Paint and West System Epoxy

[Marktesno]

Hello out there! I have spent the last year taking the mutiple layers of paint of the decks of my sailboat. The deck is 3 layers of 5/16" plywood then covered with cloth and West Epoxy. As the boat was new to me in 1997 with 15 years of use I fiqured that if I was going to renew I''d do it right and remove every piece of hardware and get back down to the Epoxy base and at the same time inspect the wood for signs of water damage. Luckly, I found very little. I don''t suspect any movement in the substrate as the cause for the cracking and chipping of the old paint. I suspect the paint and or the applications by previous owner was flawed. I''m not sure what was used for paint previously but it was extremely hard. So hard in fact that sanding with a random orbit using 36 grit pads was such a slow process, I ended up using paint remover. I have contacted the West System people and they suggest that I use Alwgrip. The problem is its'' best applied by the "Pros" and sprayed.I need to do this my self and that means apply by brush. Seeing that the previous paint did not stand up very well, for what ever reason my QUESTION IS What would you use? A one part polyurethane, which is an easier application, is a little softer and (less apt to crack) and resign to the fact to refinish more often Or a two part liner polyurethane which is a more involved application but harder (maybe more prone to cracking) and supposed to have a longer life. I don''t want go through the laborous job of removal again. Anyone out there with a similar situation Thanks

[paulk]

I painted our deck two, soon to be three seasons ago. You do NOT want to have to do it again anytime soon, but if you''vre removed the hardware and taken it down to the epoxy, the hardest part is over. After testing with one-part polyurethane, (poor results-did not stand up to any usage), I used two part polyurethane from Interlux. Their product can go on with a roller (use a 6" solvent resistant roller, available in bags of 6 from Home Depot) and they have an 800 number helpline that is very patient and good at hand-holding. If I were to do it again, I would do a better job taping off and covering all the hardware (on a 36'' boat, we didn''t want to have to re-bed everything) and I would suggest going with the maximum reccommended nonskid granules in each topcoat. (I used only half the max in the first topcoat, then the max, and the footing is ok, but not as nonskid as it could be.) The paint is holding up well, and I expect at least another five years before we have to even think about it again.

[suedebriar]

I''m a little confused. You said that your boat has 3 layers of 5/16 ply (total 15/16?) or do you mean a three ply 5/16 inch plywood. You said this was cloth covered. Is this a wooden boat? If so go to the Wooden Boat web sight (www.woodenboat.com)for advice. If you are down to plywood on the deck don''t use polyurethane. Put a layer of Dynel set in epoxy. This is what I would have thought the West System guys would have said. This makes me think that I do not have a true picture of what you have.