After a day of doing a whole lot of nothing; a stop by the paint store, a stop by Don Abel, putting up more ribs inside the shed (gonna have a plumbing shop by the time I'm done ;), I finally got some work done. Sanding the sides and the transom was first on the list, then I cut the tips of the sides off at the bow. Can't be gluing them to the floor now can I?
I was still chasing drips, but it had slowed down enough that I thought I could get the first side on. I cleaned up all my tools and buckets, getting rid of all the old hardened epoxy, in general just getting everything organized. Then the show was on!
I've finally come up with a system for doing a really good job of laying in the fiberglass. First I used a brush to coat the chines. Then I started pouring epoxy on the sides using a roller with the shortest nap I could get to spread the epoxy out; if there's not enough epoxy then the roller sounds like a zipper as it pulls away, if there's too much then the roller doesn't roll. Once the epoxy was on, then I rolled on the fiberglass. Now the fiberglass was 48" wide, but I only needed 40", so after I rolled it on I went back with a pair of scissors and cut off the excess. Then I started at the transom, gently pulling and pushing the glass as I worked towards the bow getting rid of the bubbles, smoothing out the wrinkles and rolling the glass into the epoxy. Back to the transom I worked on the chine, rolling the fiberglass down into the epoxy, wetting out the dry spots and tightening up the corner. Once more back to the transom, pouring epoxy on the sides and using a plastic spreader to sweep back-and-forth spreading the resin into the dry spots; first with a light touch allowing the epoxy to soak in, then with a firmer touch, pushing the glass into the epoxy up against the plywood and sweeping the excess epoxy off the top of the glass leaving just the right amount of epoxy behind.
After cleaning up the inevitable drips it looked really good! Tomorrow will be the other side and then the long work of sanding and fairing will begin. Not looking forward to that but,
"Ya gotta get it started if you want to get it done." - Aaron Tippin
8 Hours