[georgieb51]

Originally Posted by Jason Banks

Georgie, would West 105 make a good first coat?

Thanks for asking. Years ago I used West system products but after awhile i just found them too expensive and not any better than other companies where I buy epoxy resin and hardener in bulk and also buy the fillers way cheaper in bulk. But the problem with West is that they do not really have a thin epoxy sealer that will soak into the wood and harden it in order to create a good substrate for subsequent layers of whatever epoxy you want to put on top. And after awhile I have become tired of mixing epoxy and creating my own "epoxy bondo" using epoxy and various fillers, always trying to achieve a good balance between flexibility and sandability. In general hard epoxies do not sand well. That is why I like the Total Boat system of epoxies form Jamestown Distributors. Their Total Boat fairing compound mixes equal parts of blue and green pre-thickened epoxy that is already formulated to sand easily and be somewhat flexible. No guesswork and no serious measuring. After I get my wood "fair" (smooth and level) I coat with an epoxy barrier coat from other companies. This barrier coat acts as an epoxy primer and since it is guaranteed waterproof to use on wood and fiberglass boat bottoms it will effectively seal water from any truck beds that you want to paint. Of course you need to treat the edges and bottoms of all boards equally or water will get in. But wood CAN be made impervious to moisture. Most of what I read on this forum is suing old technology and not even prepping the wood correctly. For instance paint sticks better when you round the very sharp edges by hand with a simple block and sandpaper. Finish failure always begins at these sharp corners. So eliminate them.