Epoxy, Hotcoating, and Color

General Discussion
1

Hi all - after moving to to CA this spring, I’ve finally decided to complete my first build. I’ve wanted to do this for a longtime, but was previously living in Boston, where space to shape can be hard to come by. I picked up an EPS blank from the folks at Arrow, and ordered a kit of Resin Research epoxy. The advice of Stingray, in particular, has been hugely helpful throughout the glassing process. 

I’m ready to hotcoat now, and seeking some advice. I can’t seem to dig up any info in search, so;

Will [clear] hotcoat take care of the color streaking left over from sanding the lap lines in the laminate coat? I did a freelap, and have a few bumpy spots that I took down with a block, but the color is obviously much lighter in these areas. I’ve read that hotcoat should not have pigment added in, so I’m just curious if the oard will have the streaks and so be it, or if there’s anything I can do to make her a little prettier before hotcoating. 

A little info on the build, for those interested: it’s a 5’7" finless asymmetric, inspired mostly by Ryan Lovelace’s Rabbitsfoot. I wanted to try something really different in the tail, and took an approach similar to a DVS hydro hull (http://www.costasurf.com/foros/nuestros-shapes-(proyectos)-y-show-room/hydro-hull-16489/), with a bevel in the tail leading into the double concave…we’ll see how it goes, but it was a fun build. 

Thanks!

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2

It’s been about 5 years since I did the Epoxy Glassing thread…

 http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/first-epoxy-glass-job-s

That was before Resin Research Kwick Kick PH. But the same rules still apply. GuywhoCantSurf posted photos of his shaped and painted surfboard before I chimed in. The guy worked for a car dealer or an auto body reapir shop so I knew he had some basic skills. Let’s start with the term Hot Coat. There is no “hot coat” with epoxy. It’s a sanding coat or filler coat.

3

It takes some balls to do that first glass job. Big learning curve. You have some wild strings and bugers so you sand them out…Ok…but you have at least one sand thru on the stringer that needs cloth repair. On the rails if you sanded thru to the next layer of cloth no problem. If you sanded to the foam do some small cloth patches. And then use a 2-3 inch paint brush to do the “hot coat”. And you must use RR Epoxy from start to finish. Color will even out after the fill coat.

Ray

4

Great advice from stingray. The only other thing we’d throw in is to be careful while sanding the “hot coat”. You don’t want to burn through all of those high spots again. You may want to keep the sander at a super low rpm and then do a lot of hand sanding. It won’t be fun but it’ll get the job done safely. Good luck and welcome to California!