After two weeks of curing the Whitehall has four coats of epoxy over fiberglass cloth and is looking pretty good but it's not finished yet. Even though the weave of the glass cloth was almost gone after two coats there is a reason why we continued to add the additional two coats of epoxy, the surface was not ready for varnish and will need some attention before we can get a nice glossy finish.
The slow hardener combined with the cool temperatures sure helped to maintain a wet edge as I applied one batch of epoxy after another but it also meant I would have some runs to fix.
That's where this handy tool comes in.
This is a cabinet maker tool called a scraper and it's made from spring steel. It comes with a very sharp edge that can be used to scrape off runs without damaging the flat surface. In a very short time I had all the runs removed from the boat. Here is a picture of the boat after scraping it.
It's looking pretty rough after scraping and with some sanding the surface will become dull again but smooth!
Before sanding the hull I washed it in the driveway with soap and water to start with a clean surface. Then I rolled it back into the garage and spent the next few days sanding the hull smooth with 120 grit paper then switched to 220 and finally wet sanded out in the driveway again with 320.
We are now ready to varnish!
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