Andrew helped me a lot today. Started the adventure of fiberglassing. Sorry, no pics ( :( ).
They would have been neat pics. We wore haz mat suits and respirators, big rubber gloves. The ventilation down there is actually pretty good; had 2 fans going in the window. The glass took forever to roll out and smooth onto the boat. The bow & stern were PARTICULARLY tricky. Ugh. But we finally got it to lie down. Put extra layers of glass along the ends of the keel and on the bottom in a football shaped pattern, for extra abrasion resistance (pulling up on those "sandy" beaches up here in the NW!!).
Finally we were ready to wet out the glass. It took a lot of epoxy and the boat actually heated up while it was curing. There was a lot on there. I spread it around with a brush then squeegied the excess off, and got the air bubbles out. Andrew meanwhile helped me by continually mixing up new batches of fresh resin. Took about 5 hrs total, whewwww.
I am a little worried because some glass fibers got pulled out and stretched down the boat from the squeegying. I have no idea how one would avoid that while laying up multiple layers of glass. Hopefully those will disappear in the subsequent coats, or I'll be able to sand them down. More sanding! EIIIYEE!
...This will be short cuz I've gotta go put on the 2nd coat of epoxy about right now.
3 coats, ~8 hrs apart.... 2pm - 10pm - 6am and then razor off the glass at the gunwales before the 3rd coat is all set up, around 2pm again tomorrow. whew.
Haz-mat suits are very neat, and I enjoyed sounding like Darth Vader in my respirator. :) The boat was really pretty after it was fiberglassed -- the colors are exceedingly vibrant.
Posted by: Andrew at June 19, 2005 01:12 PMAnd who did your companion in crime sound
like--Tallulah Bankhead?
I guess all you kiddies are too young to remember an actress whose voice was deeper than Kathleen Turner's. Sexier, too.
Posted by: Hanako at June 19, 2005 07:02 PM