bubbles under fiberglass

Builder's Forum
1

I'm working on laying up the fiberglass on the interior of the dory, and it looks like I have a few spots where small bubbles (about the diameter of a pencil eraser or a little smaller) got trapped under the fiberglass. As small as they are, I planned to just cut them out and fill the hole with epoxy on the next coat. Is there any problem with this?

Also, the cloth floated slightly in a couple spots, and I wound up sanding through it. Again, these are pretty small areas (the biggest is maybe an one or two square inches). As long is it isn't near the seam between the bottom and the first side panel, is it worth trying to patch something this small?

-colin

 

2

with respect to first question, cutting them out and filling with epoxy.  no problem with it and a good idea.  to get the water-proofing properties of epoxy, you need a certain thickness.  a bubble like you are describing is a void and potential way for water to get through the epoxy to the wood. 

with respect to the second question, you sanded through the glass....but not through the epoxy becuase the glass had floated up.   again, not a problem.  just make sure you have about a glass-thickness amout of epoxy to properly seal the wood.

howard