Day 49 - Fill Coat on the top deck

Yesterday I drilled holes in the boat - here's one of them. On the top deck, you can see some of the grid of the fiberglass mat. That's what I'm going to fix today.









First used my sanding block with 80 grit, then switched to the orbital sander with 100, then 120 grit. After that, I followed up with some hand sanding with 150 grit and 220 grit sand paper. Lots of dust. I was wearing gloves when I was doing the sanding. Found that the dust makes my skin dry.





Cleaned the boat with the shop vac and wiped it down with a mist of water and some paper towels. Ran a line of painters tap along the side of the boat to catch any drips that could occur as a result of the resin application.




Using the 7" foam roller, I applied the resin. Here's the boat half done. quite a difference in the finish. There are a number of small bubbles in the resin that need to come out.










Here's the result of the work tonight. I used a 4" wide foam paint brush to smooth out any marks in the resin and to remove the air bubbles. It's almost smooth as glass. Going to let it setup for a day or two, then I'll flip it over and start sanding the bottom of the boat in preparation for the varnish. That should be fun. I did a small area on the stern and found it takes about 3 coats to get a good shine.

Day 48 - Drilling holes in the kayak

After spending much time making the boat waterproof, I proceeded to drill 8 holes in the boat. Two 1/2" holes were drilled - one at the bow and one at the stern - to allow the handles and any ropes to be threaded through for docking and transporting. The 1/2" hole was just the right size for one of my router bits with a 1/4" round off to fit inside and provide a rounded edge to the hole. That should prevent any chafing of the lines. Sanded down those holes and moved on to the next series of holes.

I measured where the foot braces should go, and using some blue painters tape to do the layout (so I wasn't marking on the boat), I proceeded to drill 6 holes for each of the foot rests. Once these were in, I threaded the foot rests on with the screw on the inside of the boat and foot brace on the outside. Once I got it loosely fit, I lined up the foot brace so it appeared horizontal and used a smaller drill bit to feed through the mounting hole on the other end of the foot brace and act as a pilot hole. Reamed out all the holes to clean them when done and put the foot braces aside.

Mixed up a small batch of epoxy and used a small modeling paint brush to paint the cut edges of the 14 holes I just drilled. Now time to cure, and another run to Home Depot. Need to pick up some Velcro and contact cement.

Day 47 - Seat backs installed

Sanded down some rough edges from yesterday's reinforcement strips on the hip braces. Then drilled some 1/4" holes in them to attach the seat backs to. Had to first install the foam pad on the plastic seat pad. Contact cement smells good.

I did not put in one of the pieces that holds the back of the seat from swinging downward. I will be removing the back rests when I put in the foot braces. Also, I don't want them in the boat when I do my final sanding and varnishing. That's going to be one big dusty mess.

While I was waiting for the contact cement to dry out, I sanded the back portion of the boat down to 600 grit and applied some varnish to see what it looks like. The finish is currently somewhat dull and muted. However, each successive coat is supposed to be more shiny. You can see the foot braces to the left.

Day 45 & 46: Hip braces on the starboard side

Over the weekend, installed the hip braces on the starboard side. Though it wasn't a lot of work, it took three applications of resin - all of which required a lot of cure time. The temperatures outside were in the 20's and 30's. The garage kept pretty warm with the heater, but it did cause the resin to set a bit slower.

Now I'm ready to install the seat backs!

Day 44 - reinforcing hip braces

Here's what I did in the previous days work. Put the hip braces in on the port side and ran some thickened epoxy to create a fillet.

Time for some sanding. Smoothed out the fillets. Used the shop vac to clean up the dust and then wiped everything down.

Put small pieces of fiberglass cloth over each joint. Done for the night. Tomorrow morning, I'll flip the boat over and do the same thing to the other side.

Day 43 - hip braces

No pictures today. Yesterday, spent about 20 minutes putting some epoxy on the 1/8" thick by 3-1/2" wide plywood pieces that will make up the hip braces. These pieces of wood will extend vertically down from the cockpit (near the back of the cockpit), and tie into the floor. They will do two things. Reinforce the cockpit opening and provide a connection point for the seat back.

Got the 6 pieces (2 for each hole) and glued in the pieces on the port side. I have the kayak tipped on its side to make it easier, and use gravity. With the boat on its side, the pieces just lay in there. I used some thickened resin to glue the pieces in place, then thickened it up a bit more to provide a fillet. Tomorrow, I'll probably put in the other pieces. After a day of curing on the port side, I'll sand it down really quick, and then run a strip of fiberglass cloth to tie the deck and hull to the hip braces.

Day 42 - reinforce the combing

Taking some of the leftover pieces of the cloth, I cut 3 strips, about 2-1/2" wide and glued them to the combing. I had to cut the strips where they overhung the inside of the cockpit and wrapped the material around. Found it was a lot easier to apply a coat of the resin on the boat first, then use my hand to smooth it out. The resin is still a bit of a mess to work with - but I'm getting better at it.

This picture is the back of one of the cockpits. Shows the weave of the fabric. After it cures overnight, I'll trim off the excess with a razor knife.






Here's all 3 holes.

Day 40 & 41 - More sanding & resin on combing

Over the past 2 days, used the belt sander, orbital sander, sanding block, sanding drum on my drill, surf-form, a couple files, and just plain old sand paper with my hands to smooth out the combing. Started off with 80 grit and worked up to 440 grit.




A few minutes with the shop vac to suck up the dust on the inside and outside of the boat - and there was gobs - I wiped down the area and double checked for any rough spots. Everything was smooth.




I put on a thin coat of resin to saturate the surface. It sure made the grain of the wood pop. My next step will be to take some of the fiberglass cloth, and wrap it around the combing. Enough for this weekend.

Day 39 - Upper combing

After nearly a week off, it was time to tackle the upper combing. The lower part had been curing for over a week. I sanded the top part a bit to allow the resin to bond better. Used the belt sander on the inside to take off a few high spots between the deck and the combing on the inside of the opening. Then spent around 30 minutes hand sanding the openings so it was nice and smooth. Don't want to get scraped up getting in and out. Plus, I will be adding some glass from the underside of the hull to the combing to help hold it all together. The last part of the sanding was to smooth out any rough spots on the bottom of the upper combing pieces. It got a bit bumpy when I put the clear coat of resin on.

After the sanding was completed, It was time to cut the upper combing. I clamped each piece, one a at a time, onto the combing and using my Japanese hand saw (need to get a picture of that saw), I trimmed and beveled the edges so the joints would match up. Only needed to do a little bit of finish sanding to align the joints during the final dry fit. It was then time to glue. Mixed up some resin, threw in some wood flour and clamped it all into place. Used 10 C clamps, 2 quick grip clamps, and 72 home made pipe clamps. It's now tucked in and curing for the evening.

Day 38 - Gluing the combing on the deck

Finally got to use all those scraps of pipe I cut up. After a night of curing, I sanded down any rough edges on the combing and double checked them for a dry fit. Then it was time to mix up some resin. The new System 3, Silver Tip resin I am using is a fast setting resin, and I only have about a 10 to 15 minute pot life before it starts to set. I mixed just enough for the first cockpit to see how long it would take to clamp up. Went pretty fast. After applying a coat of resin to the deck and the combing, I set the pieces in place with the c-clamps and then followed with my pipe clamps.

After getting all the clamps set, I took some remaining amount of resin and added more wood flour to it to fill in a couple gaps where the joint had a small gap or two. Now it is time to let it sit overnight and then attack the top part of the combing - after some sanding.

Day 37 - cockpit combing prep

Didn't get a whole lot done during Thanksgiving. Now I am back at it. The cockpit combing is made up of two pieces. The lower, thicker part - which is about 3/4" thick. Then there is a 1/8" thick piece of plywood that makes up a lip where the spray skirt will go over. I first had to fit the lower pieces on the cockpit hull, mark off where I needed to trim them to length and them cut them so they butt together nicely. I then needed to paint on a layer of fiberglass resin onto the wood.

Here's the art shot of the day. The pieces are stacked for drying, with the boat hanging from the ceiling.

Day 36 - Making clamps

A quick day of work on the boat. As mentioned in yesterday's entry, I added the reinforcing strip between the deck and the hull. The hull is currently tipped on its side. I found it was easier to paint the resin on the wood, then lay the fiberglass tape on top. Then all I had to do was touch up those areas that were looking a bit dry. This was preceded by a little light sanding to take down any rough spots from the fillet work, and to vacuum out the inside of the hull. Today's work on the boat took a whopping 20 minutes.

With all that time available, figured I would create a number of disposable clamps to hold the cockpit combing in place with. I had picked up a 10 foot stick of 4" diameter schedule 40 pipe to create the clamps. I threw a couple on the cockpit opening to provide some idea of what I'm talking about.

To make the clamps, I used my 12" sliding compound miter saw. It was just big enough to fit the pipe in and cut it. I did have to tape the guard back - and be very careful not to get my hand or arm in the way. That would be bad. From the cutting operation, a significant amount of black sawdust was left over. The shop vac made quick work of that. I figure I made around 75 of the temporary clamps.

I mentioned the other day that I used a long handled syringe. Well, here's what it looks like. Found I needed to add some nails to help guide the dowel. On the first attempt, the dowel was flexing. Next time, I would use a bit larger diameter dowel for the plunger.

Day 35 - Fillet on the port side

Pretty much done on the outside. Now the attention turns to the inside. Using my 3 foot long syringe extender tool, I ran a bead of thickened epoxy from the bow and the stern. I made it somewhat runny - about the consistency of some good solid phlegm. The head lamp I picked up made the work much easier, but it was still difficult to see what was going on. Luckily, there will be no style points given on the inside of the hull. The white stuff in the picture is dust from the sanding.

To give me a little assistance on getting the goop into the groove, I tipped the boat on edge. Special thanks to Sheryl for holding the boat on its side while I adjusted the angled brackets and then tied the boat to the sawhorses. It's pretty stable. The picture is taken from the stern. Tomorrow, I'll sand down some of the rough spots and run some fiberglass cloth over the top of the fillet, then flip the bad boy over.

Day 33 & 34 - Fill Coats

Over the weekend, applied two coats of resin over the fiberglass cloth. The boat looks the same. Did run out of resin and had to run to 'Fiberglass Mart'. There is such a place. Will start working on the reinforcement of the hull to the deck on the inside tonight (maybe).

Day 32 - Glassing the deck

It's Friday night - time to glass the deck. Started off by running tape about 1 inch down from the deck seam, then draping the white cloth over the top of the deck. After a few tugs and prods, it was in place. I trimmed it so that the cloth was roughly mid way through the blue tape.



Next came the resin. Getting low on my supply of resin. May have go out and buy a small bottle or two. We'll see. So, got the hull all "wetted out". Looks good. Ran the plastic squeegee over the top to take out the air bubbles. When It is done drying I'll cut out the holes for the cockpit.


This is the stern of the boat - showing the cloth overlap and the hull identification number.






The resin is curing and the timer is set for 2 hours. After a couple of hours, I'll need to go through and trim the fiberglass with a knife at the tape line while it is still in a plastic state.

Day 31 - Done Sanding! for now

There are NO picture of me sanding today. Though I was sanding, I was tired of it. I got all t he drip marks off. After using the 100 grit, I then did a couple passes with some 150 and 220 grit. That went very fast. After using the compressor to clean out the brunt of the dust from the garage and from the car, it was time for a rub down. Gave the boat a quick rub with some towels to remove any latent dust, then had a beer. While working on the beer, I installed the hull identification number on the stern.

Since my wife was sleeping, I was able to bang out the saturation coat on the top deck, and a think coat of resin on the bottom gunwales where I had sanded. As you can see, the grain really popped. Yes - it looks better in person. There are some shiny areas. Those are where I had some resin residue on the hull. Once I get another coat on, they'll disappear. The picture is of the stern.






This is a picture from the bow.











This is the starboard side of the boat. Time to cure overnight. If I feel energetic, I'll glass the top deck tomorrow.

Day 30 - Say hello to my little friend

So here's my little friend. The random orbital sander. It got quite the workout over the past couple of days. Still not done though. I got the entire top deck sanded and most of the gunwale where I had some drips. The sander works 2 to 3 times faster than the old square palm sander. Plus, it doesn't clog with the fiberglass dust as easily. The dust collection is great. I took it off and it shoots out a tornado of dust (right onto our Honda).



This is a shot of the bow deck. You can see the fillet of resin between the deck panels. As I didn't bevel each of the joints, there was a bit of a small gap that remained. Looks like a teak deck now.





With Tyler's help, we removed the work table the other day. This allows me to get closer to the boat for sanding. Tonight, I put two pair of posts and used some 2" nylon strapping to create a sling to hold the kayak for sanding and finishing. Much easier to hold it on its side now. I'm using screws at various points on the post to allow me to adjust the height of the straps.

Day 29 - Sanding

Not a lot of progress today. Only sanded for about an hour. The random orbital sander is doing a great job of taking off the drip marks that resulted from me joining the deck and the hull together. The bow now looks similar in finish to the stern. No pictures today. Maybe some more sanding this evening.

Day 28 - Joining the deck to the hull

The hull and deck are now one.
I set the deck on the hull late last night and ran a bead of resin in the joint. Held the two pieces in place with about 50 pieces of strapping tape.
This morning, I removed the tape, and added a second bead of resin to fill in any gaps. After that setup for a few hours, I began sanding the top deck. Due to the amount of resin I squirted all over the boat, there was some limitations on where I could sand. I did get the stern almost sanded and ready for it's top coat of resin. The joint of the deck panels looks pretty good. I did have to put a glob of thickened resin at the very end of the stern and the bow. I'll sand this off tomorrow. I wanted to make sure it was nice and rounded.

With some of the thickened resin that was left over, I put on my LED headset so I could see what I was doing, and ran a fillet of thickened resin between the top deck and the hull. It shows up on the left side of the picture. The white area doesn't yet have any resin. That'll come tomorrow.



I took a picture down the length of the inside to show what it looks like now. Still a bit of work to do to get the inside complete. Tomorrow.

Day 27 - 3rd layer of hull reinforcing

Yesterday, put down the 3rd layer of fiberglass fabric on the inside of the hull. Getting much better at putting this stuff in place with no bubbles. The flash shows the the edges of the fabric pretty well. With just ambient light, you can barely tell where the edges are. The surface has the texture of the fabric. I will probably leave it to provide more traction when climbing in and out of the kayak.

Also did an end pour at the bow. This will provide me some meat to drill through and attach a carrying handle when I get done. Nearly ready for the top deck to join the hull. Need to figure out how to attach the foot braces.

I am taking a few days off the kayak. I've been running a cold and I don't think the fiberglass fumes are helping at all. Have been wearing a respirator with most of the work.

Day 26 - Reinforce the hull

A quick day on the boat. Spent about a total of 1 hour. I spread out the remaining fabric to ensure I had enough to cover the top deck, cut that off and set it aside. According to the directions, I was supposed to have a 10 foot piece left over. I only had 6 feet. So, I had to do a little patchwork. As you can see in the photo, I had to splice a few pieces together to make up the reinforcement. I also trimmed the fiberglass from yesterday's operation. Looks like I will need to pick up a 10 foot section to finish the final layer of reinforcement.

Day26 - Glassing the inside

After a night of curing, I finished sanding the inside of the hull. Knuckles are a bit scraped up from getting into the bow and stern area. Tried a number of different sanding tools to get in there. In the end, it is pretty good, but nobody will ever see it. You can see that I did hang the deck above to keep it out of the way.




At the stern, I put a fillet of resin to hold a rudder if I ever add one. This picture was taken just after I did a saturation coat on the inside of the kayak hull.






After I did the saturation coat, took about a 4 hour break to let the resin cure. Now have laid out a length of fiberglass woven fabric to put in the hull.





The resin on the inside of the hull was still just a bit on the tacky side. Worked great for holding the cloth in place. Getting the cloth to fit in the bow and stern was interesting. The bow was easier than the stern, due to the steeper angle of the stern. I wound up cutting the fabric and doing a bit of an overlap to make it fit. In the picture, I'm about 38% done with the wetting down of the fabric.

All done for the night. The hull is saturated, I've gone through with the squeegee and taken out all the air bubbles and now it's time to hit the showers. Had to scrub the dabs of resin that found their way onto my arms. Good thing I'm using an old t-shirt.