Not giving up

yeah, another Lyssa kayak post,,, skip if its boring the heck out of ya,,,,

little backstory: former owner told me that he had her gelcoat ‘resprayed’ and I assumed that is exactly what was used.   Now, not so certain.   In fact, there is one section that is peeling off the old REAL gelcoat near the gunnel and what I am seeing looks a whole lot more like two part polyurethane like I use in my skinboats.

Polyurethane doesn’t take ANYTHING without serious chemical and mechanical preparations; not even more polyurethane.  Recoating a skinboat in two part will eventually flake off, and nothing I have found works to stop it.

Now, I have been having an issue with the gelcoat (actual gelcoat) adhering to this boat.   stuff just peels right off in sheets unless I ‘dig deep’ with the paper prior.   Deep enough to see glass deep.

What I am thinking at this point,,,,

Going to have to go to extremes so if I have to go extreme, go full bore extreme.   Strip the hull to the glass and do a new surface coating.   And if I am going that far, may as well make it an epoxy finish.  

I haven’t weighed all the options yet, sending this up more hoping for feedback from some other boaters as to ‘is it worth it?’ or should I just strip that sprayed shit off and do a full buff out and call it good?     I’ve already scraped off the gel I had rolled on and faired out what did hold tight.  But its not a perfect color match: the old stuff is more like flour white, while the new has a blue-ish cast to it, not yellow-ish.  The new stuff stands out, loudly.  

And then, there is the “she’s a 21  year old boat, use the heck out of her, keep her sea-worthy and don’t sweat it.  She’s a stepping stone to the next boat.” argument that keeps popping in my head.   (being a Tempest, which seem to hold value better than some other ‘murican’ makes,,, I kinda want to ‘restore’ her)(downside to restoring a kayak, you will never ever get back, the time or money you pour into that hole in the water,  period dot end discussion,,, the market just won’t be there for it.)

I haven’t surrendered this war yet,,, Probably won’t seeing how I am stubborn  as a mule when things get bullish around me.  (whudaya mean ‘I can’t’,,,, challenge accepted!!!) (the inverse of that ‘whudaya mean ‘I gotta’,,,, you and whose army are gonna make me)

I gotta hit water today or I am gonna go nutz,,,,   all this scraping, wet sanding, buffing, wetsanding, more buffing,,,,   I need a break,,,,,