Few More Blister Pictures

Here are just a few more blister pictures, a little closer up.  If you look closely, you'll notice that we did not even get all of them.  So, I think after much thought, a little angst, and some trepidation, we have decided that we need to strip all of the gelcoat off, and then recoat the bottom.

 

So the question of the day has become, what tools do we use to strip the bottom.  I've read on several of the forums, that you can use a large disk sander, but that seems like an awful lot of work with some real potential for lots of "Whoops!"  There is a tool called a marine shaver http://www.paintshaver.com/marineshaver.html that looks up to the task, but at $600-$800 seems a bit too much for this project.  So, we are seriously considering using a 3 1/4" planer.  The Makita KP0800K http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/Tools/ToolDetails.aspx?ID=316422 , the Dewalt DW680K http://www.dewalt.com/tools/woodworking-hand-planers-dw680k.aspx is another option.  Both of these are being considered, because they are reasonably priced, and if we mess up the tool in the process we are not out a lot of money.  So that is the plan at the moment.

Ultimately, we'll peel off the gelcoat and outer glass layer, then we'll wet out with epoxy, apply filler, fair, filler, fair (until it is smooth), and then we'll come back over it with 6-8 coats of Interlux Interprotect 2000 or some barrier coat.