Dinghy looks like Welsh Woolly Back - What to do?

[ianybw]

Just taken possession of a cheap fibre-glass dinghy. Trouble is the previous guy decided to strengthen the floor by adding an extra layer of fibre-glass. He rather unwisely chose what can only be decribed as the Woolly-brand-fibre-glass rather than the nice smooth woven stuff.

This might look fine stuffed in the wheelarches of a 1970's Cortina but it looks pretty awful on the floor of my new dinghy.

Whats the best way of improving the look? Another layer of woven glass? Do I need to remove all the grey epoxy-like paint he put in before trying to put the new layer on?

Apologies to the folks who like their dinghy looking like its 'off the hill'.

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day Sylvesterthecat,

<<<Whats the best way of improving the look? Another layer of woven glass? Do I need to remove all the grey epoxy-like paint he put in before trying to put the new layer on?>>

If the work looks new, do nothing yet, it may fail and come away all by itself leaving you with a fresh base to work on.

As there is no way to determine if the previous owner used poly or epoxy resin you may have a problem bonding if you don't use an epoxy, on the other hand if has used an epoxy, poly resin will stick very well at all.

Given the limited information I think I would sand it to remove the woolly finish and hope that this would also remove most of the unknown paint type. Epoxy can have a bad reaction with some paint types.

Then precut some 125 gram roving's to size and apply epoxy resin to the area then lay on and roll the glass with a small threaded roller.

You could add some anti slip (Sand) when you are happy that all the glass has been wet out.

As epoxy is not UV stable it will also require a coat of suitable paint after adding a coat of epoxy primer you should be able to apply any paint. No primer will be needed if you use an epoxy based paint.

Hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......

 

[William_H]

The problem with f/g dinghies is that they can get very heavy very quickly. Assuming he has added the wooly glass for extra strength and not to repair damage you might consider grinding it down to smooth or gone preferably. olewill