Today I Step Into The Dark Side Of Epoxy Addiction
The white lines of fiberglass
Yesterday between meetings I was able to sneak over to HQ and prep B’s bottom for big moment. The step into the darkness of fiberglass. Now of course I have already been micro dosing epoxy so I can be immune to the poison glass I am about to inflict on her.
Cutting the fiberglass
Of course the deeper I get into this FGD, Fiber Glass Drug, the more I can rationalize it. Epoxy is just a gateway drug. I mean once you use it, and we all have, it’s just another little step to full bore fiberglassing. Any of you that say otherwise are hypocrites.
And just like that
Fit and ready
The hard truth is that Epoxy is the AI of wood boat building. Its easy, works great and covers up all sorts of mistakes. Eventually the wood is the weakest link. Or actually reduced to a minor role in the play. A textural element. So why is it even needed?
Here we go
The glossy slope of glass
Why not just get a white plastic chemical spill of a boat? Hell, why not just get a pontoon boat. AHHHHHHHHHH, It’s all a slippery slope. A wonderful glossy slope.
Once this is all done, I going to need to detox, maybe join a support group. Wait. Thats what we are? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
COME TO THE DARKNESS! We can fix that.
Well, the upside is that most people who see “B” when she’s finished will only see mahogany and not her dark bottom. Only those of us in our world.
Oh the slippery slope of Epoxy Addiction.
If the moody blues restored boats
Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
fiber glass lays all over the room.
web site users site back and comment
Another day’s meeting halting progress
purest lovers wrestle with this
a Lonely man with a boat yard cries for a dry bilge and argues the case
the boatress’s mother helps pick up the pace
Senior citizens says we did this when we were young.
Cold hearted tub of 5200 who wont spread rite
I should have used the mahogany instead of the white
5200 is good and epoxy will work too
But a combination of both will seal it right
And will it float in dora…that will be the sight
Brilliant!
👏👏👍☠️🚤
Sunday. Afternoon a group of friends and I plus my oldest son flipped over my 1966 Chris Craft 18’
Cavalier custom ski boat and I was surprised to find that it has a fiberglass layer over the plywood it is my understanding that for a fee the was an option from the factory
I think it was a $300 option at the time listed on the price sheet.
Just curious Matt……
In addition to the original inner/outer bottom from the factory, what is your estimated weight gain with the added materials on top of it all?
I have been told that actually since it wont soak up as much, the water weight wont be there. The only real addition to the bottom is some thin plywood, I would say about 35 lbs, 20 tubes of 5200, 10 lbs, and the glass, 5 lbs max. so 40 lbs is what I am thinking.
The comments are reminding me of “What’s in your Garage?”. One of the guys in the PNW, Ike Kielgass has a true “Garage Mahal”. Yes, hanging from the ceiling is a little hydro, and in the background is COMET (#3). In the foreground are some of my Tranny Guys, we took out my V8 in the custom, and are swapping the Paragon for a velvet drive. Much easier said than done!
Once you get the woodwork done and ready to ‘glass, it seems like it would be an easy process to wet the bottom and lay down the cloth but filling the weave after seems like it takes forever. I guess some of that may depend on how coarse a weave you have. Coarse weave takes longer to fill. Its pump, mix, add filler, pour and roll and keep pumping. I hesitated to pump large amounts because of the exothermic heat generated when mixing larger batches tends to kick off and shorten cure times. Have a fan blowing across to get enough air change so you don’t get sensitized to the out-gassing. I was getting sinus headaches after working with it but I couldn’t distinguish causation because I’ll get sinus headaches from a lot of different things including allergy to some beer hops unfortunately.