Ralph T Smith

Tag: Acetic Acid

  • We found a magic loophole

    Apparently the right conditions allowed us to peel about 98% of the bottom in under 8 hours. The majority of the gel coat came off in slabs with a heavy acetic acid layer between it and the laminate. There was plenty of general osmosis but not as many blisters as one would expect.
    Every spot should have been a blister but instead just release pressure into the layer between the gel coat and laminate.

    You could see a number of blisters that did make it through complete forming.

    This is how big the majority of hull pieces were. We had 5, 13 gallon bags to dump at the end of the work.

    Here are some pictures after we completed the first run of scraping.

  • We’re going to need a bigger paint brush.

    We’re going to need a bigger paint brush.

    After inspecting the hull after haul out some damage was identified on the port aft section of the hull. A .5 square foot section of the gel coat has came off exposing the laminate.
    So it’s time to investigate the condition of the gel coat and moisture below the waterline.


    Well sure enough we see elevated moisture throughout the majority of the hull. Peaking to as high as 26% around the keel and damaged gel coat sections. Time to do some exploratory gel coat removal and see what is below.

    With a plastic paint scraper we took this off in under 10 minutes. The gel coat so far is not adhered to the hull. A consistent layer of acetic acid and blisters show a hull wet from osmosis. Even at this point none of the gel coat surfaces are sufficient to fix except the one above the water line which is rock solid.
    Time to investigate solutions and make some decisions.