Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Tech Tip Tuesday

Glassing the inside of the canoe tends to intimidate lots of builders with the "What do I do in the ends?" question. As I wrote in my previous post, I simply trim the fiberglass (Before saturating with epoxy) as close to the stem as I can get it.

One of the most important points that I try to make is that you don't want a nice smooth finish on the interior. There are a three major reasons:

  • If the finish is smooth, you'll wind up sliding around, particularly with wet feet.
  • If the finish is smooth, it's probably shiny and the finish can be blinding in the sun.
  • Extra coats of epoxy only add extra weight.
I usually try to wet out the cloth with one coat of epoxy and squeegee off excess epoxy so that the weave of the cloth is still apparent. I do the best job possible so that sanding will not be required. This gives a non-skid, matte finish even after a coat of varnish.

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