Critterhunter
New member
Before jumping in with both feet on this project I sprayed the Rustoleum bed liner onto a newspaper with about 3 coats and then swept my detector over it. I found no signal present or change in threshold that would indicate any minerals either. Once my worries about that were put to rest I decided to use it on an Excalibur's 8" BBS coil that I'm fixing for a friend.
He wasn't using a coil cover with his fresh water hunting and I found that this coil had developed open seams from wear. These seams are were the coil sides are sealed over the bottom flat portion of the coil. He hasn't used it in a while so I knew it was good and dry inside, but I'm surprised he didn't already destroy it if he was water hunting with those open seams. Perhaps the coil is sealed at it's top as well so that even if water migrated up the seam it couldn't find it's way into the coil at the top, and perhaps these BBS coils are solid epoxy inside which would keep the windings from being exposed to water even if a hole was put into the coil casing.
Anyway, I wanted to first seal those gaps with something before using the spray on liner. It might have filled those gaps but I didn't want to paint it and find out that wasn't going to happen, so I had a choice between using epoxy or Shoe Goo (a rubbery cement and probably the best on the market). Epoxy would for sure be the most durable, but it would also be the hardest to force down good into those seams to make sure it was properly sealed. I decided to use the Shoe Goo. I put a line of it over the seams and then pushed it down into them with my finger as I smoothed it off the coil. I did this three times to make sure it was being forced down into the gaps well.
After it dried I took the coil off the lower shaft and laid it on top of a cardboard box. I then cut a rectangle into the box that would allow the coil's pole mount area to fit down into that, and also a hole so that the cable connector and cable on top of the coil could sit down inside the box as well. This allowed me to sit the coil upside down completely flat on the box to avoid any over spray getting on top of the coil.
I gave the coil 3 coats of the bed liner about ten minutes apart and plan to give it one more coat today when I'm sure everything is cured well. I made sure to spray the sides of the coil with it too because I noticed the coil was showing wear from bulldozing through the sand in that area. The only place the bed liner isn't sprayed is on the very top of the coil, but this stuff looks so good (like a fresh new coil's surface) that I may put painter's tape over the decals on top and then spray the top of the coil as well, at least with a light coat to shine it up.
If I find that the small areas where the Shoe Goo was used are coming off with use I'll probably re-do those spots with epoxy and then re-cover with the bed liner.
My next project will be to use this on my 15x12 SEF coil because it's coil cover weighs 3.6oz and so will be .6 ounces lighter without it's cover than the stock 10" Tornado coil with it's cover still on. The 10" coil's cover weighs 2.5oz so I plan to do that one as well. Before committing to this I'm going to weigh a piece of newspaper, spray 3 coats on it, and then weigh it again. I want to make sure the weight savings will be there, which I bet it will because I can't see this stuff weighing much in grams let alone ounces.
He wasn't using a coil cover with his fresh water hunting and I found that this coil had developed open seams from wear. These seams are were the coil sides are sealed over the bottom flat portion of the coil. He hasn't used it in a while so I knew it was good and dry inside, but I'm surprised he didn't already destroy it if he was water hunting with those open seams. Perhaps the coil is sealed at it's top as well so that even if water migrated up the seam it couldn't find it's way into the coil at the top, and perhaps these BBS coils are solid epoxy inside which would keep the windings from being exposed to water even if a hole was put into the coil casing.
Anyway, I wanted to first seal those gaps with something before using the spray on liner. It might have filled those gaps but I didn't want to paint it and find out that wasn't going to happen, so I had a choice between using epoxy or Shoe Goo (a rubbery cement and probably the best on the market). Epoxy would for sure be the most durable, but it would also be the hardest to force down good into those seams to make sure it was properly sealed. I decided to use the Shoe Goo. I put a line of it over the seams and then pushed it down into them with my finger as I smoothed it off the coil. I did this three times to make sure it was being forced down into the gaps well.
After it dried I took the coil off the lower shaft and laid it on top of a cardboard box. I then cut a rectangle into the box that would allow the coil's pole mount area to fit down into that, and also a hole so that the cable connector and cable on top of the coil could sit down inside the box as well. This allowed me to sit the coil upside down completely flat on the box to avoid any over spray getting on top of the coil.
I gave the coil 3 coats of the bed liner about ten minutes apart and plan to give it one more coat today when I'm sure everything is cured well. I made sure to spray the sides of the coil with it too because I noticed the coil was showing wear from bulldozing through the sand in that area. The only place the bed liner isn't sprayed is on the very top of the coil, but this stuff looks so good (like a fresh new coil's surface) that I may put painter's tape over the decals on top and then spray the top of the coil as well, at least with a light coat to shine it up.
If I find that the small areas where the Shoe Goo was used are coming off with use I'll probably re-do those spots with epoxy and then re-cover with the bed liner.
My next project will be to use this on my 15x12 SEF coil because it's coil cover weighs 3.6oz and so will be .6 ounces lighter without it's cover than the stock 10" Tornado coil with it's cover still on. The 10" coil's cover weighs 2.5oz so I plan to do that one as well. Before committing to this I'm going to weigh a piece of newspaper, spray 3 coats on it, and then weigh it again. I want to make sure the weight savings will be there, which I bet it will because I can't see this stuff weighing much in grams let alone ounces.