Hey Buddy,

Thanks for the quick reply.  I haven't tried micro ballons, as I read that it should only be used where the boat will be painted but it sounds like you've had good results with it.  In one previous adding ttempt, I created some dark wood flour from scrap deck strips.  The problem with that was when sanding the joint flat again, the patch was somewhat translucent and the white still showed through.  Regarding adding pigment, are you referring to wood flour or some kind of stain?

Another thought that I had was to use a dark colored nylon thread (like size D used for wrapping guides onto fishing rod blanks) glued into the joint then epoxied over. 

I'm probably the cheif complainer about the microballoon color, but that's for microballoons only. I never mix them with wood flour because that mix would be terrible for fairing and filling the weave. But I can see how that would improve the color.

Laszlo

 Hap' and Laszlo,

Thanks for your replies and input.  I've read some of your other posts and appreciate the collective wisdom.  I've never worked with microballoons but it may be time; I will explore the pigment link.  

Regards

i have experienced something similar....

in general, its important if filling a gap that you color the gap-filling material prior to filling the gap.  otherwise when you sand it fair....you keep re-exposing the 'not colored' material.

one approach to fixing it is if the areas of white are relatively small,  you can carve/dig them out a milimeter below what you expect to be the finished surface  with a blade or a little dremel tool and fill it in with wood flour-colored epoxy (or any other color)....you just need to ensure it will be below the surface you will sand to when you finish sand.  

you can also try a marker if the right color....but it has to be the last thing you do...becuase if you sand it....you will sand it back to the white.  

i have used both techniques with good success.

h

I also think that you can color epoxys by anything. A friend used the brownish color to cover the epoxyx. That was looking quite good.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.  The deck has been planed, scraped and sanded out to the point where I really hesitate to cut into the joints any more than I previously did, plus some of the runs are quite long. After this morning's session and inspection, I find that the joints are pretty flat so I'm more inclined to try coloring the white areas, as suggested by hspira and Levi Wilson. Color matching doesn't concern me as much as just shading the white marks. There is so much natural wood color variance in the deck that I believe virtually any color (even black) will be an improvement. If that doesn't work, then I may try filing a shallow grove or channel and go with the microballoons. As a note, when the deck is wetted out with denatured alcohol, the white in some joints disappears while others are seem to pop more white - confounding.

Best wishes to all and thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Stolarski

Good evening,

Not sure if anyone is still interested in this post but I feel obligated to include a follow up with a working solution that I've decided on.  As hspira suggested, I cut out the white marks (using a dremel tool with a cutting wheel), creating a channel.  I approached this task with some anxiety, as I didn't know the remaining thickness of the affected wood strips after prior planing, scraping and sanding the deck.  Actually, there was more stock than I had anticipated and was able to cut down about a millimeter or more without cutting through the fiberglass on the underside. After sanding the inside of the channel to remove jagged and uneven cut lines, I was left with a more widened but smooth channel.  Now, the appearance of a wider channel filled with epoxy thickened with wood dust concerned me.  So I created thin wooden dowels from left over pieces of the deck strips and glued them into the channels using CA.  After curing, I planed and sanded the proud standing dowels smooth to the deck.  To my eye, they look good.  Still have a few more runs to do but anticipate more good results. Thanks to all.

Stolarski