Glass not wet out properly: can it be fixed?

Hi all, I was too impatient to build my Chesapeake 17LT, and aquired a stitch and glue kayak to paddle in the meantime. It's at least ten years old and the previous owner sanded it back and varnished it. He wasn't the builder.

Above the sheer, the glass cloth was not wet out properly and has the weave visible to varying degrees as you move along the length of the boat. The width of the affected strip is a bit over an inch. It looks to be two layers of cloth, where the hull and deck sheathing have been done separately.

I am considering an attempt at sanding down *to* - but not into - the glass cloth and seeing if I can get more resin into the weave.

Has anyone here had any success at such a thing?

Am I mad? Should I just bring some paint up around the sheer line and go with a bright deck (mostly?).


2 replies:

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RE: Glass not wet out properly: can it be fixed?

Once the epoxy is cured, it's impossible to fix improperly wet out glass. The glass fibers are coated with epoxy on the outside and and cannot abosorb anymore to fill the internal gaps.

That said, is the glass on your boat not properly wet out or is it just that the weave is not filled. That's 2 different things.

If the glass is transparent but you can see/feel the weave, it's properly wet out and just needs the weave filled.

If the glass is not transparent, if it has white streaks or patches, it's not properly wet out and it cannot be repaired. All you can do is remove and replace it. In that case, sand all the way down to the wood and glue on a glass patch.Let the patch overlap a couple of inches onto the old good glass. If you mark out the boundaries with 2" wide clear plastic packing tape, you can let the new patch overlap onto the tape, then when it's cured to the "green" stage pull it off the tape and cut off the excess. That will leave you a nice clean edge that will be easy to feather. Here's a couple of pictures of that same process being used to cover the edges of the rudder box on my schooner.

Good luck,

Laszlo

RE: Glass not wet out properly: can it be fixed?

Thank you, Laszlo.

I suspected that may be the case. Yes, it's smooth but has white ghosts of weave visible inside.

If it really starts to bug me I'll paint the hull and bring the paint line up over the sheer to cover it. I can't say i'm keen to take it all off. I'd build a whole new one from scratch before I'd take on that repair. :-)

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