Jump to content

Does anybody recommend glassing the CS17 hull?


Scott Dufour

Recommended Posts


Actually a nice 4 oz cloth does not reguire much more resin that just a plain coat of resin. If prepared properly and timing is everything, the work invloved in doing this, is little more than coating with resin. Costs is really nothing in the overall skeem of things. The working times and properties of epoxy allows for "hotcoating" as its called, repeated coats, in the layup, minimizing the sanding required for a lot of the finishing work involved in the topcoats of paints. Check with the designer on all of the specifics of this on the boat. Check back after teh approval, and I will address this matter, step by step.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

we just put 8 oz. cloth on the CS-15. We were able to put all the weave filling coats on in one day, the only way to do it. Like was said previously, you need to work the cloth on with squeegees so that it is as smoothly as possible, no wrinkles, wraps etc. Then when you get the weave filled, all you have to do is sand it and you should be ready for primer, depending of course, on the level of finish you are after.

As far as glass or no glass, you should at a minimum glass all the joints. All over, the glass just gives it a little more abrasion resistance, and probably some minor increase in strength. Definitely glass all the joints at a minimum. Bill CS17#34

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also consider: glassing the hull makes it much much much easier to put on a really beautiful finish. I don't think the 6oz glass I put on my CS17 added much weight at all. I was unaware of the multiple coat approach and let it cure, sanded, rolled on epoxy, sanded etc. Of course, because of this approach I probably cut off at least 3/4 of a pound on the finished weight of the boat...............................maybe not worth the trouble.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too glassed the hull of my CS20. I wanted the abrasion resistance and any added stiffness this might provide. Thought this would help the boat weather the dock crashes and beachings better.

Like others have said, adding the layer of glass was not difficult. It added negligible weight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brad, I will reply this evening with a detail of my own little way of no fuss no muss, that has worked for me. But for today, I need to do the same myself. Glassing a large area, can be very frustrating, handling glass and resin at the same time, especially the first few time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These are the tools that I share a love afair for, when fiberglassing. Lets look at these items. I have a set of tin snips, roller handles of various sizes, roller heads, types include mohair heads, solvent resistant glues, glasskote heads, medium stiff putty knifes, razor knife with spare blades, pvc pipes, two to three inches works great, notched linoleum trowels., cement flat sided trowels, scissors, and yellow squeegies. Chemicals that I use is vinegar for the initial cleaning of tools, and allowing tools to be suspended from resin drying while working with the tools.

fa4866bd.jpg

The first thing I do is to prepare the bare hull by sanding it lightly, cleaning up any areas that may be rough, any snags, any hard turns, and fill any screw holes, or digs, that exist. If you have a noticable dip, fill it, to what will be close to a uniform height of the existing wood area. Sweep off the wood parts, with either a foxtail, clean cotton rag or a dust brush that many people use, and clean cracks or grains of the wood. This will keep dirt out of the glass, when dry fitting the glass to the structure. Yes this is the very first thing in the job. Do not mix one ounce of resin till you dry fit the glass to the surface.

Roll out the cloth and check for areas that may krinkle upon resin coating the wood. In a vee entry hull, you will need to cut up the middle of the glass, before you coat the glass, BUT BE CAREFULL NOT TO DO THIS UNTIL YOU ARE SURE OF THE FIT. ONLY DO THIS UP TO CERTAIN POINT. YOU CAN ALWAYS GO A LITTLE FURTHER AFTER THE JOB IS UNDERWAY, WITH SCISSORS, OR RAZOR KNIFE. Thats for later,

You may want to do each side seperately, if you don't have a lot of room in your area, or you don't have a proper width to do the whole hull, or in some areas, warm temperatures plays a big roll in the amount of area that you can do, either by yourself or till resin sets up for working the fabric and proper wetting it out.

Now while the glass is just right, on the surface, and you got it just where you wish it to be, take your sharpie magic marker and place small marks along the chine, the keel and the transom areas, lifting up the cloth, to do this on the wood. If you are doing this in two pieces, use two different colors distinquishing the different sides. Do the same on the glass, for reference points to reapply the glass after the wetting out process. Now don't get too excited if the glass is not perfect on these reference point, at that time. But these will give you a great start point to obtain the proper fit after you have cut the glass, in the dry fit.

Now take a piece of pvc pipe, or carpet tubes, or tubes which glass comes on, when buying in bulk , the proper length of the glass you are using, and start by rolliing the cloth up on it, keping it on track and uniform on the roll or pipe. This is very critical to keep some of the strands out from under the glass, and any pieces cut them out now, before the rolling pulls the cloth and distorts it.

Now we will need to mix up the resin, only doing enough to wet the hull wood out. Do not do this in a mass mix, expecially if you are using a five to one mix. Roll on the resin to the bare hull, using roller pans, to pour the mix in, and wet the roller out in the paint pan. Now you can pour resin on a flat surface and wet out the sides and bottom without a pan, but I don't like this method.

Now there are a lot of people that advocate that you wet through the glass. Well, I don't like that, myself. After rolling the resin, roll over the resin to remove some of the air bubbles in it, with the starved roller heads. Watch for resin starved areas, and let sit for ten or so minutes, and recoat the surface, lightly. .recoat if areas are starved again, mixing resin sparingly.

Depending on your climate in your area , wait for around thirty minutes, catching any runs that you may have occurred in the sides especially, and any bulked areas of resin on the bottom area.

Now if you care to glass, then apply the rolled up glass, KEEPING IT UP from the surface while you are rolling, using a small spreader, or a soft putty knife to press lightly from the middle area out to wards the ends or sides of the glass width. Check for your marks while doing this. Do not stress your self out by not being on your marks exactly, but close to it, keeping in mind the bow area need to work out close because of your precut area, in a vee design if applicable. Pull the glass from the center out and continue to slowly roll the glass out, checking your marks and wrinkles before going ahead with having a mass of glass all laying on the surface bundled up, on tacky glass.

After this is all on, close to your marks, mix some more resin, wet out your roller head on pour some fresh resin on the cloth, pulling it across the cloth with the wet roller, and the flat spreader, or putt knife, being carefull you don't catch the cloth at this time. Do this to uniformly wet out the glass. Now after this is done, take you flat sided trowel, yellow spreader, and presss the resin through the glass, and out to any areas that appear to be dry, Get the krinkles out of the glass, at this time, stretching the cloth, and distorting it a little, to make it lay right.

Keep troweling it out, till you can see most of the weave in a uniform pattern. Remember, DO NOT OVER WET THE CLOTH WITH RESIN. Let sit, for around ten minutes and smoothes out any air pockets and check the corners for any voids at this time.

Depending on how uniform the glass is wetted out now, let sit. Allow for the resin to get tacky, checking for any areas of soaking in, spot coat with a little resin and yellow squeegie or flat sided trowel.

Depending on the finish that you will be looking for, I will recoat a thin coat of resin now. Let tack up till your finger will not stick in this coat.

Now in two part poly paints, I will use a fairing compound for my next step of coating. if not I will probably use another coat of resin at this time, doing this within the working time, around one hour from the tack up of the second coat or resin.

Now you will want to make up a mix of fairing compound, applying this directly to the hull. I do this initially with a regular flat sided trowel. Now I will use the notched trowel to score the fairing compound, cleaning the excess by a long stick off the trowel. Go over the hull, mixing and spreading the compound over the whole surface. Keep in mind you maybe worrying about the glass that you never sanded, or any areas that are hanging off the hulls. Take the razor knife and cut it clean to the edges, now. The notched faring compound should be with the large notches and almost down to the glass, but don't cut down in it. This is to save resin,and make for a nice surface to grab the next coat, and gives you depth perception when sanding the complete hull, when ready. Now let that get tacky, and apply a second coat with the flat trowel, the thickness of this layer, to cover the notches. Let dry. Yes under normal situations this can be done in a long day. Many times in cooler weather, you can do the last coat of fairing the next morning. The faring compound retards the setting properties allowing for a longe period of time for the working times.

Now other items that make the surface mor abrasive resistant, and in lieu of fairing compound, I use a product called INTERPROTECT SYSTEM, in lieu of fairing compound. This consists of another two part product, 1001 and 2001. I apply it onthe glass, after cleaning the blush, and sanding the resin coats. the 1001 goes on first, tacking up, and applying the 2001 over it, making sure you roll it on with a very short nap roller. Keep in mind the 2001 does not sand easily. DO THIS ONLY IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I may have missed some items , so feel free to quesiton my sanity. I will review this stuff and add to it but for now, back to my project at hand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oyster's description above is excellent. I'd like to add one point and differ with him on another. First, before glassing the hull, fair any areas in need using something like Microlight or microspheres and sand to the fairness you desire.

I'm one of those folks who prefer to wet the hull through the glass. When fitting the fiberglass to the dry hull, it can be worked to fit smoothly around most curved surfaces using a soft dust brush and gently pulling the edge of the glass to remove wrinkles. Often, it can be fit over the stem of the boat without having to cut a dart. Once I get it worked into the shape I desire, it stays right on the hull and the epoxy is applied over it, being careful not to further distort the shape. I feel this eliminates the risk of not getting the glass back on the hull the way you had it originally. Plus, its harder to move when it starts to wet out.

Can't argue with Oyster's description of filling the weave and moving on to paint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John, several items reflect my difference in your wet through the glass. If the glass is more of a structual cloth, you may end up with a resin starved surface. You may also, end up with the outgassing from the surface that will create bubbles, in the glass, not just the resin type air bubbles. Also microballons are more pourous than the cabosil, therefore creating a softer surface than the wood itself. Many times changes will occur in surface finishes, causing a distortion or a failure in your overall fairness and the finish surface.

If using biaxall reinforced glass, it is hard to get the vee areas to lay down properly. I should have made myself clearer in that point. The reference points helps minimize the wrong placement of the glass. If you are working by yourself, sometimes you can neatly roll back areas to wet out, and carefully place it back in its place by these reference points also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oyster- Point well taken on the difficulty of getting resin to penetrate structural glass. Most of us have been using flat regular weave glass, so this hasn't been a problem. The fairing compound needed will vary with the degree of unfairness in the hull. The minor amounts of filling needed with new stitch-and-glue construction seem to hold up well using Microlight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i have to agree with john, that when using lightweight cloth it is much simpler and faster to wet out right through the cloth. Like he said, you can get the cloth to fit very well when it is dry and it will conform to a lot of shapes by moving it around and working it. It is much better to spend some time doing this and then use a squeegee when putting on the resin to ensure that the glass is wrinkle free and smooth as possible. Saves bunches of time in finishing later. Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somehow, my profile has been magically straightened out so I can post under my own name.

I agree completely with John that the best way to smooth out glass on a hull is to use a soft dusting brush. I use a draftsman's brush and find that it does the job without snagging the glass on wood fibers. With the proper care, lightweight glass cloth can be made to conform to some fairly compound surfaces without puckering. The tighter the weave, the less compound curvature will be possible.

If the weave of the fabric is loose enough, I use the dry application method. If it is dificult to get the resin to flow through the fabric then it will be necessary to wet the surface first or epoxy and sand before applying the cloth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.