removing epoxy drip from non skid

Hey All,


I recently re-bedded some rails on my FB. The bases of the rails were screwed directly into the diamond pattern non skid of the deck. I taped them off but some of the epoxy leached under the tape and has since yellowed.



Any ideas on how to get it off? It's maybe 1/16 of an inch around the base, but it bugs me.

If you cant chip it out cover with white marinetex. it wont be a perfect match but a small spot probably wont be attention getting.

Dremel grinder carefully till you hit white (or other gel color)....use a pointed grindstone to try and save most of the non-skid pattern.


May be tedious...but if you try and chip it off, it may pull the gel off to bare glass underneath.


Of course that can be patched so roll the dice which is easier, including any fixes.

Its done
Forget about it.
Go boating

The epoxy will most likely be damaged by the UV sunlight. I would wait a while and see if it weakens and then try to chip it off with a sharpened putty knife.

Use a dental pick on the patterned non-skid. I spilled some epoxy on ours and don’t see it till the next day. My brother suggested the picks. We bought a set for less than $10.

Comodave said:

The epoxy will most likely be damaged by the UV sunlight. I would wait a while and see if it weakens and then try to chip it off with a sharpened putty knife.

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I agree. An Exacto knife will probably chip the sun damaged epoxy right out.

Let the sun help

Comodave is right, I drip afew drops on my non skid on my swim platform, didn't see it.

With the UV they yellowed, I didn't bother because of other project, I think the epoxy weaken and I remove most with knife, not perfect, but lets go boating, no wait its 22 degrees.

rgano said:

I agree. An Exacto knife will probably chip the sun damaged epoxy right out.

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This will work.

Thanks guys, I'll try the exacto knife. It's pretty much brown at this point, so hopefully it will let go.

Hit the area with a heat gun to soften the epoxy some and pick it off with a dental pick.

If the heat gun softens the epoxy, I bet it softens the gel coat which can cause it to chip off easily, thus my suggestion to grind it down to white gel.


If old 5200 chips off gel, just surfaced UV damaged epoxy may and often does the same.

psneeld said:

If the heat gun softens the epoxy, I bet it softens the gel coat which can cause it to chip off easily, thus my suggestion to grind it down to white gel.


If old 5200 chips off gel, just surfaced UV damaged epoxy may and often does the same.

Click to expand...

Over a year ago I replaced a window, had to epoxy the frame during re-installation, some dribbled down the gel coat below the window, un-noticed at the time. Yellowing was quick. Chipping didn't work, as the gelcoat beneath the epoxy chipped along with the epoxy, exposing FG mat. So I lived with it for a while.
This past summer I painted the hull, enamel (Easypoxy by Petit) over gelcoat. That went well, so the house also got painted and the yellow dribbles on white gelcoat were taken care of. Grinding to smooth, body filler, paint. Not difficult at all.
You might consider a bit of paint, perhaps a 1/2" circle around the fitting, maybe after grinding the spot to look like it was designed as a spot for that fitting, with no non-skid for 1/2" around it.