"I've noticed several boats that have the hull paint continue onto the deck an inch or so, I like it and plan on doing the same."

By all means, if your plan is to paint that portion of the deck that has nail heads set into it, you ought to fill & fair those "slightly below the deck surface" nail heads before you lay epoxy and 'glass on top.

Likely as not I'd find it hard to believe those nailhead depressions are uniform in depth. Filling 'em first with epoxy & wood dust/cellulose fibers will even the surface out nicely before 'glass gets applied.

Putting 'glass over depressions invites air entrapment as the 'glass isn't likley to follow the contour of the rings around nail heads.

Your painted surface's success depends on the evenness of the surface under the paint. Filling depressions in 'glass + epoxy isn't hard, but if you want the best painted 'glassed surface you ought to even up the underlying deck surface first, then 'glass.

Giving paint a smooth, even surface at the start is IMHO the best route to as flawless a painted finish as you can hope for.

The only thing I've got to add to spclark's good advice is to consider filling the depressions with epoxy/microballoon mix. It's a lot easier to sand.

Laszlo

   Thanks for the advice! I have been looking at my hull and it crossed my mind that it looks good enough to varnish if I wanted to. What would be the technique to fill in the nail heads on a bright deck? I've tried looking at the pictures on the CLC web site and it's hard to tell how they did it. I've even seen some that look like there are no nail heads at all. Could I just fill the depressions with straight epoxy, let it cure, sand then fiberglass?  SB

Hi San Bernard, 

the short answer is 'yes', you can fill with straight epoxy.  i have done this on bright finished hulls and is a bit of extra work but not particularly hard.

i find the easiest way to do this is to put a drop or epoxy on the nail head (or other depression) and immediately pull a small piece of scotch tape over it.  this ensures the epoxy does not simply spill out onto the deck leaving you with a spill and the hole you were trying to fill.  

after the epoxy cures, pull the tape off and sand it fare.

when you sand it , use a stiff sanding block behind you paper and use clean (e.g. sharp paper).  the stiff block will help you take down the 'bulge' to be fare with the rest of the deck and not simply smooth out a surface that is not fare.

hope this was helpful. 

h

The ones with no nailheads probably don't have nails. It's perfectly possible to attach the deck without mechanical fasteners. None of my kayaks have any nails or screws in them.

Laszlo

Per Laszlo -

"It's perfectly possible to attach the deck without mechanical fasteners."

It is indeed, with some attention paid to using whatever means one can bring to the task to hold things nicely together while epoxy cures. Packing tape works well, as does fiberglass-reinforced strapping tape if you need its non-shrink property.

There are non-metallic fasteners that, when properly set, leave such a small scar they become invisible once the first layer of epoxy & 'glass is applied.

One advantage of these is that they can be 'machined' with hand tools if they're not set flush or slightly below the surface.

I used these to good effect when bonding the decks of my Waterlust amas to the hulls. But I was going to paint everything anyway; I used 'em out of sheer convenience (and a desire to see just how well they worked) over the strapping tape others have used with success.

   Once again I've been saved by the forum with some great advice. I'm back to my original plan to paint the hull. I'm already looking at buying another kit before I've even finished this one, something smaller. These little guys are addictive. The idea of no metallic fasteners is now swirling around in my head. I have two conflicting thoughts "am I a builder or a paddler? Changes daily but I'm getting close to getting this girl out on the water. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! SB