Re: Varnishing Interior

Posted by Laszlo on May 22, 2005

Matt,

Unless you're going to be storing it outdoors with no cover and the sun shining directly in, there's no real need to varnish the interior at all.

You won't need the UV protection because of the cover, the spray skirt or your body shielding the epoxy from the sun. As far as durability goes, epoxy is much tougher than varnish. What with climbing in and out, sliding wet sandy feet along the bottom, etc., the cockpit is going to get a lot of wear. Varnish will get scraped right away. Not to mention David's point about cement and stuff not sticking to varnish.

I'd recommend filling the weave with epoxy, sanding it all smooth and then putting on a final, *very* thin coat of epoxy (use a squeegee to apply it). That'll give you a very nice and smooth cockpit with a tough coating that'll stand up to the rigors of paddling.

Don't forget to tape some plastic dropcloth to the cockpit sides and bottom before you put the deck and coaming on. The glue is going to be dripping from the clamps, deck and deckbeam and making spots and runs everywhere.

Have fun,

Laszlo

In Response to: Re: Varnishing Interior by david on May 21, 2005

Replies:

• Re: Varnishing Interior by Mike M. on May 23, 2005