I was just wondering why you have to sand the hot coat? Im also not putting a gloss coat on, and trying to skip the sanding step. Thanks
If you don’t plan on glossing, and can do a nice hotcoat that doesn’t need sanding to smooth out, don’t sand, it’s the finish now.
I’ve done over 40 boards with hotcoat unsanded finish, and most guys just thought it was an unpolished gloss coat.
But the guys who know look deeper, and can see the weave of the cloth just a little…no biggee, it’s faster that way.
Just kidding, of course.
As long as it’s watersealed and no bumps stick out, you can ride it.
Thanks LeeDD ill check out how the hot coat looks
I just finished the hot coat on my first board (at least first time glassing). I didn’t do a good job cleaning the laps on the deck so I have some bumps and ridges. Any issues if I choose not to sand these areas? Is getting rid of the bumps more of a cosmetic thing (at least on the deck)? I have a feeling if I sand the deck, especially over the bumps and ridges, I’ll sand down to the cloth real soon and then will have to redo the hot coat in all those areas. Is this correct?
Also, I noticed on the bottom of the board I have these little ridges at the tail close to the rails of the board. Looks like a set of waves, mini-sized. Any idea how to avoid this in the future? I did my best to grind down the laps on the deck to make it nice and smooth but these ripples showed up. I know the laps in those areas did not have that shape so I’m not sure what happened. I used polyester hot coat from Foam EZ (I think Composite Resource?) and added the UV catalyst powder. I added a splash of MEKP catalyst after reading a post here to help with the wax rising to the top.
Sanding the hotcoat doesn’t really do anything other than to level it and maybe lose a little bit of weight as well. If you’re happy with your hotcoat prior to sanding just leave it as it is. The only difference you might notice is the board is a little bit heavier.