It has been three years since I fiberglassed the side deck. For a re-cap, check out Fiberglassing the Side Deck. For some reason I just never got around to fairing it… So, over the last few months I have been slowly plugging away at the fairing job, laying down layers of epoxy and sanding them back off in an effort to get a perfectly smooth surface.
The first thing I did was sand down the entire area again and then coat it with a thin layer of epoxy. Since the previous epoxy had been sitting out in the sun for so long, and epoxy does not like UV, I figured I should sand off that top layer and let a fresh coat of epoxy bond to the fiberglass underneath. Who knows if this was really necessary, just a “better safe than sorry.” I aggressively sanded, wiped down the whole area with Xylol, and then brushed on the epoxy:
I sanded that layer down and noticed some spots that could be built up some more. Rather than take the easy way out and just throw in a bunch of filler I decided to cut and lay down more fiberglass so that it would be nice and strong.
This, in turn, had to be sanded down which was a bear of a job…
I then mixed up a medium sized batch of epoxy thickened with 407 low density fairing filler and coated the area and sanded it down again…
I was not quite satisfied with the job… it was smooth but not perfectly smooth… So: Repeat. Coat and sand again:
This time it was near perfect! There was just one little low spot right in the middle that was bothering me so I quickly mixed up another batch and laid it down. I believe the next time I go out I will be able to quickly sand this down and lay down the Interlux Primer! Woo hoo!
