Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Speedboats & Hatch lams

After a brief consultation with Andy, and some excellent advice, it was on to flow coating.

And, unlike fairing, or at least the sanding part, this was kind of fun.





Several thin layers went on, with a combination of epoxy resin, white pigment, and Cabosil.  I used mainly a foam roller. The squeegees and drywall spreaders didn't work as well for me as they have for others. But my coats are probably thinner and will require more of them. Also, the foam and brush tipping wasn't really necessary. Everything leveled out pretty well with few bubbles.

One caveat - really mix the Cabosil well. Otherwise you get some small chunks.


Unlike my initial concerns, there wasn't too much sag and drip on the side panels. But I did need to roll back over everything a couple of times. Gravity is an unfortunate constant here.


After a few coats, some light sanding





 and some patch fairing with more fairing/cabosil mix.




Eventually,  a final coat. Not sure I'm going to get that "speedboat finish" here Andy refers too. Looks a little closer to a cross between a golf ball and washboard.




Next time (said once again with a very loud chuckle),  I'm going to go with wood panels and maybe just a foam core bottom. Will allow fewer layers of glass and keep things smoother. And simpler. And less glassing and sanding.

Plus another lesson. Do the side panel lay ups after the bottom ones. Hides the seam edges on the bottom.

Between flow coats while drying, I cut out and laminated the 1/4" ply which will go inside the hatch lids as extra laminations for support.


This is the last, can I say it again, last batch of fiberglassing (other than topside flow coats) I have left.

I think.

So, this evening we'll celebrate with some of this.




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