Trakmark deck covering

[Guest]

I'm thinking of applying trakmark (spelling??) to some of the old non-slip areas around the cockpit on my GRP boat. Question, apart from removing old deck paint will I have to grind smooth the old sand-rough GRP surface to get the adhesive to stick. Has anybody got any experience of gluing to a less than smooth surface?

 

[ccscott49]

It needs to be reasonably smooth, so as to allow the adhesive to dry without voids, which will allow water to seep in later, it's not a big job to do, a disc grinder with sanding discs, will tear it up. An orbital afterwards will make short work of it, 60 grit is as smooth as you need to go.

 

[Freebee]

I would like to get hold of some trackmark can you tell me where you've obtained yours?

 

[rogerm]

I have a 27' cat and although the hull is grp the superstructure is ply. At some stage some owner has sheathed this in fiberglass matting. Although GRP is wondefully smooth on the mold side the same certainly can't be said of the other side. As you are probably aware most cats have large foredecks. So as to give this some protection we covered a large part of this with Trakmark (or a competing product). We used that type of impact adhesive that allows a small adjustment if made before pressure is applied (the name escapes me....).

While I would agree that in principal voids are best avoided we think that the glue fills most irregularities. Our trakmark has been in place for about 4 years without trouble so I would say smooth the area a little but don't go mad about it. I am sure you will find it will go ok.
We got ours from a chandlers but I think they had to send for it. If it helps anyone we have a brown piece, with the traditional diamond pattern, about 1m sq that we have no plans for. Perhaps we could negotiate something or other....??
Roger