Andrew Herrick wrote:Tom,
I put three coats of polyurethane over bare wood. I did not use epoxy. I didn't want to deal with any adhesion issues - particuarly my first go-around - and I came to the conclusion that three coats of oil-based polyurethane + two-to-three coats of Monstaliner was sufficient to waterproof the wood. This camper was very small, with solid plywood walls, so I would gain no useable strength by fiberglassing.
With that said, I believe there may be room for improvement? Here is some options, all of which are currently untested to my knowledge:
1. Fiberglass the exterior with marine epoxy, and then apply sufficient polyurethane over the epoxy to guarantee chemical isolation between the epoxy and the Monstaliner.
2. It is possible that CPES, having different resin chemistry than most marine epoxies, would not have the same issue. At this point, I have no idea!
3. As recommended by Monstaliner, you could also use Chassis Saver as a primer for Monstaliner. Perhaps Chassis Saver can be painted onto epoxy/fiberglass?
4. Lastly, Monstaliner is made by Magnet Paints, which also sells a 2k industrial-grade epoxy primer. Again, it might be possible to coat fiberglass with this epoxy primer, and then apply Monstaliner directly over it, and or else coat the epoxy primer with Chassis Saver, followed by Monstaliner. I have to say ... this option sounds very expensive and time-consuming though!
Again, I haven't tried any of these ideas, and I have no idea if they will work. I'll probably bug Monstaliner with some more questions
Thank you Andrew.
While reading this thread, I was considering option 1. Shelly and I need to research CPES to see about 2. (Thanks for the link.) Last night, after reading your posts, Shelly pointed out Chassis Saver to me (she's been researching the Monstaliner web site), and option 3 may be the way to go. Bottom line for us, I guess, is that we need to call Monstaliner before deciding what type of resin to use on our fiberglass.
We'll certainly be interested in what more you learn from them. Thank you for doing this!
Tom