Hi,

I've recently acquired an old waveski (sit-on surf kayak) which needs some repairs. Once this has been done, I want to give it a fresh look to cover up the old faded colouring and decals but not sure the best way to approach it.

At the moment I'm am thinking of the following two options to keep the extra weight to a minimum:

1. Sand the existing fibreglass slightly, paint with a water-based acrylic (most likely Liquitex spray paint), and cover with a coat of laminating resin.
2. Sand the existing fibreglass slightly and cover with a coat of pigmented laminating resin (most likely solid white or black).

My question is, will I have any compatibility issues or delamination with option 1, and will option 2 give me a solid enough colour to cover up the existing markings?

A third option would be to pigment a fresh layer of fibreglass to the ski, but this will add 1 to1.5kg of extra weight which I wanted to try and avoid.

Any help would be great!

Both options can work if done properly.  Most paints are fine with bonding to cured resins.  Pigmenting a resin is the harder method as you need to balance the pigment ratio and resin thickness to ensure you cover the underlying colour.  Ideally a bit of experimentation to work out right combination is needed.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Thanks Warren. Not having done pigmented resin before I think I may give the spray paint a go, at least then I could possibly give it some sort of design.

Don't do the resin. Resin is very hard to get a good even finish with unless what you are doing is perfectly flat.

If you have the facilities to spray, spraying is far superior. Then you also have the option of buying pre-made metallic finishes. You can get powders that you can add to any resin or paint (look for PEX pearlescent powders), but they aren't easy to get an even finish with either. Stuff made for the job is the way to go. 

You're much better off getting it professionally sprayed then, honestly. There no real reason you can't coat it with resin yourself if that's the way you want to go, but not only is it not an easy task especially on something the size of a kayak (you'll be up for many hours of sanding for sure), but there aren't a lot of options for brushable coatings out there that will be a good long term option. Epoxies are tough but aren't UV resistant, polyester flowcoats are ok but don't finish well and require a very good mechanical key to bond well... I also think you will add much more weight with just the resin than you might think.

A good quality marine grade 2k polyurethane is the way to go. Super tough and stands up great to weathering and osmosis, plus if you get it done professionally you will have a finish you will love. Go and speak to a couple of spray painters, there are always some that are willing to do a good cash deal and if you do all the prep-work yourself then it likely wouldn't cost you too much more than you would pay just for the materials to do it yourself like you are planning. 

Just out of interest, would the EC Glasscast resin work in this scenario?

Ok.. so the waveski is primed and paint is going on next, but i'm still unsure what to do about the final finish.

I spoke to a bodyshop and they wanted £100 to spray it with U-Pol 2k clear coat. There is a paint shop next door who could supply the exact same product in rattle cans for £15 (500ml), but i suspect this would take 4 cans.

A cheaper option is 1k lacquer which is only £10 a can, but this would be the least durable out of the three options.

The third option is the hotcoat (like in surfboard building) where a final layer of epoxy resin is put on. This would be less than £30 including delivery which makes the cheapest option and probably most durable, but most difficult to achieve.

Can anyone lend any further advice? Budget is tight so I don't think I could go for the professional spraying route.