> Hey folks,

> Anyone else have problems with voids when glassing _inside_ parts of the
> boat?

> I can get it to stick on the outside great, convex curves and gravity are
> a great help. But when I try it on the inside I have to sit there with a
> brush and keep tacking down the parts that stick up, very aggravating.

> I know I could fix the problem by vacuum bagging it, but the trouble is
> the equipment costs as much as the boat!

> Brian C.

If you use a squeegee to apply the resin, the tendency is to use it so that the straight edge of the squeegee blade makes maximum contact with hull. The squeegee tends to be lined up with the length of the boat, and as you pull resin up the sides, from where it has pooled in the bottom, of the hull, the glass gets pulled a bit by the squeegee, too. Pull it hard enough, and it becomes a drum-taut, straight-as-a freshly-starched-sheet, piece of aggravating fabric -- a straight line bridging the rounded inner curves of the hull.

Several tips I can offer. Some may even work for you:

Go slower. Gravity will eventually let the fabric sag back into contact with the hull.

Mix smaller batches of resin and use a normal (not slow) hardener. As the resin gels in the part of the boat that has been done it helps anchore things.

Work from the center of the hull to both ends. Working with small batches of resin you do a few feet in the center, then alternate batches to left and right. I use a lot of spring type clothespins to hold the edge of the fabric to the hull, keeping it roughly in place. Then I can use both up AND down motions with the squeegee. Where I might lift the fabric on the up motion, I can slide it back a bit on the down motion. The clips keep it from going so far down that it wrinkles and crumples up in the bottom of the hull.

Do the opposite. Work from one end to the other. Same goal here, just a different technique for achieving it. Once some of the cloth is held in place, as the resin thickens, it is less likely to come up. I think it is George who rolls his fabric around a rod, starts at one end, and unrolls the material as he applies resin. By the time he gets to the middle of the boat half the fabric is in place and that anchors the remainder.

Cut the squeegee blade so the edge is rounded, and more suits the curvature of the hull. This way you can pull resin fore and aft more easily. Otherwise, if you tried using a straight-edged squeegee, the corners of that tool would snag the fabric and move it all over the place. If you have those thin, solid plastic squeegees, you can try using a sander with coarse paper to reshape it, then touch up the edge with a finer sandpaper to remove rough spots that might snag things.

Hope these ideas help

Paul Jacobson