Wetout of 38 Special

[woodbender]

Hi guys

Well we finally had the break in the weather we needed to pre-coat, fiberglass, and wetout the 38 Special. Shown here are the 38 Special before precoat;




And fiberglass is trimmed and laid out ready for epoxy;





Hard to believe that semi-transparent fabric actually wets out when it's hit by epoxy. But here's proof;



and;



And preliminary results after first fill coat after wetout (no those are not green strips - we have bad lighting in the garage);


and;


I gotta tell you this was a huge bravery test for me. We'd never done this before and I had big misgivings about the behavior of the epoxy. You can't very well undo your mistake if you mix up a bad batch of epoxy.

But we held our own. I figured about three hours to sand the precoat, vacuum it and wetout the fiberglass. HAH!! we didn't get done with the fiberglass and fill coat until 12:30 this morning and we started yesterday at 1:30.

Best laid plans etc.

Thanks for looking.

Oh and just so nobody thinks we're all work and no play,... anyone with kids who like Monsters Inc. will appreciate this;

[Woods Walker]

WOW

Looks really great Tim, you guy's have done an awesome job. I was pretty nervous too when it
came to the glassing, but it isn't as bad as I thought.
Looks like you will get it wet this year & enjoy how it paddles.

BTW... when I seen the white coveralls & masks... I was thinking Ghost Busters

Keep us posted

Troy

[woodbender]

"I looked in the trap Ray"!

Troy we put on the final (outside hull) fill coat last night and it went pretty good. We used the System Three Laminating Epoxy and for a first time user I was very pleased with the stuff. It is very clear - even the hardener is clear so all you see is wood.

This has a thin viscosity and very easy to move around and level off.

She came off looking pretty good. I think next time we will not do the sabots though. No matter how careful we were the joints just don't "flow" along the hull. Your eye trips and snags at the sabot joints. I like how your stems turned out - we'll do that for our NW Cruiser.

admin said:

BTW... when I seen the white coveralls & masks... I was thinking Ghost Busters

Keep us posted

Troy