How much is enough

Builder's Forum
1

Getting ready to glass the deck of my Chesapeake 17LT. Have tried to sand the chine and bottom just the right amount.  I will be painting the bottom. I will be putting two coats of Petit Easypoxy undercoater and than a couple of coats of Easypoxy. I will sand between the undercoater and final coats.   I suspect perfection is not required in the bottom sanding prior to undercoater.  

The chine is looking good with #80  sanding. I will sand a bit more and that I think will give me a homogeneous milky  surface with a minimal amount of dimpling. I will do the deck with up to 220, glass it with the overlap to the chine. I guess I will than sand the deck and chine again. Having a hard time knowing when enough is enough. Anyone have insight they can offer?

Thanks,

Dan 

2

I read on here somewhere that the more you sand and expoxy, varnish, the better the finish will look. 

3

Dan,

Hi

I've always "predicted" how the final finish will look with strong lighting and wetting the surface with water. For example, put powerful lamps at the stern and look at the wetted surface from the bow. Imperfections will usually show up, and hey, at least you're washing off all that expoxy or varnish dust. :)

The glass is filled when you don't see the weave any longer.

As far as grit, I don't go much beyond 220 before the first varnish coat and I wet sand with 300 before the second coat, wet 400 before the third and so on.

This has worked well for my four craft, but is by no means the ONLY way.

Check out the tips section of this site, and have fun!