An old friend of mine, G.B. Fisher, is restoring a 1950 Willies Panel Delivery. He got it from a yard which specializes in Willies, and it seems that the vehicle had sat out in the field for about 40 years; it had only 43,000 miles on the clock, BUT, the body was entirely covered in surface rust! In order to stabilize the surface and prepare it for painting, he is coating the entire body with epoxy. (He's used a LOT of Raka Epoxy already). This is a fairly simple procedure, but he found that he wanted to get epoxy up into some body cavities, into which he could not reach with a brush or a roller. He developed a simple method for spraying a thin coat of epoxy up into the cavities. (Since it will never be exposed to UV, a thin coat is sufficient he feels).

He mixes the Raka Epoxy, two to one, as usual. Then he adds another part of thinner to the hardener; about 2 to 1 also. Two parts hardener to one part thinner. Then he mixes it all up as usual and puts it into a Windex™ spray bottle. He sprays it liberally into the body cavity. When he is finished, there is still some epoxy left in the bottle, but this is allowed to harden. Since the pickup does not reach entirely to the bottom of the bottle, the next time he uses it the hardened epoxy has elevated the contents so that it can be all used! When he is finished each time, he puts the spray nozzle into a tin of Acetone and sprays until only Acetone comes out.

Might be useful sometime to get a thin coverage coat on an inaccessible part of the boat!

Now, it's only fair to provide you with all information re. these tips, and Larry Steeves, (the owner of Raka Marine) has this to say about spraying epoxy. . . ."Concerning spraying epoxy.  We do not recommend it because of the flammability and health hazards from breathing the spray or of the spray getting on your skin or eyes.   If someone does spray, they are on their own and should wear the proper respirator, skin and eye protection and take all the necessary precautions.   The way I read your article on spraying , it sounds like he mixed up a correct ratio batch, then added thinner with extra hardener which would give a wrong mix ratio.

Sometimes we recommend thinning the epoxy further to get a penetrating epoxy for rotten wood or as a first penetrating coat for difficult gluing wood such as oak, teak or some other hard tropical woods.  We recommend laquer thinner, xylene or denatured alcohol etc.  We don't recommend acetone because it is more hazardous and may interfer with the proper curing of the epoxy."

Now you have the whole story!