Distinquishing polyester from epoxy coating

[Buddy]

I'm looking at a 15 year old Glen L traweler a friend just acquired. It was well built of 1/2" marine fir, and the outside of the hull covered in a layer of looks like 10 oz glass. The paint is failing in numerous places with the top coat and fairing/primer underneath having released itself from the glass in many larger and small patches. Is their a surefire way to tell if epoxy was used other than the fact that its all bonded to the wood quite well? Maybe the paint was put on over amine blush years ago? Maybe primer was not epoxy and a bad choice. What happened was the paint set in teh sun with the boat in the yard for many years and the outerlayer weathered and cracked. In many place just irregular cracks a few inches long. Outstanding mahogany interior joinery and excellent mechanical and electrical systems of the no expense spared kind in the home built boat seem to suggest it was unlikely that the paint work was done in any shortcut materials. Any good ideas instead of removing all this paint ouward from any peeling patches if and untill it seems tight again?
Would appreciate any advice and thanks in advance.

[JimD]

Buddy, I can't really answer your question but have you tried contacting Glen-L? From the sounds of it it's a very well built boat so it seems unlikely the builder would go cheap on the resin, and Glen-L certainly would never recommend polyester on a wood boat.

[Todd Bradshaw]

The two types of resin have distinctively different smells if you sand them a little bit.

[riverboathank]

Buddy, don,t see how you can avoid removing all the paint, hope your friend will be doing that and not you. I can understand paint peeling from prolonged sun exposure, but the fairing coming out? As mentioned, could be amine blush, but also possibly if finishing (waxed) polyester resin was used and not thoroughly washed with acetone before fairing, it could be the problem. No shortcuts here. Good luck, Hank.

[Buddy]

Todd, you're right, way different smells in sanding, duh. I'll be checking that out next trip. No, I'm only goning to working on this a little bit with lots more, "what I'd do if it were mine" advice and a bit of the cutting in of scarfed dutchmen stuff ffor a few problem areas. I'm going to suggest my friend save the money he was going to spend on a yard sprayed Awlgrip topsides job and go to roll and tip as a two man team, me being the second man. Maybe he can hire some temporary help to supervise in the paint removal drudgery. Its a 3o and a tad foot boat with about a 12 foot beam i think with lots of deckhouse. He will have a "timeless" jewel inside in out when he's done though, and he's got two grown sons to leave it two. Hey, maybe that's where some paint removal help can come from. Thanks for the ideas guys.

[dadadata]

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Todd, you're right, way different smells in sanding, duh. I'll be checking that out next trip.
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Sanding or grinding polyester smells like airplane glue (styrene).

[Buddy]

And the bad news was, polyester. I am pretty sure we're in line for chiseling away the occasional broken free tape joins between frames and ply. Whats really troublesome is the number of small areas where a really thick glass layer on the ply deck has worked loose from the 3/4 ply deck at flush hatch openings and chain , wash down oerforations. A 1/2" solid teak deck was screwed down over the glass, evidently without benefit of any adhesive. There is polysulphide in the seams, and the screws have well glued (ugh) bungs in them. Backing out trial screws shows no evidence of caulking being used, but no discoloration from water either. But I have to feel some of all those thousands of #10 SS screws are letting water through the glass shield and down into the ply. Do you just repair around the hatch openings and let the rest ride. With 1 1/4 " of wood, 1/16 of glass you just can't feel or sound out any dull or soft spots. All this on a 30 foot traweler. What would you do? How lose to if it ain't broke, don't fix it?