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I am a first timer building a stitch and glue canoe. I used epoxy fairing mix to fill in some pretty large dips in the stitched, glued, but still bare hull. I am now preparing to seal the hull with epoxy, sheath with fiberglass, fill the weave, prime and paint the hull. Since all of this is the first time for me, my question is how much the epoxy and fiberglass will fill and level. Does the fairing has to be perfectly smooth before fiberglass, or will the fiberglass cover imperfections?
5 replies:
RE: How smooth before fiberglass?
Fairness is more important than silky smoothness before the fiberglass is applied. Filll any low areas with micro-balloon thickened epoxy, and go over the entire hull with 80 grid sandpaper glued to a fairing board. Keep filling low spots and sanding until the entire surface has been touched by the sandpaper. Stroking the hull with you hand will often alert you to local areas that need more work.
Paint is nice and forgiving. If there are areas that you want to varnish, it's a good idea to sand those very smooth down to 220 grit, to remove any sanding scratches that might be visible through the fiberglass and varnish. Good luck.
Old Yeller
RE: How smooth before fiberglass?
Oh, it's easy to make a fairing board from a belt sander belt, and a piece of flexible plywood cut to the corresponding dimensions. Glue the sanding belt to the plywood with contact cement. You can mount handles on the ends if you want, but for temporary use, it really isn't necessary.
Old Yeller
RE: How smooth before fiberglass?
I have only done one build, but anytime I wondered if the next step would cover up prior mistakes I was wrong. I sanded until everything was super smooth and even still ended up with some air bubbles on a chine that I had to re-sand.
RE: How smooth before fiberglass?
» Submitted by Beaker - Fri, 6/7/13 » 5:23 PM
Sand it flat now. Properly flat, so you want to stroke it.