Fiberglassing process

[Scott Greenslit]

Hello All,

I will be starting a build on my first boat here shortly, stitch and glue technique, similar design to Ed Askew's peregrine but smaller and hopefully lighter. I'm thinking something in the 10-11' foot range and not as beefy, I'm trying to keep weight to around 80 pounds. Couple questions on the process/order when fiber glassing. The hull will be 1/4" plywood and I will be using epoxy resin. I plan on taping the seams and adding a layer of 6oz cloth over the interior bottom and two layers of 6oz cloth on the outside.

-For the interior, should the seams be taped and allowed to cure before laying cloth over the entire bottom?
-When adding an additional layer to cured fiberglass or adding additional components with fillets, do you need to sand cured material beforehand to promote adhesion? If so, what grit and how much is required?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Dave Diefenderfer]

Scott, get yourself a copy of Sam Devlin's Stitch and Glue boat building. You will be doing a build up of internall filleting, followed by glass taping inside. It is not a single tape of the seam. Check out Eric's build on this site starting with the Stitching at a minimum and follow it through the glassing

Duckboats.net: Building Devlin's Scaup: Stitching the Hull

 

[Richard Lathrop]

The Art of Boatbuilding and BoatworksToday on YouTube have some good videos on fiberglassing.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvNmWi-FyrzW4Yw5b44TqMw

Rick

 

[Derek Bendell]

I would usually use 36-60 grit to sand before glassing over cured areas. To get a better mechanical bond I like the scratched-up surface to have some deeper cuts/scuffs...