Glen-L.com

I applied 3 coats of epoxy resin over my fiberglass and the sanded it down with 80 grit. It left lotsa divots in the surface. Clearly I need to apply a few more coats. I used a roller to put the resin on and dont think I should do that again as it looks to me that, that is the cause of so many divots in the surface of my hull. My question is what methoed should I use to apply my last coats, Foam brush or a standard style brush, or maybe somethis else?

Thanks
Jim

I would use a roller,then go over it with a squeegee.....won't come out perfect,but will smooth out a lot.Others have used a foam roller cut in half and attached to a wooden handle to drag lightly over to smooth out

then sand.

You can also mix in a little bit of filler to the resin to help fill in the gaps seeing as you are painting

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Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Jim,

What has been your process so far? How many coats of epoxy do you have on, etc...

I found I had the exact same situation on my Malahini. Your pic looked exactly like mine did at the time.

I had put probably 6 or more coats of epoxy on with the thin nap Glen-L rollers and still had those divots. My problem was not the roller, but not sanding enough...

I think the divots come from resin sucking into the glass, or bumps in the substrate. Anyhow, when you put coat over coat on top of a bumpy or divoted surface, the bump or divot translates on each coat (therefore, it looks like it's not going away). I kept thinking the more epoxy I put on, the less divots I would have. But that was wrong, and ultimately, I figured it out. I sanded, and sanded, and sanded, and sanded... until I achieved a probably 90% smooth surface, without cutting into the glass. The other 10% still had divots that I could not get out without sanding into the glass. So at that point, I used a squeegie (like pirate said) to backfill those divots, and then sanded those areas again. I proud to say, I now have a 99% smooth hull.

Hope that works for you.

Charles

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Malahini Build Gallery:

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Oh, also, like Pirate commented on, definitely tip the surface after you roll. He suggested a roller cut in half, but you can also use a fine bristle brush, or a foam brush, as long as it doesn't chatter across the surface.

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Malahini Build Gallery:

http://picasaweb.google.com/11229065623 ... directlink

I recommend tipping with a brush after rolling. It is hard to keep a roller (cut in half or a full roller fixed to a stick) from bouncing. Be careful not to sand into the cloth.

On large surfaces I have never had a problem with rolling resin on with a full length roller. I also do this is stages rarely attempting to completely saturate the cloth in one shot. Just let the initial coat have some time to wet the cloth out and do a second coat to even wet the cloth completely out after having time to view what is semi starved. I also employ a solid and cured roller as my tool of choice to push areas of pooled resin into areas thats in need of it before I would even mess with any brushes. You can even employ a cemete trowel too which flattens out any resin rich areas under the glass cloth too. If you need any photos for examples of the two tools let me know. A wide flexible putty knife also works too.

I got a decent finish by rolling on the resin, then topping it with a piece of foam.

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I brushed the wet out coat and squeege that after about 20 min. I do two fill coats. I sand and if a get to glass Iadd another coat.

Bill

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Mini -Tug, KH Tahoe 19 & Bartender 24 - There can be no miracle recoveries without first screwing up.
Tahoe 19 Build

OH, yeah......As it turns out it was elbow grease that was needed. I think I will use the squeege metheod to fill in the divots, thanks for the great tips. Its like you guys are right here next to the boat,
Jim

I use two separate foam rollers & frames each coat. The first one is simply to apply the resin. On the second one I use piece of wire to "lock" the roller in place so it doesn't roll. After applying resin to and area I switch to the fixed roller and use a light touch to drag the resin removing the dimples and smoothing the surface. If I pay attention and and not flip it over when working, I can let it cure and reposition the roller getting 4 uses out of each before tossing it. Does a very nice job of leveling.

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So Little Time....

I'm curious what exact sort of squeege you use for smoothing. It sounds like a good method. Perhaps more controllable and less prone to chatter than the foam roller cut in half or "locked" with wire as mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

Squeegees are on this page:

https://www.boatdesigns.com/Mixing-Cups ... ducts/280/

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

That's the ones. The edges can be knotched also for spreading glue.

Bill

_________________
Mini -Tug, KH Tahoe 19 & Bartender 24 - There can be no miracle recoveries without first screwing up.
Tahoe 19 Build