Well, since you wanted to go off topic... here is the detailed overview.

It was a bit neglected (I got it for free), and the surface is slightly rough, like the finish has eroded, but the flake hasn't faded. I can't tell if it was ever clear coated or if the flake was just set in the epoxy or polyester, or whatever was there. It was originally a hand layup. It also has very very fine spider cracks. So I have very carefully cleaned it with TSP and a fingernail brush, and I'm covering it with 1 oz. 1088 glass to be sure it's encapsulated and stabilized. The West guys were a bit concerned about adhesion, but I think it will be o.k.

One of the reasons I'm doing this job is to practice with the finish. I plan to do my next deck with candy dye and ghost pearl, but I haven't sprayed stuff like that before, so I got some gold shimmer and I'm adding that to Awlcraft 2000 to test out my equipment and get it dialed in. I talked to their tech guys, and the Awlcraft SHOULD flash off fast enough that I don't need to use intercoat clear- but that's what the test is for. The current flake is royal blue with gold swirls, so it should look good. https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop/interference-iridescent-ghost-pearls-pigments/gold-shimmer-ghost-pearl/

There are some hull cracks on the inside in the seat area, and I'll fix those and reinforce a little and I'm going to add a foam pillar in the bow. It has one in the stern, but never did in the bow. The hull originally had a tropical bird nylon print to protect the kevlar from abrasion, and it worked well, but it had a couple of wrinkles that had started to delaminate a little. Currently it's in pieces- I cut it at the seam and removed the coaming. The coaming has a crack, so I'm going to use the existing coaming as a mold and layup a new one rather than fix the old one.

I don't plan to paddle it on the river- I like my kayaks on top of the water, thank you, but they're fun to play with in the pond/pool. My home river is not deep enough with the right kind of eddies. It's a lot of limestone shelves around here. Lately I've been doing smaller creeks, and that's just not what squirt boats are for.

Promise I'll post...

m