Evidence in. Disaster avoided!

I went to the shop this morning to see if that test piece I reported about yesterday had gone flat. As predicted, it was flat as a pancake. And, another important piece of evidence surfaced:

This is the test board, as of this morning. All those bubble-looking features on the surface were not there yesterday afternoon when the tension was removed from the piece.

Close inspection shows that they are not air bubbles. Instead, this surface condition appears to be an early stage of what happens when the fiberglass and epoxy film begins to pull away from the underlying wood.

This is what Dan predicted might happen when tension is released from a piece of plywood fiberglassed under bending stress.

I am so glad I found this out on a little test piece instead of on my 70 square foot new hard top. Thanks again Dan.



So, Paul and Major and I congratulated ourselves briefly this morning, then deployed cloth on the now-flat new top. Some three hours later, we had expended about a half-gallon of epoxy and catalyst, resulting in what appears to be a pretty level first coat.

I am going to let this cure for a few days, then trim the excess fabric and fix any small flaws that may become apparent.

A lot remains to be done.

If no problems arise, the next steps will be to roll on and tip one or more additional coats of epoxy to fill the fabric weave. There will be generous curing times between additional coats.

After that there will be sanding and fairing and sanding and fairing and sanding and fairing....you get the idea.

Then there will be paint primer, followed by a couple of coats of epoxy topcoat paint.

Please stay with us as this project unfolds. I am sure there are many exciting chapters yet to come. For example, a question has been raised about a turn the finished top will have to make in its portage through the gazebo and down the dock ramp to where the boat awaits her new top.

I probably should look into an answer to that question pretty soon.