***Safety*** working on interior sanding fiberglass and thickened resin

[lans0012]

I just bought a Ranger 22(like a Capri 22). The interior had very ugly nasty stinky mildew brewing carpet on the hull sides and as headliner. I yanked all that crap out and now I'm scratching my head. Underneath this carpet is some orangeish messy adheasive stuck onto fiberglass. The surface of the glass is rough and shows the sloppy job they did finishing the hull. This could be the work of a wannabe boat builder too as it looks like they had no clue what they were doing. Different layers of fiberglass can be seen overlapping with the end of the cloth fibers raised up about 1/8th inch. I have good cushions for the boat and I was thinking I'd just paint over this and be done with it. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on this, or time. I was thinking about sanding off this adhesive and smoothing out some of the rough spots with a thickened epoxy(which I have only read about and seen at west marine). Then painting with a mold mildew resistant paint.

First question:

Is this a good idea?

The interior is very tight and confined. I'm worried about sanding dust and vapors. I figured I'd open up all hatches and use a fan to ventilate the cabin. How should I do this safely? I have a P100 respirator that says it's good for vapors. Does this block dust too? What type of respirator should I use for sanding and applying and sanding epoxy with fillers? Are some fillers safer than others? (don't want to die of lung cancer before I sail around the world)


Can I use bondo to smooth this out before painting?

Safety is the primary concern. Cost second. Completely smooth beautifull interior way down on the list. Just want to brighten it up and be able to keep it clean.

Should I just apply more adhesive and put carpet up and be done with it? Live in St. Petersburg, fl and it is humid down here and especially in the cabin. How can I prevent mold/mildew from attacking my new carpet?

[Freesail99]

How can I prevent mold/mildew from attacking my new carpet?

A solar vent would go a long way in helping with the cause of the mold/mildew.

I sailed a capri 22 last year, fun boat. If the ranger is anything like it, your in for a great time.

[scottyt]

my opinion

put a box fan over the forward hatch, suction works better to get the dust out. yes a 100 rated mask will stop dust but it wont last as long, it will clog up.

i would don a suit with mask get a sanding wheel, put the fan on and grind away. after you knock down the real rough spots, i would then try solvent to remove the old glue. if the solvent does not do it go back to grinding. after you have made the surface smoother and glue free do a quick grind over everything to get some tooth for what ever you do next.

options are try to put on some filled epoxy like a plaster job, another layer of carpet. you might want to try wallpaper if you get it smooth enough with the grinding. personally i might think about finding a mobile truck bedliner company to see if they have white bedliner and maybe spray it. if not then maybe a texture spray gun that could handle thickened tinted epoxy ( or just gelcoat ) and just spray a layer to cover the grind marks.

[poopdeckpappy]

Info_Citrus King Mastic Remover

We've contracted some major Office remodels in the past and this stuff work really well

And, as the name implies, it smells like oranges

[Spiritman]

3M makes an adhesive remover that works pretty well.

After smoothing the surface as best I could, I used a roller to apply two coats of an exterior deck & trim paint -- designed to fill little cracks and holes. It looks good, is easy to touch up, and doesn't stink (after it dries).

A solar vent or vented hatches will help a lot.

The areas above the setees and around the windows are all unfinished fiberglass. If you get up close you can see the roughness but from a distance it looks pretty good. Visitors tell me it looks like vinyl headliner until I point out to them that it's just paint.

[mikehoyt]

Ian

Our last boat also came with carpet glued to the hull. It was ugly, was falling off and had glue under it. I replaced with hull liner material from Stright MacKay. It is mildew resistant and designed and manufactured for this purpose. Stright-MacKay

You can see pics of before and after at this location.
Full Tilt 2 pics

This hull liner over bare glass tidied up the look considerably and also made the boat more comfortable. Cost for the material was $59 plus the price of the glue. I used carpet adhesive.

Mike
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[sailingdog]

What you really want for doing work in this kind of situation is a full face respirator mask, like this one:



Vapor cartridges won't block dust, you need a P95 or P100 cartridge.

I would highly recommend lightly sanding the interior surface with a 100 grit random orbital sander to smooth out the interior surface. Fair it if you want an even surface, but that isn't really necessary IMHO. Then "paint" the interior with Interprotect 2000E, which makes an excellent primer for fiberglass in general. The IP2000E will protect the laminate from moisture intrusion and will stick far better than any paint would.

If you're really ambitious, you might consider glassing in some furring strips and putting some insulation and paneling up on the overhead and ceilings of the boat. (btw, the ceilings of a boat are the vertical surfaces—or walls...the "ceiling" of a boat is called an overhead)

[lans0012]

I have a 3M P100 respirator that I used once in the garage. Is that good for dust as well?

[resdog]

A steel wire cup brush rated for at least 14,00 RPM in a right angle grinder will knock the foam and glue off the fiberglass. It'll knock a lot of the uneven surface down if you get real enthusiastic about it. Not a fun job anyway you do it.

[GaryHLucas]

I did extensive fiberglass work on the interior of a Catalina 22, and repaired a dleaminated hull on a Hunter 27. A fan is good for keepng you cool, but a joke for handling fiberglass dust. Buy yourself a small shop vac and use the filter bags, not the filter cartridge, they sell for them. Set the vacuum on deck and lay the open hose end right where you are sanding. This will collect a lot of the dust. You can then keep vacuuming up as you work. The bag then gets tossed in the dumpster and the inside of the vacuum is still clean. You'll find that the shop vac is the best investment you can make for working on a boat interior. If you get one that vacuum up water you can even wash the interior and get all the water out easily.

Don't make dust in the first place. High speed grinders make tons of dust. What I found that actually works very well is the little 2" round click lock sanding disks used on a 1/4" electric drill. You'l find that they cut quite fast, but the lower speed compared to a grinder doesn't generate the huge dust cloud. Also you'll find you can reach lots of places you'll never reach with an angle grinder. Use the really coarse ones to quickly remove the raised edges.

The fiberglass job you are seeing is typical of what you find in any fiberglass boat. It's rough because that is how fiberglass works. Fiberglass is efficient. You build up the hull, then add as many layers as needed to provide strength in areas that have high stress. It is typical to taper back the layers so that stress concentrations aren't formed where thick glass meets thin.

Don't paint the interior hull with expensive epoxy or marine paint. Use white exterior alkyd house paint! Get one that has a biocide in it to keep mildew at bay, houses have the same problem on the North side in many areas. Look in many boats and you'll see this same kind of paint used by the manufacturers.

Don't over do it, leave time for sailing!