I am giving up on the gel coat of my 8' sailing dinghy and will be painting it with white Brightsides. It has lots of fine stress cracks in the gel coat from 20 years of hitting the dock, etc. I know that I'd ideally use Pre-Kote to fill in those imperfections before Brightside, but I'd rather not buy a quart of it to only use a cup of it.

 

But I also have a quart of Primocon that I've only used a tiny amount of and there's no way that I'll use the rest of it before it's shelf life expires. So will Primocon work reasonably well on gelcoat and topped with Brightside?

 

Thanks,

 

Craig

 

BTW, it would be great if you sold these things in smaller quanities. I have a very small can of Brightside that it's a very handy, but (at least at my chanderlies in the PNW) I can't get similar sizes of the primers.

 

Therefore in order to benefit from Intergrip, it is best and recommended for you to use it in conjunction with the finishes only such as Brightside.

 

When scuffing between coats of Brightside with Intergrip the most effective to do so would be to use coarse bronze wool or even a scotch brite pad as it will allow you to get in and around each of the valleys without excessively removing the Intergrip.

 

You cannot and should not attempt to hot coat Pre-Kote or Brightside as you will only end up with some solvent entraptment, which in turn will result in blistering/wrinkling/detachment. Therefore in order to ensure that you achieve proper drying and maintain proper adhesion I would recommend that you follow all recommended drying times.

 

Hope this helps!

Your proposed plan looks good overall. One thing I would potentially change would be the 220 grit paper between coats as you generally will not need to go that coarse in between layers themselves, therefore as long as there are very few imperfections in the finish, I would recommend that you use 320 instead.

 

With regards to to Pre-Kote if the 1st coat has been applied/sanded/cleaned and looks good where there are no imperfections present, then you are good to go and a 2nd coat will provide you with very little benefit. However, if the 1st coat looks ok, but not all that great then I would recommend that you apply the 2 coats to help cover up all imperfections.

 

Otherwise it looks good to me and good luck!

 

Carolyn

 

Unfortunately have never tested the application of the product in any other environment as it is not intended to be used anywhere else.

 

Sure it is an epoxy and a robust epoxy for that matter, so I wouldn't necessarily expect there to be any issues.

 

But without ever testing that application itself or even one which is similar, we cannot guarantee the use of that product.

 

Since Pacifica Plus is copper free it can certainly be used up against or even on top of a Volvo Penta. Common primers used with Pacifica Plus will be Fiberglass No Sand Primer (when being applied to brand new gelcoat which has never been sanded or overtop of clear epoxy resins), Primocon (when going overtop of factory paints or unknown paints) and InterProtect 2000E (when used as a moisture barrier on fiberglass or overtop of bare metals).

 

The recommended system for you to use and the steps which it will require will vary depending on which primer you will be using, below are three examples:

 

Fiberglass No Sand Primer & Pacifica Plus:

1. Dewax the hull with Fiberglass Surface Prep YMA601 or Fiberglass Solvent Wash 202

2. Rinse the surface with fresh water to ensure that water runs freely (if not repeat step 1 until it does)

3. Apply 1 thin coat of Fiberglass No Sand Primer

4. Apply 1 coat of Pacifica Plus while the Fiberglass No Sand Primer is tacky

5. Apply 2nd coat of Pacifica Plus

 

Primocon & Pacifica Plus: