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PROGRESSIVE EPOXY POLYLMERS, INC

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Restoration of the famous Leaf blower Powered Dinghy

summer 2004

Back sometime around 1996 or 97 I build a "stitch and glue" dinghy using 1/4 exterior plywood and epoxy resin. It mostly lived upside sitting in the mud at a 'dinghy' landing in a marina on Clear Lake in Kemah, Texas (which produced some minor rot on the tips of the transom and bow plate). In 2000 I moved myself and the boat to Central New Hampshire and in 2001 or 2002 I set the afloat in a small pond in the back of my property. It was there that the boat had a few moments of fame when I posted on the internet pictures of it buzzing around the pond powered by a gasoline leafblower.

More pictures - click here

Bailing out rainwater from the dinghy resulted in most of the paint in the bottom of the boat being scraped off.

After the "leaf blower" season, the boat lived upside down in a wooden boat rack in my backyard.

This past spring/summer I decided it was time to repaint the 'floor' and perhaps the hull which was starting to show 'checking' or tiny splits in the plywood panels. I pulled the boat off the rack and turned my waterblaster on it to clear off any loose paint. To my horror, I blasted a 5 inch by 5 inch hole through the bottom of the boat! Also, another 1 inch square hole just below the aft starboard rail! Clearly a more complete restoration was needed!

Note that I am in the marine and industrial epoxy business (Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. - www.epoxyproducts.com/marine.html) so I have lots of epoxies and related products available in my workshop (at no cost!) to restore my first stitch and glue 'mini-yacht'.

Below is the methods and products I and using (used) in the restoration which took place in my garage June and July 2004.

1) I waterblasted the hull to remove loose paint, dirt etc. (note this was done already and lead to the holes in the weak spots of the hull.

2) I let the hull dry a few days in the garage. I then turned it upside down on saw horses and began to get to work.....

3) I coated the exterior hull with one coat of our EPOXY PRIMER (replaced with ESP 155). This is a white pigmented, high solids epoxy primer and sealer. It was sort of like painting the hull with milk. The idea was to penetrate and seal the tiny cracks in the plywood, provide a fresh and clean bonding surface for forthcoming patch, repair, and coating products. It took about 15 oz of EPOXY PRIMER to coat the exterior of the hull.

4) Using a saw I cut away a lot, but not all, of the splintered wood around the two holes. I wanted some of the splintered wood in place to increase the epoxy to wood bond area. I then recoated the 'holes' with a bit more of the EPOXY PRIMER and let it cure for a day or so.

5) I duct taped wax paper over the two holes on the convex (exterior) side of the hull and turned the boat over (upright) so I could work on the holes from the inside of the hull.

6) I cut some of our 9 oz. FIBERGLASS TAPE (from rolls 3 inch wide by 50 yards long) into pieces 3 to 7 inches long - about 10 or 12 pieces total and epoxy fiberglassed closed the holes (which were 'backed' with the duct taped wax paper). Each hole got about 3 layers of fiberglass cloth. I used our BASIC NO BLUSH marine epoxy for the repair.

7) When the epoxy had cured hard I turned the boat upside down again and removed the duct tape and wax paper, exposing my epoxy fiberglass repair.

8) I then mixed up a batch of our epoxy gel/putty (FILLET QUICK - a thickened epoxy we no longer sell) and using a putty knife filled any chips, holes, dents, and missing layers of plywood (there were lots of these in the bow plate and transom where rot had taken hold). I also faired around my patched holes filling in low spots and places were the epoxy had not filled in. After it had cured, a quick and dirty sanding with my belt sander, a bit more epoxy putty in spots I missed. (Fillet quick is no longer available use Wet Dry 700 epoxy paste or just thicken the Basic No Blush with EZ thick thickener).

9) I turned the boat right-side up again and repeated step 3 - coated the entire interior with EPOXY PRIMER, then step 8 - FILLET QUICK epoxy putty on voids, holes and around my new fiberglass patches.

10) With the boat upside down again, I painted the exterior with our CM15 epoxy paint. CM15 is a solvent based epoxy paint and primer with lots of flex (so necessary on a 1/4 inch plywood hull). I used about 1.5 quarts to paint the exterior of the 8 ft dinghy. With the beige CM15 now encasing the hull in a uniform manner, I could see places that need more cosmetic putty and fairing. NOTE: the CM15 has a long potlife and behaves more like a 'regular' paint than other epoxy paints (which are kind of like painting with honey). It's tendency to sag probably a little bit more than that of 'regular' paint.

11) Using exterior grade putty from the hardware store (much easier to sand) I finished fairing the exterior of the hull back to my satisfaction....

12) The entire interior, including seats, were also coated with CM15. Total amount of CM15 to coat interior and exterior of the boat was approximately 1 gallon. (leason learned I would use the Epoxy Primer on all plywood surfaces when building any future boat). Exterior putty was used to as needed for more cosmetic putty filling and fairing.

13) A missing 10 inch section of railing near the bow was replaced. I used 1/4 round mounding as the original and replacement railing. The replacement section was epoxy glued in place with our kevlar reinforced WET DRY 700 epoxy putty. Additonal fairing and smoothing of this section of rail and all the other railing was done with regular exterior putty.

14) A few hours of sanding the putty, CM 15, repairs, etc. is next, followed by cosmetic painting.

15) Over the CM 15 the original paint scheme was repeated - Black topsides and seats, white everywhere else. I used exterior water based latex with the following exceptions:

I wanted to test our rubber co-polymer paint so the entire bottom of the dinghy (about 25 square feet) and the Floor Board section (inside bottom) of the boat was coated with the white co-polymer

I wanted to test our moisture cured aluminum filled urethene (aluthane) so the underwater skeg and a few sections of the Floor Board area inside the boat were painted with the aluthane

Note the boat will be moved to my swimming pool sized duck pond and sit in the water for weeks. I will see how the coatings on the bottom hold up. The same coatings on the inside will suffer from sun and the bailing bucket.