West Systems Questions?

[jrork]

Hi,
I'm in the process of capping my boat. In the pictures below you can see that the seam fit was very good to begin with from the factory. What I've done now is ground down into the seam most of the way through and layed it back on an approx. 45 degree angle. I've since ground up and down and am thinking I'm ready to begin to apply some glass and resin. My question is if any of you have any opinions of West Systems Epoxy resin. I was thinking this might be a nice use and with some 403 or 404 MicroFibers added to the resin.
Is there any draw backs with going with the epoxy versus the more conventional resins? I'm planning on painting the boat with a basecoat/clearcoat paint.
Thanks a bunch........John
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/IMG_6935.jpg

[bwillieb]

......West Systems Epoxy.....has much better adhesive qualitys than polyster resins..........the only drawback to using West, is that you cannot put polyester resin over it (as in future repairs) in other words epoxy sticks to polyester but polyester will not bond to epoxy......urathane/enamel basecoat clearcoat is compatable with West...........as far as fillers, I do not recall what 403 and 404 are........for strength in the groove use collodial silica #4??,use microspheres #4?? where you will be sanding and for minor pin holes only you can get away with a single component acrylic putty...........you are then ready to prime.............excellent product but more costly than polyester.........

[jrork]

Thanks bwillie,
Let's see if I post what they say for the fillers
Bonding Hardware—Increased fastener interface and hardware load capability—maximum strength
404 High-density
General Bonding–Join parts with epoxy thickened to create a structural gap filler—strength/gap filling
404 High-density, 406 Colloidal Silica
Bonding with Fillets–Increase joint bonding area and create a structural brace between parts—smoothness/strength
406 Colloidal Silica
Laminating–Bond layers of wood strips, veneers, planks, sheets and cores—gap filling/strength
403 Microfibers

[curtis73]

[thread hacking]
forgive me, but could someone define "capping" a boat? I'm learning
[/thread hacking]
I will say that I just got done using a bunch of West Systems 105/205 resin and hardener and it was top quality stuff. Even and predictable cure times, no gloppy gelling, incredible stuff. I had always done crappy patch jobs with a can of bondo polyester resin from Home Depot and its like comparing Sikkens Pro products paints to finger paint. West Systems is good stuff.
I did some laminating and filling with the 403 filler which is a cotton fiber stuff. Mixed up it looks like grits. Probably not the best for fairing underneath paint.

[widowmaker]

Love it. I've used it several times They make it so easy to get the correct mixtures. Just buy there pump set up and your done. Simple and very strong!!!

[jrork]

Capping is when you remove the rub rail and perminately bond the top of the boat to hull. Extra work but personally I think it looks really clean and is worth the work.
Thanks for the reply on the West system stuff. I've heard nothing but good as well.

[DUCKY]

I would strongly suggest using an actual reinforcement product rather than just thickening the resin. At the very least, buy some of the West System brand fiberglass mat (no polyester binder to break down) and put some thin strips of it into the seam to mechanically bond the hull and deck together. I would use your mix of filler first, then grind a small trough in it and put the mat in there. That should prevent the cap from cracking in the future.

[jrork]

Whoops, sorry Ducky, I probably wasn't clear. I'm planning on using some glass tape and bedding it in there overlapping it a bit and then trimming the excess off and going over it again with additional layers of glass until I've built it back up. I was just wondering if anybody recommended the West system with filler to hold and thicken the resin in between the glass applications. Also curious if the Epoxy will come back and bite me at paint time.

[DUCKY]

Okay. Just wanted to make sure that you were going to put some reinforcement in there. One suggestion though, when using cloth, or any other woven material, make sure that you put it deep enough into your laminate that you don't grind through it when doing your body work. I usually put a layer of mat, then a layer of cloth, then however much mat is necessary to do your body work. As far as the properties of West system, it's great stuff, and you should have no issues with it and your paint as long as your surface is properly prepped. I would strongly suggest using a good epoxy primer of the same system as your paint.

[jrork]

Thanks guys. I'm going for it. Ground and layed the fiberglass way back. Gotta be honest and say that it bummed me out more than a little to do that to the beautiful boat but I'm just sticking with it and it'll be cool. If this didnt have such a tight seam before it might of been easy but damn, it was almost impossible to see to the point that I needed to use a yellow paint pen and mark the seam so I would be able to see it while I was grinding......
Thanks for the help and stay tuned......John