#001, Part 4

This week I hotcoated my board along with glassing the fins. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of the deck hotcoat, but here's some eye candy from the bottom hotcoat and fins...

The beginning of a long and winding road...


Started the night by cutting fin panels and measuring out some fin rope. Each panel consists of two 6oz pieces of glass...


If you read my previous post (see '#001, Part 3'), you'll know that I didn't clean up my bottom laps so well and they ended up showing through the deck lam. In the end, after a hotcoat layer, the laps on the deck ended up looking acceptable. This time, after learning my lesson last time, I decided not take chances and surformed/sanded these laps down smooth. I also built a 'dam' edge around the tail with masking tape for creating a hard edge when sanding.


Masking tape, a glasser's best friend...


Fins tacked on with some resin, catalyst, and q-cell. But, I imagine you can just use some glue for this step, no? BTW, side fins canted out at 5 degrees...


Fins in place, rails taped off, panels and rope cut...


Fin panels and fin rope saturated w/ resin and placed on fins (fin rope along the base under the glass). Like making a bamboo fin sandwich...



Once the panels harden to a leathery state, cut excess away with blade...


Looks a bit rough, but I'll end up sanding away the 'halo' (excess glass)...


Finally ready for the hotcoat. All excited and ready to go, I mixed up some lam resin and catalyst. Since it was so hot that night, I went easy on the catalyst. Seconds before pouring my hotcoat, I realized that I'd forgotten one crucial ingredient... Man, that would've sucked!


The 'wet' look just before the wax/surfacing agent rises and the hotcoat gels.



Like I said, the night was hot. I barely got the resin on, cross-stroked, and "walked it out", before it started to kick. Nice resincicle shot here...



Finally, I get to pull the tape...


I hope I did everything correctly. The board seemed really heavy after the hotcoats (deck/bottom) were applied and the fins glassed. Lots of resin ended up pooling at the tail where the masking tape dam was made, but I think most of it will go away with sanding. In fact, I think most of the hotcoat is supposed to get sanded away. However, before I start sanding and getting the shop all dusty, I'm gonna start glassing the two funboards that are next in the queue.

Pics to come soon as always...

kc