it would be great to send a picture.

the poly, to your point, does not really fill gaps/cracks.

i am a bit confused because most of the boats have a layer of epoxy/ fibreglass over the puzzle joints...so i am curious how you have a crack.

that said, i would sand the area and apply unthickened epoxy and then sand it/fare it.  and then paint over that.   this is assuming small cracks....a thickened epoxy will have trouble getting into small cracks.

h

"Does anyone have advice on how to go back and fix these very small cracks in the paint?"

Won't happen.

Paint's not intended to fill voids, why it tends to show every little flaw in the surfaces it's applied to, high gloss being the worst offender.

Check with Interlux, seek what they have that you can use over the Brightsides you've already applied that will both adhere well and fill the cracks, then sand & add another coat or two where the filler's been placed. hspira's suggestion to sand / epoxy again is a good one if that's how you'd rather approach this.

You have to decide whether there're other areas that might benefit from a closer look and subsequent touch-ups or just this one puzzle-joint area that's got your attention.

Maybe instead just leave things as they are, enjoy your new boat for awhile then deal with the things you're seeing now along with the inevitable dings that'll happen in use when it's time for another coat or two to freshen up the furniture-finish look you've achieved! 

I have 5 coats of epoxy over the hull.  It has been sanded smooth and again looks fantastic (to me) except for these darn cracks.  The are very very small.  But I should be able to sand them down and get epoxy in them.  Just going to be a several day set back.  But this is my first boat and I'm learning .  As for pictures I have tried several times to post pictures to this crap forum (not the people the software. People have been fantastic!!).  I'm not going to host my pics on a 3rd party site just because CLC won't bother to upgrade their site.   Here is a public post from iCloud of a few pics and video and here is my project on Facebook if your interested. 

My plan is to sand down to the wood over the puzzle joints.  Use epoxy thickened with cell-o-fill to a mustered consistency (I think I can push it into the cracks).  Let is set overnight.  Next day sand and make sure all cracks are filled. Tape off the remainder of the boat leaving only the exposed wood cracks and over the next three days spray and sand coats of paint to catch it up with the rest of the hull.  On day 4 take the tape off sand all of the hull and put a 4th coat on all of the hull and hope it blends in.

Thoughts?

Please forgive my ranting on the CLC forum software.  I love this company and my boat but this forum doesn’t match the quality of their products. 

Thanks for the help.

@spclark thanks for the input.  I have the time and I want the skill to do this project right.  So I think sanding her down to the wood for this small section is the way to go.  It will set me back 4 days at a minimum but there is no deadline on this so off I go.  It is 8:30 am and I’m grabbing my sander as soon as I hit post.  Will check back in an hour or so.  I will keep adding pics of my progress to my post from iCloud.  My biggest concern now is how to make everything blend.  I think I have a good approach outlined in my previous post. 

All input is welcome!

Well, if it's any comfort, the rest of your paint job looks really good!  Dark colored glossy paint like that is the devil's own shirttail for showing up the least slip of the painter's hand.  When I paint, I am mostly reminded that paint hates me.  <;-)

.....Michael

Michael, 

Yeah and every speck of dust shows up too. I knew this going into it (I like a challenge I guess).  I did my darnedest to get all the dust out before I sat up my spray booth.  But you have to sand between coats and I do that with a vacuum attached to my sander.  But dust still gets on the floor that is covered with plastic making it harder to keep clean.  I think the air from my spray gun kicks up a little of that dust.  So for my final coat I’m vacuuming the plastic on the floor and then wetting it down maybe the plastic walls as well.  

Thanks for the kind words and support!

I just finished filling the cracks and will wait about 8 hours and hopefully I can sand them and apply a coat of epoxy still today.

thanks for the pics.  makes it totally clear now.

for reference in the future, a technique i will use for something like this is  i will use is a couple drops of unthickened epoxy in the gap and then a piece of celophane tape over it to keep the epoxy in place in the crack/depression.  

the tape effects the surface tension in a way that it is more effective at ensuring the gap gets/remains filled on the first pass compared to not using the tape.

very nice color.

h

   @hspira,

Thanks for the tape idea.  I will keep that in mind.

In one of the few posts I put up here with pics early in the build of my Waterlust canoe I showed how the puzzle joints came out after being glued up with sheets of polyethylene, clamped firmly against smooth surfaces on both sides. There's value in the surface tension created by a membrane covering those joints once they're filled with epoxy & left to cure.

As for the forum hosting images... more than just software's involved. The backside of maintaining a web server's formidable in these days of DoS attacks, to say nothing of the costs to maintain a server capable of storing gigabytes of image data. Even though I doubt I'll ever buy another CLC kit I'd rather they spend their time bringing new kits to the marketplace, and improving the service they provide to their customers  than spend $$$ on IT systems for web hosting. In these days of Cloud storage, it's easier than it used to be to post links to images that are stored elsewhereot  so that they can be displayed here. Still one must pay attention to permission issues, otherwise some viewers may not see what others can.

(For myself I'd be ecstatic if an <edit> button were to be made available if nothing else. Then a forumite, posting a link that doesn't work, could then go back and correct it!)

Following along to improve my own skills and understandintg!

I'm puzzled by the lack of fiberglass in evidence over the puzzle joints - what's with that?

-ALB

@Andrew

The fiberglass doesn’t cover all of the puzzle joints.  The parts that are not covered are supposed to be filled with epoxy.  Well I did cover them with epoxy, 5 coats to be exact but it seeped into a few of the cracks instead of covering them and left very small gaps.  I mean small you could barely get a razor-blade in them but that was enough for the paint to highlight them.  I’m about caught up just put my second coat on tonight so should be back on track tomorrow.

Here are the latest pics.