Blouses on the bottom of the boat look just like that, blister. A few blisters look like a bunch of acne, and they can be of different sizes. Some of these bubble traps can get the width of the softball and push out of the bottom of the boat enough. Blisters do not care if you have a motorboat or a sailboat, and it can become quite ugly if it is not taken care of in the early stages, but if you catch it early on (which you usually can), then it doesn’t matter much I know that this may seem like a big deal when you see all those blisters / pimples on the boat, when you pull them out, but it really is. You can handle it, just take it in one step ... no problem.
Boat pancakes are formed mainly from water / moisture absorbed under the gelcoat, where there could be an air pocket / space. If there is a raw fiberglass fiber, it will also move in this ... There are many reasons. As more water in the area is absorbed, its pressure becomes greater than the surrounding water, and bulges, so the boat is a blister. Many boats and yachts in the northern waters do not have this problem due to water temperature and another factor. They pull out in the winter months, allowing the bottom time to dry out. They are pulled out from October to November and do not return until April-May.
This gives the bottom of the shell 4 to 5 months to dry, so water absorption is controlled. Another way, when the boat gets all these little bubbles and pimples, suddenly arises when they pull out their boat or yacht on a hot sunny day. The water that has been absorbed under the gelcoat is rapidly expanding from heat, and they come. I saw it myself in ft. Lauderdale, FL when the boat is pulled out. The boat had black paint and a completely smooth bottom. Since it was still in the slings, acne / blistering appeared, such as chicken pox! Some are small, some are big, but a whole bunch. Funny, it was only in the area where the bright sunlight of Florida fell to the bottom of the boats. The sun heated the water from the gelcoat. Now let us restore these ...
In principle, if you have just a small area, or several here and there, this is one of the ways to restore them. For more intense areas or real large bubbles that merge with a liquid sticky liquid, I will need to do another article to help you cope with those who really have no problems.
First, I took chalk or pencil and circled the blisters of the boat. Sometimes some of them will disappear, which you think will be good, but in the end, why can it rot? You see it, you know where it is, and you do others, just like those that disappear. Apply bubbles / pimples with a screwdriver, perforator, flat screwdriver or small chisel to clear the gelcoat and expose the bottom of the fiberglass under the gelcoat. This allows any water.
Then wipe off any water / liquid and using a grinder or a good orbital grinder with sandpaper 60-80 sandpaper, sand / cast any bulk material around, around the blister / pimple of the boat (remember to use a mask and read all instructions and warnings on all that you use). You will find out when you clean it all up well with a grinding machine / grinding machine ... do not go into the wild, these little ones (no more) do not need such a large grinding and grinding. When the area looks uniform, without bulk material or discoloration, it should be good. Do not dig too much, you do not need. Take a screwdriver and select where the bubbles / acne should have seen if there are any hollow spots.
Now the hard part ... Drying time! It would be great if you could leave it for a few months out of the water, like in the north. If you do not have the time (a month or more) to keep it dry, you can speed up the process by adding heat, such as heat lamps or fluorescent lights, which cause uniform heating ... nothing that gets too hot to touch, will lead to moisture loss, and the moisture meter will give you the necessary information ... one of these little great gadgets! You and I know that you will give so much time to dry, but the longer the better ... for the whole body it is a fact!
Wipe the area with a damp cloth with acetone and clean the areas well. To fill any irregularities, fill the filler using resin and micro-fillers that can be found at most Marine Supply stores. Bitten your tar almost into a paste, remember to use a hardener and apply a spatula. On large recesses, first use a bit of filler to make sure you get to the end, leaving no air spaces. Then add more to align it with the original surrounding surface. Again, you can seal the areas so that your work area is dense, which means less than sand. Let your filler dry, sand with 180 or 220 emery paper using a grinder or a manual grinder depending on the area you want to perform. If you need it, smoothly, finish with 320.
It's awesome, but you are ... easy, and you just added more value to your boat! ... and if you have large areas, you can do it in sections so that you are not overloaded ... It would be good to use a barrier coat product before applying the lower paint over the filler ... it makes it harder for water / moisture, to return, especially if your boat or yacht stays in the water all year round ... ..plus, since you did such a pleasant job ... and Why knot?
