Filling gaps before glassing outer hull

[K-W]

Good morning everyone!

I have resumed building, and I would love to reduce my errors and potential final weight. I went ahead and applied a first coat of stain on the outer hull.

I should have remembered to cut the shirt into squares so that the stain would not waste by soaking into the shirt rather than the cedar strips. I am fine with applying a second coat and thinning with alcohol to achieve a somewhat even appearance. I’m also alright with the level of fairing and sanding performed before the stain. I’m not alright with globs of epoxy absorbing through every new crack that has opened in the hull from my handling of the piece to move it into position for working.

The above photo illustrates much of what I currently observe. Should I fill these gaps from the outside or from inside the hull? I think I may mix some stain with sawdust from the strips along with either wood glue or epoxy if approaching from the outside. I may use microballoons and wood flour if going from the inside is preferable.

I welcome all suggestions and critique.

Thanks!

[Howard_Spira]

Hi KW,

my experience/approach is to work from the outside in…becuase i want to preserve the aesthetics from the outside as my first priority.

when i have done similar hulls, i take some of the stain and mix it into wood dust to create stained wood dust in my stain color. i then let the alcohol evaporate off…and now i have a base of colored wood dust to make some colored epoxy paste that will generally match my hull.

so my approach would be first to roll a skim coat of epoxy onto what you have to fix the stain into place. and then make up some colored paste with my stained wood flour and use a spreader to put the paste into into the cracks..

depending on the size of the cracks, i may also put some blue tape on the inside to keep the paste from going in one side and out the other.

i realize it looks a bit rough…particularly from the inside. but thats ok and typical …especially if you have not built a lot of these.

from what i can see you are coming along quite nicely.

h

[Mark_Nye]

Good advice from Howard.