I've been building a Midwest Coast Guard Motor Life Boat for the last few weeks. All wooden boat with a balsa sheeted hull, something like 30" long (+/- few inches). After several trips down the 'sand/fill/sand/fill' highway, I had the hull in what I think was pretty good shape. Time for fibreglassing!
Hmm. Never done that before. Sort of allergic to the resin. Work area exposed to the weather, so have to wait for a nice day. Nice day arrived, screwed up my courage, mixed resin+hardener, put on gloves, sorted out the glass cloth, began the glassing. First half, not bad, or as difficult as I thought. Second half, resin turned kinda 'warm jello-ish', not as easy to apply. Better hurry! @#$%, the cloth doesn't stay put very well. Done! Wait couple of hours. I don't think this is right, what's all those 'lumps', and why are the edges wavy and not stuck? Another couple of hours. Oh @#$%! What do I do with this mess? Treat self for shock. Treat self for disgust (favorite beverage in large quantities).
Next day. Well, there's gotta be a way of fixing this mess. 20 square yards of sand papaer later, it still looks like a dog with the mange. More sanding. Another treatment for disgust. Lets try another coat of resin! Mix the stuff and thinned it down some. Gloves, benidril for the allergy thing. Hmm, 'mange' disapearing, this might work! Several hours later, oooo nice shinny hull! Walk closer, what's those 'dimples' in the surface? ..... More sanding. Call sand paper manufacturor to have them put second plant on line. More sanding. Maybe if I let it set longer? Figure a couple of more days of drying should help? Trip to "Alamo Booze Palace" for more disgust medicine while I'm waiting. Sand paper shipment arrived, time to start sanding again. Have to stop to calm down the neighbors, they don't seem to understand all the screaming. "I build model boats! Screaming is normal!", what'a they know anyway?
Wind blowing, good! Gets all that fibreglass dust and sand out of the yard. It's pile'n up in the street though, oh well.
Got her sanded down, nice smooth finish! More resin, thicker this time. Figure if I sand half of it off, it'll be 'right'. I'll let you know what happened in a couple of days... After the "AA" meeting. I just love this... stuff!
- 'Doc