Glen-L.com

I have used up the entire quantity of epoxy provided in my Glen L fiberglass kit and have not even started on the inside of the canoe. Am I putting on too much? I put on one coat before the fiberglass, another wetting the fiberglass and four more coats. Some areas seemed difficult to cover the weave of the glass, but now all is covered.

I have some sanding to do to make it smooth. After I get it smooth, is one more coat advisable or is it time for paint or varnish?

Nobody seems to listen to me. I don't pre-coat the wood. I glass the dry topsides with 6 oz. Yes dry glass on dry wood. I use a brush. I put on 2, yes TWO filler coats as soon as I can. Actually, I may do the bottom while I do fill coats on the topsides.

Two fill coats are enough to sand smooth. If you do see glass then you can do another coat of resin. More than 2 and you're just wasting resin.

I do transom, topsides and then bottom. The seams lap like the water flow. My canoe and runabout are finished bright. The only real key is good light! You must get full saturation on the 1st coat.

Sorry, people make this much harder than it needs to be.

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

There is no reason to prime the wood with epoxy prior to applying the fiberglass cloth. Once the bare wood is sanded, lay the cloth out and trim it to size. Squeegee the resin through the cloth and into the wood below. The amount of resin is not important. What is important is that the glass is fully impregnated with resin and bonded to the wood surface. Too much resin will allow the cloth to float above the surface of the wood. When properly applied, the cloth weave will be visible, but fully saturated, and there will be no puddles of epoxy lying on the surface.

On our Zip, the first ply was six-ounce cloth. After this cured, we sanded out the major bumps and applied a second ply of two-ounce cloth. What this did was allow us to continue sanding without getting into the first ply. After this, we mixed up a slurry of lightweight filler and epoxy, and sqeegeed this over the entire hull. After some more sanding, we were ready for primer. My point is that the purpose of the resin is to fill the cloth weave and bond it to the hull. Use a slow-curing hardener and spend lots of time working the resin into the weave. If you think of epoxy as an adhesive and not a filler, you'll save yourself a lot of work.

-Mark Shipley

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A boat is just a wooden box with no right angles.