Need new non skid deck

[Snookerd]

dtmackey-
Outstanding! I am looking at re-doing the nonskid on the 18SF. What prep schedule would you advise?

[dtmackey]

dtmackey-
Outstanding! I am looking at re-doing the nonskid on the 18SF. What prep schedule would you advise?

Here is the way I did my decks.

- Sand with 180, wipe with prep-sol and applied AwlGrip 545 to everything.
- Sanded the entire deck and bulkhead area with 320 and applied AwlGrip Insignia white after wiping with prep-sol. Oyster white is a closer match to the Mako gelcoat, but it looks to offwhite for me.
- I then reverse masked the parts I wanted to keep white with plastic and paper and came within 3/16" to where I wanted the non-skid to start. I then used fineline tape to give me the nice clean lines where I wanted the nonskid to white interface. It is important to use tape specfically for this type of taping.
- I then sanded the entire area to be non-skidded with 220 grit and then wiped everything with prep-sol.
- This is where the process of putting the nonskid starts. Spray one light-medium coat of Awlgrip and use a can to sprinkle the Griptex. I used fine (middle of the road) and it has a nice grip to it without being obnoxious on bare feet.
- Sprinkle the desired amount and let it set into the Awlgrip. I then sprayed another coat over that about 5 minutes later.
- Followed with another layer of Awlgrip 30 minutes later.
- Followed with another layer of Awlgrip 30 minutes later.
- Removed the finline tape about 40 minutes after the last layer of Awlgrip. The was getting pretty dry at this point and I wanted the tape removed while the paint was in it's "plastic" state so it would come off easily and non tend to pull more paint off at the interface.

It came out to my liking, but I did experiement and sprayed a couple test panels until I perfected the approach I used. I would suggest you try the same so you are comfortable doing the entire deck.

I do not want to totally highjack this thread. If you want you can check out the project

Project



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[1bayouboy]

Did you use anything to even an even sprinkle of the griptex...??

[dtmackey]

Did you use anything to even an even sprinkle of the griptex...??

I used the peanut can with holes punched in the bottom and it worked great. Since I did some test panels (before the boat) it was very easy to sprinkle an even amount on the decks. This was the first deck I had ever done and it came out better than I had expected. If I had done this without first doing some test panels I'm sure it would be a mess.

The can was held about 24" above the deck and moved back and forth in strokes of about 12".
D-

[Snookerd]

Thanks for the time and effort to explain step by step! The info. you posted will get used .