4 Days of patching

All patched. All sanded. Now it
needs to be cleaned for the first coat.

We have completed the patching part of our bottom job (well, we still have a little sanding to do yet). Tomorrow we will start the painting part. I'm hoping it will be more fun, or at least less work. 

The epoxy we put on comes in 2 compounds that have to be mixed in equal parts to be used. (I have no photos of this because the stuff is crazy goopy and I didn't want to get it on my phone!) As a result you work in batches, and you work quickly since the goop dries out and becomes really hard to put on. Once dried the stuff needs to be sanded, then the area cleaned with denatured alcohol (a fuel, donchano!), then reapply for any bad holes (of which we had many). 

It took us 4 days to do. Yes. Bring one the paint -- I'm ready for a change.

Fun in the hotel room.

The paint plan is as follows: First, we need to apply a "barrier coat" which seals the gelcoat and grips the bottom paint. We will apply 3 (yes, 3) coats of that. The first 2 will be easy -- apply and dry. The third will be a little tricky since we need to apply the first coat of bottom paint while the 3rd coat fo the barrier paint is still tacky (tacky, not wet, apparently key to the process).

We will apply 3 bottom coats as well, the first in a bright color, like red, and the next 2 in black. The theory is that, as the paint wears, we'll know when it's time to repaint once we see the red stuff. 

The weather for the week looks awesome for painting so, with any luck, we'll splash this Friday. But my money's on Monday. Yep, I'm a curmudgeon.