Finishing - Novice Building An Eastport Pram In Australia

Finishing

Session 28

Overall light sanding with 240 grit, ready for varnish.

As advised by the friendly consultant at the Resene paints factory, their Altex Timbercote clear gloss varnish (single pack) needed to be applied over the West System epoxy after about 24 hours of curing in order to form a chemical bond. (After about 2 or more days sanding would be compulsory for a physical bond.)

The Timbercote is thinned 25-50%for brush or roller. The thinnest suggested mix reads as if it is for penetrating/sealing raw timber so I opted for 25% #45 thinners and this applied well but was still fairly runny. 

However, it flattened out better than expected and air bubbles just disappeared. I started with a foam roller but it produced a very worrying amount of air bubbles, almost a foam, so I switched to the micro fibre rollers that were used for applying the epoxy coats.

These worked quite well and had the added advantage of the furry end which can easily coat tight areas such as around the transom doubler edge. These small rollers can also do inside the lifting handles which is very handy.

The sailing pieces were laid out on a table and coated on one side and all or part of the verticalsides/edges.

The mast yard and boom were longer than the table so the ends and holes were coated as well.

Session 29

Second coat of varnish inside the boat (brushed) and other other side of sailing bits, completing their first coat.

Session 30

Ditto. Also filed a couple of pin holes and the spar crack beforehand.

Boat 3 coats done, spars 1.5 coats. A couple of runs under the spars taken off with thinners.

Session 31

Varnish again. Boat 4 coats done , spars 2 coats.

Trailer kit arrived in 7 boxes.

Session 32

Final coat of varnish. 

The Carlex folding trailer kit had arrived, in seven boxes, some quite large and heavy, so I laid out the components on the garage floor and, instructions in-hand started assembling it.
Progress was quick and the trailer kit was largely assembled in a matter of hours.

Trailer kit assembly; photo gallery

Session 33

Finished the trailer electricals and tested them. Left and right indicators were crossed over so I changed the wires over at the 7 pin connector, all OK

Sanded the pram floor ahead of coating with epoxy primer.

Session 34

The No. 1 Primer data sheet was followed carefully. The non-skid fine sand for distributing over the wet primer was loaded into an improvised sugar shaker (jar with drilled lid) in readiness.

Initially I thought that manual stirring of the primer would be OK but this stuff is absolute muck. I used a hex Allen key with the long part in the drill and this set-up mixes very well. No air sucked in and it can move material out of the corners. (The data sheet advised mechanical mixing !!)

Mixed 250ml of primer and then added 10% thinners for brushing/rolling. (In the middle if all this the chook (chicken) walked in to investigate, so it has to be chased out pronto.)

The primer rolled on well enough but started skinning very quickly so I had to do it in 4 sections, sprinkling on lots of sand before painting the next section. Used approx. 400 ml of fine sand.

The vapours were very intense as I found out when removing the respirator so I ran the ceiling fan and let the room ventilate. About 5 hours later it had cured enough to vacuum up the loose surplus sand. The overall result was more even than expected , almost like 80 grit sandpaper.

Session 35

First coat of Altex white two pack polyeuethane. Mixed 275 ml, let it stand for 15 minutes as per the data sheet and then thinned 10%. It rolled on well with the small 100 mm micro fibre rollers but it was obvious that the coats would be quite thin. A small brush was used to get inside the mast box etc.

Session 36

Second coat of white. The grit remained very grippy despite the second coat.

Session 37

Third coat of white to inside floor produced a good consistent colour and it looked like enough.

Session 38

Turned the boat over. Final sanding of boats bottom with the flat and detail orbital sanders and first coat of barrier epoxy applied with a micro fibre roller.
Several fluff droppings had to be picked out but overall it was only just satisfactory. Two runs were cleaned up after they were discovered about 3 hours after coating. Next coat was brushed !

Session 39

After the epoxy coats had cured the primer was applied. We were going sailing the next day but I remembered that the polyurethane had to be a applied over the primer within 24 hours to avoid necessary sanding so it was done very early in the morning using a micro fibre roller. 300 ml mix was more than enough to cover the bottom.

Session 40

The second and third coats of the white polyeurethane were applied by roller and foam brush. The foam brush produced more runs but almost no bubbles. Although the air bubbles collapsed and flattened after rolling, overall the foam brush was probably better than brushing especially on edges.

Session 41

Final coat with foam brush ...yee ha, all done.

General comment: If I ever build another boat like this, I will most likely get all the epoxy coating done before any other finishing commences, although this requires a bit more boat turning. The boundary between inside and out was the lower edge of the gunnel/outwale. The varnish to poly transition was not perfect but the Gunnel Guard would be covering it later, after launching.