Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Tap Plastic "Coat It" question
I have a Tatman 16' drift boat and the uhmv needs to be replaced. I do not use the boat that often and had a price quote to fiberglass the botom for $1500 to $2,000. This seemed high but given that the materials are about $500, that price seems accurate.
My question is can I use Coat It instead of fiberglassing and do the job myself and still get the strength on the bottom? How many coats would be necessary? The bottom has no rotting at all.
Thanks for any help!
Views: 535
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on
-
I have no experience with Coat It, but you can get materials to fiberglass your boat bottom for much less than $500.
-
Permalink Reply by Kurt Selisch on
-
Hi Robert,
Coat It is basically epoxy with graphite particles mixed in. It will seal the plywood bottom and make it slick. You can get the same effect and save a little money by getting marine epoxy and graphite and mix it all up your self.
If you fish/float swift rocky rivers, you should probably epoxy fiberglass cloth down first, then do a finish coat of epoxy and graphite. Seems like most folks on this website go with 20oz cloth. Last spring I was in your boat (no pun intended). After searching past discussions I decided to replace my UHMW shoe with a 20oz epoxy bottom. It is really not that hard to do and you get a super hard and slick bottom on your boat. If you search this website for past forums on this subject you will find a lot of info on exactly how to do it. For supplies check out; www.raka.com they will have everything you need.
Have fun and good luck!
-
Permalink Reply by Robert Torre on
-
The bottom was painted. Do you need to remove completly all the paint and then lay down the fiberglass or make sure the bottom is clean and the paint is roughed up to make it adhere to the fiberglass.
-
Permalink Reply by Tom Anderson on
-
I sure would recommend getting rid of the paint. I think you would find it will go relatively quickly once you get with it. I don't know why, but it's kind of fun getting things back down to the bare wood. Just my recommendation.
-
-
I love Coat-It. It is an epoxy with kevlar (and some say graphite which makes it so black in color). Basically the same type of final coat many here use on the last coats of epoxy over their fiberglassed bottoms. I laid out two coats of it on top of my fiberglass. You definitely shouldn't pay that kind of money for a glassed bottom in my opinion. Do it yourself.
Where do you live? TAP PLastics has many locations up and down the west coast.
-
-
Can I use coat it instead of fiberglass. I have a tap plastics in town.
-
Permalink Reply by Jonathan Clarke on
-
From direct personal experience I can say that Coat It over raw plywood is not particularly crack resistant. However, Coat It over fiberglass impregnated with epoxy to bond the glass to plywood is awfully tough.
-
-
Well .. .
I'm trying to think how to best answer that. I guess I would say that the better question might be: Can I use Coat-It without fiberglass.
The answer is probably technically yes. 'Fiberglass' is just the woven glass fabric, and is no good without epoxy. TAP says that Coat-It is good for application directly on wood . . . as is any epoxy I suppose. I have used epoxy for many years for finishing wood (with a UV resistant finish on top of the epoxy). Adding fiberglass reinforcement to the base layers of epoxy adds strength, and maybe more importantly, stability. I do have one complaint about Coat-It in that it seems to be slightly on the brittle side of the epoxy equation.
If you really don't encounter many rocks, and especially no bigger rocks, and want a nice, very slick bottom protective coating I say go for it but just keep a close eye out for chipping or cracks. Simply sand affected area and recoat. Aluminum boat guys here have been slapping on Coat-It for years. They don't have to worry too much about missing chiunks though as their aluminum won't soak up water like plywood does.
-
Permalink Reply by Adam "Dutch" Gottschling on
-
1500 to 2000 is WAY high!!!! You can do it for less then 500.00.
Never used the stuff, I'm very sold on fiberglass/epoxy/ graphite bottom personally.
© 2024 Created by Randy Dersham.
Powered by
