I hadn't realized it's been so long since my last update.
Well, when I left you last, I had just put the fiberglass mat on and was ready to fill it in. It took a couple of more coats but here is what it looked like all filled in.
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| All Filled In |
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| Shiny |
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| From the Front |
It was starting to get that plastic look to it and was very shiny. It was also a bit splotchy but I knew just how to take care of that. Yep, more sanding....................................which took that shine right off.
After I got it sanded, it still wasn't fair so now I thickened up some epoxy and put another layer on. It dripped a little but I wasn't concerned about the drips because I knew they would be, you guessed it, sanded off.
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| Another Layer of Epoxy |
I used my long board to sand in several directions. It was easy to see where the low spots were because of the contrast in the places that the board scratched and the places that it didn't. I sanded off most of the one layer, knocking down the high spots. Then I put another layer of thickened epoxy on and sanded down to where there was hardly any low spots. I went around and just filled in the few low spots that were left and sanded them smooth. It was a lot of work and took hours and many weekends. Here are a couple of pictures I took during that process.
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| Half Sanded |
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| From the Other End |
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| Smooth |
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| From the Bow |
It doesn't look like it but I got everything pretty smooth and fair. I tried to take a couple of pictures that show how smooth it is.
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| Low Angle |
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| The Other Side |
I think I could keep putting coats on and sanding them off for a year or more and still have a couple of spots to work on. After six months I decided enough was enough and declared it done.
The next step is to paint it but before I did that I wanted to cut out the hole in the bow for the winch on the trailer to hook into. I didn't want to just drill out a hole because that would leave end grain inside the hole that water could get sucked up into and rot the wood. I drilled out a 1 1/2" hole and filled it in with epoxy. Then I drilled a 3/4" hole in the epoxy plug.
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| Another Hole in the Boat |
After that, I spent a day stirring up the primer I bought about a year ago. Then I put the first coat of primer down.
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| One Coat of Primer |
Of course, I felt like I needed to sand it a little. I think I'm addicted to sanding. Let me know if you need anything sanded because I'm a sandaholic.
I put the second primer coat on and this is what it looks like now.
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| Two Coats of Primer |
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| All Primed |
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| Another White Boat |
Just what the world needs, another white boat. It will not stay that way for long. My next step will be to put a couple of top coats on. Once that is done, I'll be ready to flip it back over and get back to working on the topside.
I don't think I'll ever make a living at boat building because evidently, it takes me a couple of years to make a little daysailer. Hopefully I'll get to use it for longer than it is taking to build it.
