I hate glasswork...

[blueh20pc]

Nah, If i was doing it right it'd be faired no less than 3 times, and progressive 80, 120, 240, 320 and 400 sanding.

Then, after final coat of fair, a 600 and 1000 sanding to take out the scratch marks. Then primer and Awlgrip sprayed on and thinned enough to give us 4 coats of color. Followed by a buffing and wax before it ever sees the sunlight.

That's how the big boats roll down in wanchese.

But, I'm one man and a palm sander. So tonight she got 40 and 80 grit sanding, and a brushed on layer of Toplac rolled and tipped. Tomorrow I'm doing the topside, and Tuesday it's getting screwed to the boat. Didn't turn out too bad, tho, you can pick out the imperfections, but once you get 5 feet away, you can't see 'em.

[FASTFJR]

Looks Great Chris. What imprerfections? I guranntee your the only one who is going to notice any

[blueh20pc]

To update....

Summer is in full swing, and I sanded through the double layers of glass a couple of times on the topside because I was in a hurry to get it done and mounted. I also underestimated the weight of the radar and mount and the crushing forces associated with 40 lbs of weight bouncing around on the t-top.

Also, the glass never bonded as well as I would have liked to the luan from home depot. The two layers have excellent adhesion to themselves, but if you stick a flat screwdriver in between the layers of glass and the luan layer, there's just not enough "sticktion" there to make me comfortable. Maybe they used some different glue or wood chips when they made this luan, who knows?

Anyways, I slapped a coat of Interlux Brightside on it and mounted it, and called it good for the TBR Fishn-Fest. Worked like a champ, held the radar and looked good from a distance and provided shade. But I know it's gonna fail in the next few months. SOOOO...

It's coming back off, and I'm gonna strip off the luan on the topside with a 7" grinder and a wire brush. Then I'm gonna grind the paint off the underside and lay in 6 more layers of chopped strand and make it a full glass top. It's gonna add 80 or 100 lbs but, by God, it won't delaminate. Then repaint and reinforce the t-top tubing with a ladder up top like this one from Hammerhead Marine....



The luan served it's purpose and gave me the shape, so I'm happy. Now I'm just gonna make it bulletproof for the next ten years, and it gives me an excuse to upgrade to an upper station at the same time!!! I'll post some pics up when I rip it off and show you guys what I'm talking about.

[jaybyrd83ecu]

Chris... next time when you start laying down your coarse fiberglass mat, while its still wet, lay some finishing cloth over the whole bit. It will cut your sanding WAYYYYYYYYY down. You may also want to add a TAD bit of filler to your epoxy mix to thicken it up so it won't soak through into your wood below. Seeing that it didn't bond to the luan, I don't think you had any soak through problem.
I'm about to put a floor in on the C-hawk so I feel your sanding pains...
gimme a call
~James