: I just bought a 1973 Sunfish sailboat, and after touching up a few rough
: spots on the hull, I want to roll a thin coat of epoxy over the whole
: thing to seal it well (there are spider-cracks here and there).

: I'd like to tint the epoxy white and was wondering what I could use for a
: tint that would be available locally (we don't have a boat building supply
: place around here), such as auto supply stores or hardware or paint
: stores. I know I could get the proper tint from a place such as Jamestown
: Distributors or some other place, but if I can pick something up locally I
: can get on with the job rather than order and wait.

: One other question - will white-tinted epoxy be white enough, like white
: gelcoat? And, (this makes 2 other questions) will it still need to be
: painted over for U.V. protection?

: There is a sunfish forum for questions on restoration of these boats, but
: those guys are all poly/vinylester resin/gelcoat guys. I have epoxy resin
: on hand from my stripper project and would like to use that since I'm
: familiar with using it, and it rolls on real smooth. I heard gelcoat
: doesn't self-level as well.

: Thanks for any help you can provide.

The Epoxy will also need UV protection (like paint). I would recommend just skipping the epoxy step and using a decent quality paint for the surface. If you paint the whole hull, which is probably just as easy to do, you also won't have to worry about matching the underlying color.

Sunfish from that era are grossly overbuilt and unless some damage has occured the fiberglass itself will be plenty strong.