Testimonials
Document I
This was the worst job that I had to deal with in the restoration of EPOXY. Lots and lots of bottom paint, not the new stuff but the
old stuff. My first thought was to sand it off using a big belt sander with the appropirate safe gear however, this would
not work as I discovered that under all the bottom paint was a two part tar based epoxy that clogged the belt up almost instantly.
As a result I had to resort to some sort of paint stripper and after trying many different types I setteled on "STAR 10" see "PRODUCTS"
The photo on your immediate right is a thick application of STAR 10 paint stripper. It was sprayed on with a airless sprayer
and it is easy to see how well it sticks to the vertical and horizontal surfaces. It is not necessary to cover it with any plastic
as the formula prevents premature evaporation. I let this stripper sit for 12 hours after it was sprayed and it went through
many lalyers of bottom paint and that two part tar epoxy with ease.
The above and below photo's illustrate how well this stripper works. You can see how well it is penetrating all the old paint and
lifting it off the wood. Below using a standard scraper the paint came off with hardly any pressure on the tool. One of
the advantages that this stripper has is that being a thick paste it stays put. When the paint disolves it has a tendency to stary
in a thick past rather than dripping all over the place. When the scraper was full I simple shook off the dissolved paint on
a plastic tarp. The next day all the paint re-solidified which resulted in a easy clean up and prevented all the dissolved chemicals
from comtaminating the entire area.
The Photo illustrates the advantage of this stripper, all the dissolved paint stay together. When this cures overnight
it becomes a solid mass and you can just pick it up. Other strippers I have used were very thin which resulted
in dissolved paint running down my arm and all over the ground. Below I starated using simple WOODEN tools to demonstrate how
well this paint stripper works.
What a beautiful sight all that bottom paint has been removed and we are ready for our application of CPES. Using a standard
low pressure spayer I applied a continous coating starting in the bow working my way back. I would spray an area then move backwards
when no more epoxy was absorbed into the wood. Upon reaching the stern I went back to the bow and did the same process over.
When the wood maintained a gloss for approxiamately 5 minutes and the product would just drip off I knew the wood was saturated.
One week later I applied a second coating of CPES in the exact same manner. The next day or 12 hours after the second coa twe applied
three coat's of Smith's high build barried paint. This process is going to give me a superior paint adhesing and will result
in a dry bilge.
After the initial application of CPES we can see the beauty on the wood. This epoxy penetrates into the grain of the wood
to stabilize it for superior topcoat adhesion.
The photo's left and above illustrate how the application of CPES to mildly deteriorated wood is a must. The wood has deteriorated
due to a fiberglass repair that was previously carried out. In order for wood in this condition to be painted with lasting results,
you must stablized it, and that cond only be done by something that is absorbed into the fibers themsellves. Immediately above
is what happened when I applied CPES to the inside of the HULL. The product was not only absorved by the wood but it completlly
penetrated the seams and came to the outside. The final coat of Royal blue looks great.
