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I'll add one more potential cause: I had a weak injector that caused a shake under load. A new set of injectors solved that issue.

That’s coming along nicely. I like the design, it fits the boat lines well.

Acetone will eat into fresh gelcoat. You only need warm water to remove the pva. If it gummed up the paper after curing for a week it didn’t cure correctly for some reason.

The PVA doesn't have to be pretty, in fact, you can brush or dab it on. It just needs to be a continuous film over the gelcoat. Go easy on the sanding to remove the orange peal, but it looks pretty good to me.

I've read every single tech note on Tony's SBMAR website pertaining to Cummins engines, they are great. Such a huge help if you are a DIY guy and want to make sure you keep your engine in top condition. SBMAR is my go-to place for most parts as well. Tony and his guys provide great feedback...

I let my subscription pass for boatdiesel a couple years ago. Seemed to me the most helpful members moved on to other places like sbmar. The only benefit to that site was the historical information. The structure of the website is prehistoric as well.

I don't know about that. If it's for epoxy it probably won't be compatible with polyester. I use these from eplastics.com, but any local fiberglass supply place usually has them. They also have a couple combination yellow/brown mixtures that are good for tinting a bright white to cream used...

That's overkill for such a small area. I have a couple of these I use...

A heat lamp is a good idea if temps are that low.

Yes, a heat gun will make it tack off in a few minutes, just go easy, it doesn't take much heat to flash off the solvents. If the batch is going off too fast for the temperature then back off on the MEKP a few tenths of a %.

One coat is just enough material to create a glossy surface, so depending on how far your spray tip is away and how fast you move the gun it might be a couple passes. The instructions above are for making a part off a mold, so you can ignore the lay-up part which would be laying glass and resin...

PVA and the Preval should be fine to seal it. Can you get a heat lamp on the area? 60F should be ok, but lower than than isn't ideal. Also, you can use a heat gun on a warm setting to help the gelcoat flash off between coats, this works well. If you lay it on when it's cold it will take a...

You will either have to add wax to the laminating gelcoat or spray PVA over it or it won't cure properly. The Evercoat gelcoat tint should mix in just fine, that's an odd result. Any chance it's gone bad and setup?

I had a Starboard hardtop on my Shamrock 26 over a 2" aluminum frame. You could crawl around on it since there were enough supports underneath. It worked out well for that boat. That top was about 15 years old when I sold it and the Starboard was getting a little weathered and hard to clean...

Also might be a good idea to call around and find out what towing service (Seatow, BoatUS) is more active/operating in that area and get a policy before you leave. If you have a strike and need a tow it would be good to know who is available. I'm guessing they are pretty busy refloating boats...

I posted this in another thread, but my biggest improvement on our boat was the reconfiguration of the flybridge. When we bought the boat the original design with three back-to-back seats was really poor for our use and we had planned to redo it. I removed all the original seats and...

Another vote for Alexseal, it's really great stuff and worth the extra cost if you plan to keep the boat.

The wife and I are planning to sell our boat next year, rent out our primary house and start shopping for a boat on the East Coast to do the loop. I've put together a monthly budget that we need to stay inside. Sadly, the highest cost per month is health insurance since we are both 61, but it...

Can you post pics of the engine room? My engines are Cummins 6BTA and I have a cramped engine room so can relate. For general maintenance it's not that bad but I make sure to wear elbow and knee pads if down there for long. Hands down my favorite engine BTW. I'd deal with some contortions...

I have all Marelon thru hulls on my boat and they are original (22 years). They all operate perfectly and when I added a new one for a dedicated raw water washdown I used the same type. I'm more worried about de-zincification of bronze over that period of time than I would be any issue with...

Honestly, I think the best solution is to add solar. I've thought about it and I could add two smaller ~100 watt panels to the front part of my radar arch and that should cover the freezer load. The issue is adding more weight up there since it's already pretty top heavy. Something to think...

Bond strength of epoxy is ~2Kpsi to raw polyester (all gelcoat was removed). Seat base is 10" so 78 square inches. If my math is right that's 157K lbs. in tensile strength, or 4X the loaded weight of my boat. I didn't bother to run the numbers, but since it's a Friday and I could use a...

If you just want to go with one gelcoat type then just use laminating gelcoat and do a spray of PVA over the final coat. No need to add wax to the final coat if you use PVA. I've done both adding wax to laminating to turn it into finishing gelcoat and spraying PVA over non-molested laminating...

Wow, this looks pretty disappointing for a 28' aluminum outboard. I would have expected double that. Am I missing something?

West Marine sells a finish gelcoat which I've used successfully before. It's like a mixture of regular gelcoat and Duratec. I think the brand I've used from them in the past was called Evercoat, but it appears this is the same stuff under their label. It doesn't have the level of pigment as...