On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 15:32:24 -0700 (PDT), wheewhoo
wrote:

On Apr 8, 10:33*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 09:44:19 -0700 (PDT), wheewhoo wrote:
Any advice, opinions, etc welcome

What size boat? *Can you flip it upside down to work on it?
Look at thread " Peeling fiberglass surface" that was running a couple
of weeks ago.
Does your peeling look like this?http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/a...0Seas%20Skiff/

Rick

Hi Rick, it is a 20ft boat, but access is ok to the effected parts. It
does look similar to those photos, but my coating is much thicker, and
is flaking off in much smaller parts, with only very small areas of
fiberglass showing where pieces have fallen out. The surface looks
more shattered than peeling, but that is due to the thickness of the
coating I suppose.

I'm thinking to just remove the coating, or gel coat if that's what it
is, and seal it up again. A very gritty belt on a belt sander would do
it I think. If this is a gel coat, is it normal to be so thick? Could
this also be layers of paint applied over the years? When crushed the
flaked pieces snap and are brittle. I suppose you are going to ask for
a photo now

If you can actually see the underlying fiberglass material, and you
know that it is fiberglass then, if you want to fix it, you will have
to at least sand the areas back until you know that you have reached
some sort of solid foundation. The "blisters will need to be "dished
out" with the, now, sharply delineated indents, sanded back to blend
them into the remaining surface. You can then paint the repair area
with activated epoxy resin (this wets out the area and ensures that
you do have 100% epoxy coverage) and then fill the dished out area
with epoxy filler made with epoxy resin and a thickener. Sand smooth,
paint with epoxy high build primer and sand again, spray finish coat
of two part polyurethane paint.

Have a look at the WEST System web pages for more detailed information
complete with pictures.

..
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)