbing on the hull anyway..the rest I could reach from the ground... I did not have a gauge to check thickness...but I'd say I got somewhere around 30 mils thick or close to it...I was doing a double coat, going back over hwhat I had sprayed before to thicken it up. The surface turned out really well. I am quite pleased how it looks...a little rough, but I had zero sags or runs!...not bad for a beginner I spose...once I got the hull 100% coverd, took a quick break...washed the sprayer out with water ( per YD's advice...acetone and PVA make snot...I tested it..it does!) loaded half a gallon in the sprayer and coated one side of the hull...actually ran out before getting it 100% so was worried I would run out...toned down the nozzle on the next half gallon and was able to get it completely covered in PVA...waiting for tomorrow to wash off the PVA and do some test sanding...
I may try to get the vidoe spliced and loaded to my photobucket if there is anyone that wants to see it...
oh and a big thanks to JB for taking my call...appreciate it brother!
