Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Utility: Fiberglassing continues.

I left off at the last post discussing "feathering" the edge of the fiberglass-covered area. This is simply sanding the edge down in order to have a smooth overlapped seam when you add the next, neighboring section of fiberglass cloth.

With 70% of the boat's bottom covered, I feathered the forward edge of the fiberglassed area. I also rounded over the sharp edge on the bow. With this done, I was ready to add the next section of fiberglass cloth: covering the forward bottom on the port side of the hull.

It went very smoothly. Again, I highly recommend Ken Hankinson's book How To Fiberglass Boats, as it (and the accompanying DVD) make the process very easy to understand. 

Working alone, it's difficult to photograph the fiberglassing process because I'm mostly preoccupied with handling the epoxy (which I don't want to get all over my camera with messy, gloved hands). However, this time I've tried to better show what some of the stages look like:


Photo from the previous post, showing the partially-feathered edge at the chine transition joint.
The same area after the new section of fiberglass cloth was added. On the left, you can see the edge of the new overlapping section. This will need to be sanded as well, to make the overlapping seam smooth.
Feathering the edge that has overlapped the bow.
Feathering the edge that has overlapped the bow.

Fiberglassed transom, after a 2nd coat of epoxy (squeegied meticulously) to fill the weave of the 6oz fiberglass cloth.

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