Repairing Coppercoat

archie

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I have quite a few spots where the copper coat has come off of my hull.

I was wondering if anyone had advice on repairing these I.e. Can I just dap primer in the hole and apply copper coat over the top of the surrounding areas or do I have to expose larger areas of the hull to do an effective repair?

Any help great fully received.
 

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vyv_cox

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I damaged the Coppercoat on my keel when sailing over an underwater buoy (a special hazard organised for Greek cruisers). I bought a repair kit from the manufacturers, ground the area back to bare iron, going about an inch all round beyond the damage, gave it four or five coats of West, then four or five of the repair kit. Now perfectly OK.
 
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Elessar

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I have quite a few spots where the copper coat has come off of my hull.

I was wondering if anyone had advice on repairing these I.e. Can I just dap primer in the hole and apply copper coat over the top of the surrounding areas or do I have to expose larger areas of the hull to do an effective repair?

Any help great fully received.

you have already sanded it by the look of it. If not sand with 80-120 grit where you want to paint - overlap the good.

Buy 1/2 litre coppercoat. No primer needed. Vyv was right for his keel but I'm assuming you are GRP.
to mix a small amount. Use 3 paper cups and make the levels in each equal. Mix in a 4th container. White first, stir, add amber, stir, add copper, stir. Don't mix too much, pot life about 45 mins (they say an hour)
Apply with a mini roller. Go over the abraded coppercoat all round the damaged bit. THIN. very thin.
Accelerate the drying with a hairdrier. You can see the colour change a bit as it dries.
Keep applying THIN coats. Stir before every coat.
If the coat underneath starts to tear STOP and wait. It isn't dry enough. Don't try and "put it back on". STOP.
It won't start to look solid until coat 3 or 4. Don't try and make it look solid on earlier coats.
Apply 5 or 6 coats. It should look rich coppery.
Wait 5 days before launch. Ideally use a pan scourer on it to take the shine off before launch.
 

archie

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thanks for your help.

presumably I will need to prime the exposed sections GRP, but to ne existing copper coat.

do you think there will be an issue in applying the new copper coat over the old it is not sanded back to brown and areas are left green?

thanks again.
 

bert49uk

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Copper coat being two pack can only be applied over two pack primer, if it's only a small area I would just use copper coat, but build up the coats, I have successfully applied over existing copper coat
 

rob2

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You cannot hope to coat over the Coppercoat unless the green surface is abraded away - it will be too friable and unstable for good adhesion and as the fresh coating cannot make a chemical bond to fully cured epoxy, the mechanical bond requires the surface to be abraded for a key anyway.

Rob.
 

Elessar

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thanks for your help.

presumably I will need to prime the exposed sections GRP, but to ne existing copper coat.

do you think there will be an issue in applying the new copper coat over the old it is not sanded back to brown and areas are left green?

thanks again.

You dont need to prime anything. Follow what i wrote and make no assumptions and youll be fine.
 

winch2

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For small damage/chips down to the fibreglass Ive bought copper powder off the internet and mixed it with model plane 30 min epoxy. Works a treat... hasnt come off yet, is very cheap and seems to kill the critters.
 

Never Grumble

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I tend to get the odd rust spot on my keel so I rub down the area, fill the any hole with epoxy filler and then use a copper coat touch up kit, they recommend using a roller to apply, just be careful if you use a brush not to put on too thick or it will sag.
 
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