Re: Replacing Bayliner flooring (w/ pix)
Re: Replacing Bayliner flooring (w/ pix)
I learned a few things from working my hard top project; try to finish an entire piece of glass rather than getting a piece half laid and running out of epoxy. Reason being where the last epoxy ends and the next batch starts, the glass never seems to lay well. I found it better to do smaller pieces of glass and overlap with the next piece rather than try to do large pieces.
I also pre-measured resin and hardner for 3 or 4 smaller batches in separate cups. That way, when the current batch started to kick, I could toss it, and just pour the pre-measured amounts together, stir for two minutes, and continue working. While stirring, the brush, spreaders and other tools were dropped in a pan of alcohol. That kept the rollers fresh, the paint brushes fresh, and none of the tools hardened up between batches.
When pre-cutting pieces, a permanent marker came in handy to mark the glass where corners were to be cut, edges to line up, etc. I would mark a few lines from the glass onto the top so it was easy to line up the pre-cut pieces exactly were they were to go. Makes everything easier when your gloves are sticky and covered with glass fibers.
And be sure to mix well. If you can see swirls in the batch of epoxy, its probably not mixed well enough. And scrape the sides and bottom well so all the contents are mixed. Nothing worse than spots where the epoxy will not harden because it wasn't mixed well.
This fiberglassing is a little difficult having to be bent over and crawling in/out of the hull often for more epoxy but it isn't too bad of a job.
