|
|
|
 | Back in the garage, I sanded and faired the deck. I also roughly trimmed the cockpit opening so that
I didn't have any sharp edges sticking up that may get in the way of the glassing process.
I mixed up a small batch of John Greer's AeroMarine epoxy and applied a thin base coat with a foam roller to fill the wood before I laid the glass on. It didn't take much. Poplar is hard and doesn't absorb much. AeroMarine is a great epoxy and very inexpensive. It cost me $125 for the whole boat. |
 | I bought a HUGE roll of imperfect 4oz fiberglass cloth from ebay for $80. Yes, 4oz, not 6oz. Again, poplar is a hardwood. It's
stronger than cedar, but weighs more. 4oz glass combined with the hard poplar offers more than enough strength for this
little craft. It also evens out the weight - heavier wood, lighter glass. Since the weave of 4oz isn't as thick as 6oz,
it takes less expoxy to fill it, thereby saving more weight.
In the end, the boat weighed in at 49lbs fully loaded. Not too shabby. |
 | I used a small $.60 chip brush and a hard, auto-body-repair type squeegee that I purchased from Home Depot were used to wet out the glass. I have to admit, fiberglassing is fun! |
 | Here's a closer view of the aft deck. Check out the 4oz weave. |
 | The deck glass was allowed to cure for 3 hours at ~80 degrees. I trimmed up the edges a bit and then... |
 | Clapmed the dec to the hull. I wanted to make sure the expoy cured in the correct form, so I let this assembly sit for 2 days. Note the color difference between the bare poplar and the epoxy cover poplar. |
 | Using a foam roller, I applied 4 fill coats of epoxy to the glass and the top of the deck was done. I somehow ended up with a slight orange peel in the epoxy. That sanded out easily with some 250 grit paper. |
 | A view of the glassed fore deck. |
 | The same process was repeated on the hull's exterior and then again inside the deck and hull. |
