Summary
(please click on any of the pictures for a larger one - use the BACK button to come back)
A lot of the work I was doing involved parts of the boat with non-skid. Either redoing a small section that already had non-skid, or creating a whole new piece (locker lids, and sliding hatch) that needed it.
As is the case with everything else, I had "grand" plans. I was going to cast a pattern of my old non-skid like they tell you to do in all of those Practical Sailor and Good Old Boat articles. Well, let me be the first to say......NOT!
That was a huge waste of time and effort. Maybe I didn't do it right, but I needed to find another way.
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For the small areas, I started with some of the bolt holes I had filled in. They were in the middle of the non-skid pattern. I filled in the holes with epoxy filler so that it stood proud of the top of the non-skid surface -- that way I'd have a lot of material to work with.
Then I used a very fine-tipped dremel tool to carve out a close match of the surrounding non-skid pattern. Artwork!
Here are the before and after pictures of the same sections of non-skid. |
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For the large, uninterrupted areas of non-skid that were going to be painted, I used an epoxy mixture.
You can see what it looks like in this picture of the sliding hatch. Click this picture for a larger one. |
The method I used was to add thickener to epoxy in such a quantity that it was almost too thick. It was entirely possible to put too much in and have it not work, however.
But if you got it just right, when rolled on with a HEAVY nap roller (1/2" or more) the thickened epoxy will stand up from the roller and not level out. In fact, I had to sand the finished hatch quite a bit because the epoxy points were so sharp!
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The nice thing about rolling on the non-skid is that it was easy to create the factory-look by taping all of the areas that you want to be smooth when you are done.
The hatch on the right with the fancy taping job is the motor well cover descibed here. If you do this taping stuff - make sure you pull the tape off while the epoxy is still WET. I now know this to be true. |
Lessons Learned
Don't believe everything your read in Practical Sailor or Good Old Boat.
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