Batboat Rebuild: Rebuilt Trailer and EasyPoxy Painting

On August 25th the gloss white and "Electric Blue" Easypoxy paint and some chopped strand mat fiberglass cloth was delivered by UPS.

Two days later I began to paint the stern and bottom of the hull.

But first....

....Holy Anvil and Hammer! I got my trailer back from the blacksmith the next day!

I visited Barney's Blacksmith the day before to see if it was ready and he almost had it in 100 pieces on the shop floor! I thought a simple spot weld or two would do and drove home worried about the cost.

Turns out he repaired and rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up and only charged $100! I am eternally grateful. He did a wonderful job on it.

It is now level and true, not twisted and bent up. Just like new. :)

The next day I put the first coat of EasyPoxy "Electric Blue" on the hull. For this I used 4 inch foam rollers, found at most hardware stores. A member of the iboats forum who had just finished working on his fiberglass boat highly recommended them to me.

12 ounces of paint was poured in the pan at a time and I rolled it on easily. There is a trick to keeping a wet edge but its not hard to figure out.

I only coated the stern and bottom going up to the tip of the bow because I still had to flip the boat over and thought that in doing so the paint job may be damaged. That had to wait for later.

That high gloss EasyPoxy Electric Blue marine paint really pops! Unlike the primers I used, it does not take much to get a nice coat. After rolling it the paint spreads out and fills in imperfections very well.

Another two coats need to go on it and then after a 7+ day cure time it goes back on the trailer.


I came upon big problems with the paint. The next day when I sanded with 120 grit the soft paint gummed up the paper quickly. Here is the result. The paint is still like gel.

Much later when painting the white I found the best way to work with EasyPoxy is to roll on coats thin enough to see through a day or more apart otherwise it will not dry properly.

Roll it on real thin folks!

By the first week of September I had three good layers on it and it was ready for the flip.

A Batboat in Texas is up for sale.

An email from MadProps from the Fiberglassics forums came in moments ago.

http://houston.craigslist.org/boa/2016948501.html

Around 2006 or 2007 a man named Mark Towle built this Batboat out of a Gold and Sand colored Glastron 1972 V164 Bayflite.

It just popped up for sale on Craigslist.com.

The scant online pix of this vessel has been an inspiration to me and I've been keeping track of it on the net from time to time since I bought mine in December 2007.

It was created around the same time mine was, also.

Batboat Rebuild: August 21st and 22nd Topside and Foam

This Trailer Needed Welding and Reshaping Badly

Well, this week the Batboat trailer was in the shop getting fixed, the dark blue and gloss white marine paint is on its way and the splash well was permanently joined back with the top side. Things were moving along smoothly again and I hoped to have the Batboat on the trailer by the first week of September.


On the 21st the other side of the top was laminated together.

You will notice a small gap in the joins. They are the same size as the grinding disc used to cut the two apart. If joined flush other problems would develop when its time to attach it back to the hull!







The next day, August 22nd, after the fiberglass resin had cured I used insulating foam to fill in the ends of the structural portions of the top side. Its closed cell foam and will not absorb water.


This foam will keep bugs from wanting to turn the Batboat into an ant farm and will also keep condensation from forming inside where the old foam blocks are.

I flipped over the topside and got started.

This is great stuff. It expanded into the gaps very well and cured rigid and hard to the touch.




While the foam was curing, 1.5 oz chopped strand mat cloth was laminated to the underside of the splashwell joins.

First, however, peanut butter (wood flower mixed with polyester resin) was used to fill in the gap spaces.

These repairs are stronger than the actual fiberglass used to build the boat.

Batboat Rebuild: August 18th Rejoining the Splashwell to the Topside

Today I prepared to rejoin the -repaired splashwell to the topside.

One side at at time was fiberglassed over several days. It was difficult to keep both sides plumb because the topside lost its shape during the length of time the splashwell was detached.

Lots of clamps and wood blocks were used.



The gelcoat was taken down to the fiberglass with my grinder...

...and several layers of 1.5 oz chopped strand mat and 1708 biaxial fiberglass cloth were laminated on top.


Some of the polyester resin dripped on the wood which bonded it to the gelcoat a little. No big deal as that gelcoat was to be removed anyway.

Later on I would wrap the wood with plastic shopping bags to keep the fiberglass resin from bonding to them.




I think I rolled on the second or third coat of primer to the hull. Can't recall.

Batboat Rebuild: August 14th Sanding and More Painting

I spend another day sanding.

The primer was used as filler. When long block sanding the surface becomes more smoother than before. Probably 90% or more of the first coat of primer was removed.

The gray areas are high spots, the white low spots. Above you can see one of the holes I filled.

I stopped to grab my black spray paint can. This helps in finding low areas, also. Once all the black is sanded off you are left with a very smooth surface.




Here is the black guide coat.

Almost gone.


Totally gone.

The 2nd coat of primer was rolled on afterward.

With the tools I have this is the smoothest surface I'll ever get. But still, I sanded after the two coats to follow. More on that later.