So after rereading all of the responses, and then thinking through what I am potentially skilled enought to do, I am going to do a foam stain. It seems like the best of all worlds, and simply mix one big batch, and one solid color for deck and hull. Then do clear lamination over with UV only, and then UV plus MEKP for the final hotcoat.
Now, since I'm going to do foam stain, approximately how much resin do you think I will need for each stage for an 8'6 at about 22.5 wide board:
Foam stains = not much, just enough to skim the deck. 1/4 of a quart.
Lams = about 1-1/2 quart. Should be plenty so you dont run out. See how good you did with it on the first lam and adjust to your skill level from there.
Hotcoat = 1/2 quart. Adjust on the second side to skill level. It doesnt take much.
So I went ahead and did the lam coat. That was a lot harder than I thought it would be and the cut lap was a hot mess I really should have cut it cleaner. Anyways afterwards I had a couple of areas where the fiberglass didn’t wet out. I thought when doing a hot coat it would saturate and all would be fine. I did the hot coat looked great but when curing I now still see some areas where the glass is dry, but only on the lap line. Also I see a couple of small bubbles in the hot coat. How concerned should I be about these. I still have to sand the hot coat but is it worth a second hot coat. Oh, and this is only on the deck. See pix below.
pretty typical – in fact not too bad - for a first glass job. Go ahead and sand your hot coat, then look at it again. If not a second hot coat, you might consider doing a gloss coat because a) its a good thing to learn, b) you don’t want any water getting through pinholes etc, and c) you can start figuring out how to polish a board when you want to do that…
Yeah like Keith said; “not too bad” the problem isn’t enough resin from the pics, but uneven squegee pressure. I have said this before, so next time someone else can say it; you can feel and hear the air bubbles pop and the squegee ride up over and through the bubbles and resin piles. Try to make it feel and sound even the next time.
Thanks for the input guys. Will sand away at the hot coat then maybe run another coat on top of it. If I do another coat should I only do like 100 grit to smooth it, and then clean it up with denatured alcohol as prep? Or will I run into any problems getting the second hot coat to stick?
just kidding… yup metric would be good, but the USA made a half-assed attempt to change over back under President Jimmy Carter, and didn’t really commit. Somehow I doubt it will ever happen now.
I appreciate the positive responses. At one point I thought this project was doomed. I tried to foam stain originally and it came out horrid. Then walking it out into the sun bashed the tail into the side of my garage. Ended up taking an angle grinder to it to remove the resin and then reshaped the entire board. An 8’6 ended up a 7’10 after all was said and done. But with some research you can find the answers to your questions here and I’ve learned a lot so far. Now I just need some time (and the rain to stop) to finish this project up.
