I have epoxied the Blue Heron onlay onto the deck of my Wood Duck 10. Do I now lay the fiberglass directly on the onlay and epoxy or do I have to lightly sand the onlay so that the fiberglass will stick to it? I think if I sand it (even lightly) it will damage/destroy the beautiful blue heron onlay. Just want to be sure as this kayak is looking really great and I don’t want to make a big mistake. Thank you for a prompt response.
I didn’t sand mine. It’s just like glassing raw wood in the rest of your boat. The unfinished wood is porous enough to suck up a good base layer of epoxy for the glass to bond to.
Did you glass the deck before putting the onlay on and then glass over the onlay?
Thank you, Laszlo, for the prompt response. Just what I thought, but happy to know for sure. Your onlay and boat are beautiful! Moving forward now to fiberglassing the deck and filling the weave. Glad to be able to stay on schedule.
I epoxied the onlay onto the bare wood deck. It is now fully dry and within 24 hours so will put the fiberglass over it and and the deck and epoxy today. Happy to be moving forward.
No. 1 layer of glass over everything.
Laszlo
That’s what I intended to do initially on the deck of my MC 16.5 but due to my inexperience (first build) I forgot to add the onlay before glassing. After the screaming died down I figured that I could add the onlay to the cured glass then add a layer of glass over the onlay extending the “patch” about 3” all around. I then carefully sanded the edges of the patch. It turned out better than I expected.
I just thought I would add this so others that may want to add an onlay after the initial glassing can.
Beautiful! Good advice, Doug.