| Squirt Hull Painting |
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| The fiberglass is applied. The fiberglass is positioned on the hull and then wetted with epoxy. I have applied epoxy through fiberglass with brushes, foam rollers, plastic spreaders, and the foam roller squeegies from West Marine. What I found is that there is a reason those squeegie rollers are so expensive at West - because they are worth it. |
The fairing compound is applied with a combination of various sizes of plastic spreaders. The 8" wide one seemed to work the best. I use the Aeromarine epoxy and the West System Microlight #410 filler. It is the easiest I have found to sand and feather. |
This gives an idea of how uneven the fairing compound is immediately following application. I could have probably smoothed it out more but It all has to be sanded anyway. I make sure I apply enough that I won't sand through to the fiberglass when I begin fairing. |
And the hull is faired and primed. I told a fellow hobbyist how much I hated sanding. He informed me it was because I didn't have a decent sander in my entire shop. So I went out and bought three new sanders. Well he was wrong. I still hate sanding. Only with my new sanders, it just doesn't take as long. Moral: Buy the best tools you can afford. |
Don't let this picture fool you. It looks shiny and smooth but the imperfections are there. I expect as much when I paint outside of a dedicated paint booth. There is just too much dust in my workshop to lay down perfect paint on the first application. You can still have a great finish however. It just takes more work. What I will do is wet sand and polish the bottom of the hull and then flip it to finish the interior. I will wait to polish the sides because I will be adding painted coves on the sides of the hull. Also, there will most likely need to be some touch up painting around where the deck and the sides attach. I might as well wait until the very last step to sand and polish the sides and deck. |
| My 2 cents... As of mid-January 2009 I have color-sanded and polished the bottom of the hull and flipped it. I have decided on future builds I will only paint the bottom of the hull from the waterline down prior to flipping it. I have a good bit of touch-up to do on the hull sides and will have a good bit more where the deck meets the sides. Sooo.... I might as well wait until it is flipped to paint from the waterline up and avoid all the necessary touch-up work. |
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| A NOTE ABOUT FIBERGLASSING... I say this now even though it is not an issue on this build. If you are applying fiberglass to wood that you want to leave bright (natural), it is imperative to get it right the first time. I mentioned I use the rollers. This is because I have had issues with plastic squeegees. If you don't wet the fiberglass thoroughly on the first pass you can get a cloudy weave. This is because going over the fiberglass with a squeegee over and over again frays the weave. Once you have it the haze and cloudiness, there is no way to get it out. Practice on scrap if you want a bright finish or buy the expensive epoxy roller applicators. Just some free advice worth at least twice what you paid for it... |