Fixing non-slip texture on deck

M

MMcCawley

Member
Sep 11, 2010
156
San Clemente, Ca
Boat Info
1989 268 Sundancer
Engines
454 Mercruiser w/Bravo I Drive
Hi,

The previous owner of my 268DA cut the engine hatch in two and added hinges to allow easier access to the engine compartment. Every time the deck gets wet I get water in the engine compartment so I'm in the middle of joining the two halves back together. My question is- after I finish my glass work, how do I retexture the gel coat? I'd imagine it's going to be difficult to match the existing texture but I'd like to get it as close as possible. Any suggestions or tips are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk
 
I like the idea of the hinges... what if you built a raingutter under the leaking point and ran it/tied into the cockpit drain?
 
My first thought is a bed liner paint in the matching color. It would provide a non slip protective coating for a repair like this. Lots of products and different application options for different textures. You could do the whole hatch and get it a unified texture that is close to the decks. Close enough I imagine that you would not notice it. I have seen boat decks covered in a bed liner paint that did look nice.

Otherwise you may be able to texture the last coat of resin? Not sure if you could tint it as well to color match it. I have patched a fiberglass canoe and know the basics but have little fiberglass knowledge other than that.

Could find a deck from someone parting an old Sea Ray out. Not typically easy finding these parts close to home though...
 
Depends upon the non-skid pattern and how good you are.

If you have the "sand" type non skid, the only hope is finding someone to sprat the gelcoat who has experience at spraying the gelcoat thick enough so it spits out of the spray orifice. The end result can look almost identical to the original, but this takes a lot of trial and error and gelcoat isn't cheap.

If your boat has a known pattern, and Sea Ray has used several over the years, Gibco makes a number of male/female mold products sold in sheet form that do a good job in matching the non-skid pattern. The problem here again is practice and the facthat you have to have a fairly large sheet of the mold material because you must align and interlock the mold material on one side of the repair, tape it securely to an undamaged part of the deck, fold it back, shoot your gelcoat, then lay the mold material over onto the fresh uncured gelcoat. THe finer the pattern the harder it is to make a good repair. Here is the Gibco website:


http://gibcoflexmold.com/patterns/



Now, having answered your question, I will tell you that this is going to be very difficult to do and get a cosmetically acceptable repair. This is an application that cries out for SeaDek:


http://www.seadek.com/blog/jetboat-pilot-seadeks-a-sea-ray-450/
 
dpmulvey said:
Agree...and as going to mention that. But the OP sounded like he was already in the fusion process.
Click to expand...

Ah, you're right. I missed that part - although after reading through a second time, it's painfully clear that I totally just missed it!

So along with what the other guys are saying about non-skid repair... yes, it's not easy for someone with little experience in this field. Heck, I'm at least "comfortable" with some of this type of thing... much more-so with actual glassing than large gelcoat repairs, though... I leave the latter to the experts.

My two cents? On a budget: paint the floor a contrasting color like sand or light grey, leaving the existing 1"-ish "smooth" area around the edges. Done well, this can look VERY nice. I'm saying this on the assumption that you have the sand/pebble type non-skid because you can use a non-skid additive in the paint that will mask your repair area and blend well with the existing non-skid.

With a bigger budget: go for something like Frank mentioned. Personally, I really like the Plasdeck product as it looks and feels VERY much like real teak. But again, that's just a personal preference.
 
You could just make a smooth strip down the center splice just like you have around the perimeter.
Much easier that trying to duplicate the texture.
 
a small throw rug to cover the engine hatch? doesn't help your issue but if all else fails
 
Another vote to NOT attempt matching it..
Redo entire area with a new nonskid paint or cover with fake teak or similar.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies. I agree, it'll be nearly impossible to create a cosmetically appealing repair. I've thought about retexturing the entire surface which may be my best bet aside from covering the surface with something such as seadek. The OEM surface looks closest to this: http://gibcoflexmold.com/product/gfsr-305/. I'd take a picture but right now the cover is upside down waiting for the resin to cure. Another thought I had was to apply the gelcoat with a drywall texture gun. It might be a longshot but I might give it a shot.
 
Another other option,

Not sure if it was on CSR or not ... but, they got a close to OEM look by spraying gel coat and then use a textured roller before it started to cure.

I think that would be challenging to do over a large surface...just thought I'd throw it out there.
 
Go to my profile page and look at the photo album titled MY BOAT. I posted pics of my swim platform that I regelcoated after I recored it five years ago. Search my user name I did a write up on the process. Basically, since my boat has the SPACKLE pattern, which is rather random, I sanded off the old pattern, masked off the smooth edges, used a foam roller to apply Spectrum gelcoat then used a dry celing texture roller and rolled thru the wet material and let it kick off. This pulled up the gelcoat into a pattern that very closely approximated the original. It took about four coats with the last using finishing agent to get the pattern and aggressiveness I wanted for a swim platform. I just had a man admire the platform this spring in the yard, he wanted to know who did the work and was shocked when I told him it was DIY. BTW, this was my first ever attempt at gelcoat repair. Since I did the whole platform, it didn't have to match exactly to blend in. If you have that pattern, this technique is very easy to do and supplies other than the gelcoat came from Lowe's. Feel free to ask me questions if you want more details. PM me a phone number and we can talk about it if interested.
 
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I just looked at your pattern, it's the same as mine, so you could use the same technique on your project. It wasn't really that difficult and with a little practice on a scrap of wood first, you can get great results.
 
To apply the gelcoat I used those short 5 inch rollers that are about an inch in diameter. They don't have any nap to come off in the finish and they don't absorb too much gelcoat, a good thing since its expensive. After I applied a coat, I used a 'goop loop' roller like is used to apply ceiling texture spackle. I simply rolled the roller dry through the fresh gelcoat and it pulled the sticky gelcoat up into peaks that laid down into lumps that look like the original pattern. I let it set and then applied another coat, varying my application direction by 90 degrees, this prevented lap marks from appearing. I alternated coats at right angles until I felt I had the pattern the way I wanted it and on the last coat, I added the finishing agent so the last coat would cure without being tacky.

A few tips, you don't need to remove all the old pattern, just get it good and clean and then sand with 36-40 grit on a random orbit sander. Clean up with acetone prior to applying the gelcoat.
If you tape off anything, be sure to get a good adhesion of the tape so you get a clean sharp line. Also, remove the tape soon after final coat so it doesn't get 'set in' to the gelcoat. If any does, use a sharp exacto knife or razor blade to trim along the edge and remove the tape.
Mix a little more than what you think you need so you can do each coat in one pass. Also, put it on thick enough that you have material to 'pull up' into a pattern. It's not really hard to figure out when you start rolling it on.
That was my first ever attempt at doing anything with liquid gelcoat and it came out great. Just plan your work, and move quickly and have plenty of rollers and acetone and rags so you can keep moving. I did the platform finish in a few hours of a single afternoon.
 
For the type of non skid pattern we have, the pattern process would be needlessly complex. It's much easier to do what I did, and it saves the work of making molds. The mold idea works great if you have a noticeable pattern, or if you are trying to spot in a repair. To do a whole section of deck interrupted with some kind of physical break or a hatch with the spackel pattern, the roller method is less work and yields great results.
 
Hey Scorpio, After you textured the non-slip surface did you do a final gel coat over all surfaces (non-slip and the smooth perimeter) or did you gel coat everything first and then do the non-slip last?

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk
 
Did everything first, then masked off the smoother area and added the texture.
 
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