Making Non-Skid using Gibco Flex-Mold

[Bob L]

OK, before I get assulted with alternatives, let me say that I've already had a thread going on Interlux Inter-Deck an I'm interested in it, I've looked a Treadmaster and am so-so about it, and also looked at Ultra-Tuff and ruled it out.

Here goes: For my upcoming deck de-teaking and recore, I'm thinking about putting down a laminate of non-skid, formed by gelcoat in a mold, backed by a thin layer of glass.

There was a company in FL that made panels to order, basically using a mold. They sprayed gelcoat to your color spec on a female non-skid pattern, then layed lightweight fiberglass on top of it. When it dried it was the thickness of formica laminate, and the sheets could be trimmed (yes, round and sand the edges) and then applied with epoxy like Treadmaster. When finished, you had what looked like a factory finish job. However, I think they are out of business now.

Gibco makes Flex-Mold, a rubber pattern that is used to by boat builders on the male plug (to create the female pattern on the mold). They have all of the major non-skid designs in "male" or "female". As long as you keep giving a coating of PVA, it's reusable.

So I'm thinking, buy a sheet of this, and start a little production line in my garage. Make enough sheets of non-skid for the boat, then trim them to size and apply. This method would cover a multitude of fairing sins, and be extremely durable.

So how do I do this? Use "female" Flex-Mold tacked to a flat board, spray with gelcoat, and then lay on cloth? (or mat, or what weight cloth?) Or take a piece of male Flex-Mold and make a rugged FRP female mold? Poly resin over the gelcoat? or Epoxy?

Let the comments fly! (Don't say it's too much work and just use Inter-Deck)
Bob

[JetStream]

I think it is a sound idea even if a lot of work. It seemed to make sense for the guy in Florida to sell finished panels and I wonder if the ease of application with the new pre mixed non-skids put him out of business. I think it would be nice to match the original non-skid in a restoration, and that can be done with the Gibco product.

To do it successfully, I believe you would need a pretty fancy spray gun (HVLP) for the gelcoat and for the PVA. If the PVA application isn't perfect, the surface finish on the non skid would be bad or you might not get the panel off the mold. I was thinking of doing it with a female Gibco mold (mounted to a sheet of plywood) and polyester gelcoat with one layer of mat and epoxy over the gelcoat. A vacuum bag for the epoxy cure over the whole panel might be a good idea to prevent bubbles. There will be those that say you can't put epoxy over the polyester gelcoat (as when you are done, the polyester gelcoat over epoxy ends up on the outside), but in actuality there is data from West System to show that you can.

The Gibco product is a little pricey but you should be able to get away with just one panel of it.

I look for others to add their two cents.

[Tim]

For a mini-production run of these sheets, I think you'd have better overall luck using a male piece of the flex-mold to build a sturdy female mold. PVA is an imperfect mold release, and, as Bruce mentions, it would be easy for your final part to show imperfections because of the PVA application, or to stick in the mold. Either occurrence will ruin the part--and your day. I could also see potentially damaging the flex-mold with repeated use, so making a female mold off the male flex-mold seems to make the most sense for repeated use.

If you made a good female mold, and then used a high quality mold-release product (I don't even know what the current favorites are, but it used to be Fre-Kote, a thin, clear liquid that left no residue), you could produce many parts out of that mold.

PVA can leave streaks that show in the final finish--perhaps less of an issue in a molded nonskid pattern than it would be on a smooth finish, but something to consider nonetheless.

Frankly, I think trying to recreate molded nonskid is best for small repairs or new construction, and I that it would be a challenge to create a good-looking deck out of a series of self-molded panels. There's a high possibility of the job coming out looking extremely "patchwork-y" and tacked together...which is what it would be. It's also possible to get a truly excellent job, I am sure, but only with great care and time. You still have to fair the deck well before application, since you will have smooth borders and sections between panels, and the panels will need a fair surface to ensure good bonding and overall attachment quality.

But then I never thought that the molded patterns were such great shakes to begin with, and therefore have trouble justifying to myself that it's worth the large effort and expense to recreate something that makes sense for new production, but doesn't (to my eye) look good enough to spend time on after the fact.

[Bob L]

Thanks Tim and Bruce. I know this would be a lot of work, but what has me thinking about it is my impression that the hardware removal, teak removal, recore, and fairing is the huge undertaking, and the non-skid is the icing on the cake. If I'm going to go through all of that work, I may as well have it looking perfect.

Although painting the non-skid diminishes it's properties, one thought is to glue all of this down, then give it one coat of paint, multiple coats on the slick areas.

How long do you think it would take a piece to harden be removed from the mold?

[Tim]

How long do you think it would take a piece to harden be removed from the mold?

Figure on overnight for epoxy resin, or around 16-24 hours.