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i had a disheartening situation tonight. I’m putting thin strips of bent wood on the inside lips of my deck hatches to seal against the foam on the underside of the hatches. I hot glued blocks onto the deck for clamp blocks. Long story short, I knocked off one of the blocks and a chunk of epoxy went with it revealing the fiberglass below. I’ve searched the old archives briefly and didn’t find anything similar. Does anyone have any advice on how to make the least obvious repair? I can’t sand any without getting into the glass.
I have about a dozen more blocks to try to remove without creating the same problem. These seal strips and the end pours are the last pieces of the puzzle before final sanding and varnishing.
Thanks in advance
Tags
You gotta sand
There's no way to repair that without sanding it down, but it should end up invisible.
Sand just through the glass with a smooth gradient (it'll be at least 3 inches in diameter at the outer edge), so that the wood is also smooth, and put a patch of glass on it. Hit it with the heat gun after epoxying (when the epoxy is totally liquid) and it should be invisible after a fill coat or two and sanding flat again.
Yes, a hell of a lot of time, I know, but take the time to do it properly...........
I've had a similar problem with hot-glued blocks, if a hard tap with a hammer parallel to the surface of the glass doesn't get it off, then it's better to cut the block a fraction above the surface, plane off the rest and finally scrape of the hot glue - again, a lot of work, but less than re-glassing.
Epoxy actually takes quite a long time (weeks) to reach full strength, so I now avoid hot-gluing onto fresh epoxy
Let us know how it went......
Justin
Sanding
if the fiberglass is still intact and firmly bonded to the wood, is there a need to sand the glass off? I repaired a spot on the deck last fall and it is visible. The area I sanded ended up lighter than the other areas.
The epoxy has has been in place since last September or October. I don’t think curing was the issue, maybe the heat from the hot glue?
Aaron
Nothing to lose
If the glass is intact, then you can try a thorough clean with mineral spirits or acetone, then a fill coat. If the glass is invisible when "wet" during cleaning then it should be after the fill coat, too.
If not, you haven't lost much, sand and re-glass.
Have a look at Nick's latest video to see how its done......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqiJ0tWtvb0
Video
I’ve been lax watching Nick’s videos. There’s so much good information there. I put some epoxy on the spot this evening. It’s mostly clear but I’m not going to be happy with it.
The problem i had had last time is that I had to sand into the wood due to the nature of the mistake I was fixing. This time I should be able to avoid that. Thanks for the tip.
I’m ready to be finished with this and get on the water. I’m not a kayaker (yet). I started this as a woodworking project. It’s been a huge learning experience.
I wouldn't recommend using…
I wouldn't recommend using mineral spirits (a.k.a. "paint thinner") for cleaning, as it's an oily solvent. Use lacquer thinner or acetone.