| ||
| Treadmaster Marine | ||
| ||
 Old TreadmasterModerators: Treadmaster Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Help and Advice on Treadmaster Marine -> Fitting and Removal | Message format |
peterh |
| ||
New user Posts: 2 | I have very old old treadmaster which is curling at the edges and lifting. Boat is 1980 and it may have been fitted from new. The under surface is degrading and turning powdery so regluing the edges is relatively ineffective. The deck to which it is attached is not flat but has a molded in bobbled profile for grip so sanding or planing is not an option for removal. Replacing on less than fully removed treadmaster, with old material that had turned powdery left between the bobbles, would be very dangerous as I suspect it would start to lift again. Have you any suggestions? Would painting the underside of its lifting edges with your special paint rejuvenate it sufficiently to stick it back down again. would you give any guarantee of succes with that approach? If so, is there any way to flatten curling treadmaster to enable it to be restuck down flat wthout using massive weights. If I do have to take it off, I have seen a chiselling device with 20 or so 1 mm wide independently reciprocating blades side by side. The one is saw many years ago was pneumatically driven but I suspect there could be electric versions. The one I saw was for descaling steel welds and castings, I think, and I have seen others that are so-call needle-peeeners which have rounded ends but these could easily be reground to chisel points. They are posssible too powerful to leave the original gelcoat intact but might work. Unless you can advise otherwise, my instinct is to use a wood chisel and then wire brush and repaint with deck paint. Are there health and safey hazards if you sand it. | ||
| |||
| Dave |
| ||
Member Posts: 31  | Peter, Thank you for your enquiry, can I first reply with a couple of additional questions? Is the profile underneath the Treadmaster fairly obvious even through the material itself? It is possible that when the Treadmaster was originally laid a thick layer of adhesive was used to try and create a level underneath the Treadmaster sheets, and that this may be able to be sanded flat before starting again. With regards to the Treadcote Rejuvenator, that would have no effect on the underside of the sheet, it is only designed for use on the upper surface of the sheet to try and refresh the surface appearance, the only way to try and stick down lifting edges is to prepare the surface underneath as best as possible as if you were laying new material. You have mentioned that the surface underneath is becoming powdery is this the adhesive surface or the gelcoat surface? As to weighting the surface down after the adhesive is laid, this is certainly a good idea, as the adhesive will take a period of time to harden and you want to ensure a good as possible bond between the two surfaces. There are several different ways to remove old Treadmaster, but we reocmmend the slower but safer method of sanding; you could a chisel either hand or mechanical but this can cause damage to the surface of the deck itself. When sanding, we always recommend wearing a mask to prevent breathing in sanding dust. Before I give a definite recommendation on the best way forward, do you think that you could possibly send in some pictures of the deck surface itself to give me an idea of what we are looking at? Regards Dave Tiflex Technical Services | ||
| |||
| peterh |
| ||
New user Posts: 2 | To answer your questions No, the surface of the deck has irregular rounded bobbles about 0.25mm high and on average about 4-5 mm in diameter to create a non-slip deck. This obviously reduced the intial surface for adhesion, which may be a partial cause of the edge lifting. However, it is not visible through the Treadmaster and the problem is that the treamaster itself is breaking down and its own under surface has gone powdery, not the deck which still has its gelcoat, albeit covered with epoxy. Since that also is now old and covered with a layer of the powdery decayed Treadmaster I will have to get it all off, before fitting new. Sanding would take the bobbles and gelcoat off with it so that is not an option. Sounds like a hands, knees and penknife job to me! Meths removes some epoxies when new. Does anything soften your adhesive. peterh PS will send a pic next time I go out to the boat but I want to do the job there and then. | ||
| |||
| Dave |
| ||
Member Posts: 31 | Peter, Thank you for your response, unfortunately there is nothing that we are aware of that will soften a hardened epoxy, so the epoxy will need to be physically removed to allow you to either lay new Treadmaster or to paint the deck surface. The first thing to do will be to remove the existing Treadmaster down to the level of the top of the profile finish(I would recommend sanding), and then to see how much epoxy has hardened into the recesses between the profiles. It is quite likely that there is a reasonable amount in these areas. In order to give a really good finish it would be best to remove this epoxy before starting again, but that would entail damage to the profiles; however, if you feel that the epoxy in these recesses is still good, you could fill in around it with additional new epoxy to form a level surface at the same level as the top of the profiles. I would however recommend removing all of the existing epoxy to ensure that you start with a good clean surface; the epoxy will form an even level surface. This epoxy/profile finish should be as even and level as possible as this will form the base to apply the new Treadmaster and adhesive onto. Regards Dave Tiflex Technical Services | ||
| |||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
| Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
| (Delete all cookies set by this site) | |
| Running MegaBBS ASP Forum Software © 2002-2010 PD9 Software | |
