TotalBoat 5:1 Epoxy Kit (Gallon, Slow Hardener)

Rather than replacing more than a dozen rotted deck boards. I decided to try to fill the "ravines." I tried many wood putties: n'yet . Bondo? n'yet (Became unworkable too fast for my application). This kit with its slow hardening was perfect. Beyond being simple to use, with the two attached pumps pre-measuring the correct amounts of the resin and hardener. I decided to WILDLY experiment with "additives." First, I added a couple of scoops of Durham's Water Bingo! Mixed easily and perfectly increased the amount of the glop and was easy to spread into the ravines. Dried hard as a rock but it must be abraded hard for painting. Next, I stuffed steel wool into craters, which are deeper than ravines. Then I infused the steel wool with the mixed epoxy. Why? Epoxy bonds with steel and throws off heat to boot. The gaps I filled with steel wool and epoxy are clearly stronger than the original wood fibers because solid steel....Btw: you can perform microsurgery on the "treated" steel wool if you have a competent grinder with attachments. Finally, I mixed grout with sand into the epoxy. Why? Because the sand in this concoction, when used to fill shallower gaps, provided a surface onto which coating would better adhere. Success. Moral of the story: I would have been far, far better off, prying up the deck boards, purchasing new ones, and installing them. Why didn't I do it? I am a retired desk jockey and when I started the project more than a year ago, I did not have the carpentry skills to cut and replace the boards. I have them now. Absolutely no regrets even though the filled-in boards are less than cosmetically perfect. Two warnings: you should absolutely not experiments with epoxy additives. Use only those that the manufacturer prescribes. My outcomes were fine but yours may be disastrous. Second, I could care less about bubbles in the epoxy. Accordingly, my recommendations are expressly limited to the use to which I put the product.

I am building a wooden boat and I chose to use the TotalBoat Epoxy Resin Kit (Gallon size, Slow Hardener) to fiberglass the wooden hull. This is a 5 part epoxy to 1 part hardener. The kit includes pumps for the epoxy and the hardener along with some disposable gloves and two mixing/graduated plastic cups. The cups have markings for several mixing ratios. I used the 5 to 1. Fill the cup up to the level you think you need and add the hardener up to the hardener line. Stir for at least one minute to 2 minutes and go to work. When it is properly mixed it will look clear as water. I have been pleased with the working time of the epoxy. If you are working in direct sun and/or hot weather, you may find that it starts to set/harden quicker. I am working outside in the shade and I have plenty of time to apply epoxy, fiberglass and more epoxy over the fiberglass before it even begins to harden...hardens overnight.

WORKS JUST LIKE WEST AT LOWER COST

Our travel trailer had bad delamination spots on the side walls from our roof leaking. I watched a bunch of videos of others using total boat to fix the areas. We ended up using clamps and a spray gun to spray the total boat into the bad spots and let them sit overnight. If I did it again I would just use a syringe and inject the total boat into the area as the spray goes everywhere and you cant build it up in the real bad areas. Some spots we used a brush to get a good coat on. It worked very well and when looking at the areas they look just as good as when we bought the trailer. Next I want to try and use it and do a flood coat on a table of some sort.

So I'll start by saying I am a 20+ year composite tech in aviation. I have built 2 other boats. I have never used this stuff before, but I have known about it for a while and heard it's the best stuff for boats. I am restoring a 1960's fiberglass canoe that is 18'. I have completely sanded the boat to bare fiberglass and three days ago (11/7/22) I put 4 plys of 6oz fiberglass weave over it to reinforce the keel. That night it was about 45 degrees F. When I woke up the next morning it had been setting up for about 7 hours and it was still tacky. I just figured it was tacky because it was so cold. Most epoxy primers don't cure well or at all under 50 degrees F and lower so it wasn't a that big a shock (just disappointment). I decided I'd give it a few days to cure since it was supposed to be in the 70's F the next 2 days. So the day I noticed it was still tacky was 72 degrees all day. I even had my wife open the garage up to get a warm air flow through the garage to see if I could warm the boat up. I got home from work and it was still tacky. It got down to about 50 degrees F that night. Today is the 3rd day and I just got off work. I had my wife do the same thing as yesterday and open and close the garage doors to get the warm air to flow through as it was 79 degrees F at around 2pm today. The boat is still tacky. Now the only thing I can think it could be is that I mixed it wrong, the product is defective, or it just hasn't gotten hot enough to cure it. The 2 jugs I got said mix to a 5:1 ratio. I used paint measuring cups with measurements printed on the sides so when I mixed it, it was 5 pumps on the big one (which sucks by the way. Really thin plastic and it crushed as I pushed down on it) and 1 on the small one. I also looked at the measurements on the cup and made sure it was putting out at a 5:1 ratio. I use 95% pre preg at work so maybe I messed this up as I rarely have to actually mix epoxy, but 5:1 for a 127 oz big bottle and a 25 oz small bottle to me is 5 pumps from big and 1 pump from small. Could the product be defective? Maybe, but I've only heard good things about True Boat so I would hope their quality department is better than this mistake. It could be something got through though. This could be a real possibility though. The last one about temp is not very likely because the nights might be too cold, but two days above 70 degrees F should have done the trick and they haven't. I am at a lose at the moment and now I have a boat I am restoring and the entire 18 foot bottom is covered in super tacky epoxy and I don't trust the product enough to either try and apply a hot batch of epoxy (more hardener than catalyst is a hot batch) to try and cook off what's on there. If that doesn't do it all I can try to do is paint it a bit with acetone or something to see if I can harden it that way. This should always be a last resort because it messes up the catalyst and wrinkles and cracks it when it hardens. Then I have to sand it all off and do it again. But it's all I can do if it stays tacky. I'm not very happy at the moment with True Boat, but I don't know if it's their fault or mine. I really don't think its me as I described how I mixed it and I double checked it. Feel free to let me know if you think I did, but I am pretty confident in my measurements. I'm just shocked how I have never heard 1 bad comment about True Boat and the first one I get is defective? I don't know. This is my first attempt to reach the company so I will update if anything changes.