Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

[Tail_Gunner]

It's time to pull the carpet and lay down some gel, I have a few question's
1.smoothing out the plywood floor what to use to fair it out
2.What to use as a grit for a tractionalbe surface

I plan to cover the surface with a clear gel and lace it with pearl any ideal's Ondarvr???

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

I assume there's some glass over the plywood already.

It may be difficult to buy a small amount of Marine clear and I'm not sure what kind of a look you're after, explain the "laced with pearl" a little more. Clears don't look good over light colors, they tend to turn yellow in the sun, you don't see it as much on dark colors and metal flake.

If there's glass down now, you can use most any kind of light weight filler and just put a mat over it, that way it's sealed off and won't crack.

I normally use a very fine sand, you won't slip and it's easy on the feet.

 

[dsujen]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

I redid my 18 foot c.c. floor 2 years ago. I put in new 3/4 inch plywood and coated the underside with resin before I construction adhesived it and screwed it in to the stringers with stainless screws. I put down the random hair fiberglass that's about a 1/16 inch thick. It's the type you lay down dry because when the resin hits it, it falls apart. Covered that with resin. When dry, I sanded lightly and wiped with acetone. Then i did another coat af resin. Sanded and acetoned that coat then applied the gel coat. I used an adhesive type paint roller and cheap paint brushes to apply everthing. While the gelcoat was still wet I sifted dry masony sand on top liberally. When that dried, I swept and vacumned up the loose sand and applied another coat of gelcoat. I now have an extremely slip resistant, tuff floor.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

I assume there's some glass over the plywood already.

It may be difficult to buy a small amount of Marine clear and I'm not sure what kind of a look you're after, explain the "laced with pearl" a little more. Clears don't look good over light colors, they tend to turn yellow in the sun, you don't see it as much on dark colors and metal flake.

If there's glass down now, you can use most any kind of light weight filler and just put a mat over it, that way it's sealed off and won't crack.

I normally use a very fine sand, you won't slip and it's easy on the feet.

What i have in mind is a smooth as possible base coating, followed up with a something granualar say the size of BB's, then lay down a clear gel that has pearl added leaving a creamy white pearl finish.

The pearl i am talking about comes from the auto ind, it's size is extremly small or large if you wish, i am sure with a little experimentation i can find the right density. However the yellowing you are talking about concern's me, i take gel is not uv resistant???


That would be three layer's of gel, hmm to thick?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

Clears tend to yellow, even automtive clears, it's just that gel coat is much thicker so you can see it easier.
Pearl does work in gel coat, but I've never used it.

Many things will work as a nonskid additive, just try a bunch of things to get the finish you like.

If you don't need to do to much filling on the floor, then you don't need to put glass over it, but if the filler is very thick at all it can crack.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

Clears tend to yellow, even automtive clears, it's just that gel coat is much thicker so you can see it easier.
Pearl does work in gel coat, but I've never used it.

Many things will work as a nonskid additive, just try a bunch of things to get the finish you like.

If you don't need to do to much filling on the floor, then you don't need to put glass over it, but if the filler is very thick at all it can crack.

So fair out the imperfection's then glass them over then sand out the glass and apply the gel as needed??

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

Sounds about right. The nonskid will hide most defects in the floor, so don't get carried away trying to make it perfect, it needs to be fairly flat, but you don't need to take out all of the texture that's currently there.

 

[JustMrWill]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

I just tried to spray my floor with a syphon gun....the problem I had was that I was only using 8oz batches (worried about ruining my gun) and whenever I tilted the gun down, I would stop picking up gelcoat. So I ended up with an uneven, very thin coat. Since I was planning on texturing it..I opted for rolling it on with a foam roller.

I also thought that I wouldn't have to worry about the cloth showing though so I didn't worry about seeing some of the texture...I was wrong. Even rolling it on (thick) I ended up with pin size voids from the cloth texture. I ran out of gelcoat on my last coat (1 spray, 2 rolled) so I will have to wait to fix it. I'll try to find my camera and get some pics today.

-JMW

 

[JustMrWill]

Re: Spraying a gel-coat floor questions

Here is a picture of what I was talking about. I am updating my shareaproject as I type this...so check it out for more info.

-JMW