So West System Epoxy Resin Can Be Used As A Complete Substitute For Gelcoat ?

[albergsailor]

1/4 nap mohair from home depot/lows did the trick thanks for the advice about 1/4 minerat!! didnt wanna leave this post hangin, THE ROLLER THE ROLLER THE ROLLER and THOSE DUMAS*ES AT WEST MARINE. the insisted time and time again that that 3/8 mohair was the correct roller to use(the blue one that they stocked). That mohair roller did not specify that it was for epoxy. So i tried another roller that they also stocked that said it could be used for epoxy. There were no other rollers(aside from west foam and the yellow one i bought) that west marine stocked that specified they were for epoxy. So i get to the boat (thinking ok very light coats this time i can do this) and sure enough it came out even worse than before!(this time i only only did a small test spot) this time i noticed the TON of hair that was coming off the roller(blue mohair roller). Then i tried the other ( i think yellow) roller(specified for epoxy from west dumbell marine) with the same horrible results. I think i tried the west roller and it came out ok but my roller needed more modding cuz the roller edges were catching into the paint. So the rollers i ended up using, drumroll please.... The lows and home depot rollers 1/4 in nap that were specified for epoxy. Also before i did all this i took a frame roller meant for 12 inch and modified it for 9 inch. That worked great, but needed further modding cuz the plastic sides had to be cut down so the 1/4 nap could clear when u pushed the roller into the surface. I used these same rollers for the top coat. the whole job came out pretty dam good i must say but i completly forgot to tip the top coat so its a little bumpy. Isnt tipping part of the process? But that will be sanded anyway one day i think(i dont know much about topcoats, i got micron extra so its multiseason. i hit all the chemical bond windows for the interprotect(2 coats) and the window for the antifoulding, boy was that a little hussle for 5-6 hours. So how interlux is still in business with thier half ass tech support that told me also that my 3/8 nap mohair was correct is pretty dum. They should sell a roller that comes with interprotect designed for interprotect. The mohair from lowes and one from home depot had a completly different texture than the fuzzy crappy west marine mohair. Freckin idiots. Im sure this post will help some people out i hope it saves some people some major headaches. A 3/8 roller may be able to make decent results, but it must be the same matierial as the home depot epoxy 1/4 nap rollers, and i dont know if they even make them in 3/8

[minaret]

Glad it worked out for ya and you're happy! No one I know tips bottom paint.

[Ironhorse74]

Just an fyi here. I rolled on 5 coats of 2000e with the terry cloth rollers from Home Depot. 3 for 10 bucks. Worked great. I found the toughest part of using 2000e was the mixing. One of the large drill driven mixers worked best. I added about a quarter of the can of hardner to the gallon. Mixed it for about 5 minutes and then poured it into a larger container. I still had to scrape a bunch of goop out of the gallon container. I then added the rest of the hardner and mixed it for another 10 minutes. I rolled on 5 coats of 2000e and two coats of bottom paint in about 12 hours. Who needs a gym membership when you are at the boat yard?