Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

mineratt wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 5:57 pm Like Mr. Cash said, one piece at a time.

Exactly!

Don’t fret. You’re almost halfway done with the first 1/3 of the project.

I had some left over fillet putty so I thought i would start the fairing process with that first instead of going into the quick fair first. So now I need to start thinking about painting the bottom. I read about coating the bottom with epoxy and graphite, system three primer and paint, just primer, and primer and bottom paint. I was thinking about primer on the entire outside with paint, but if I leave the boat in the water for a week I have read that the paint may blister and peel which would not be preferable. I do not need ablative bottom paint as the boat will mostly stay on a trailer, but it will be in the water for up to a week at a time. So what type of paint would be used below the water line?

Several of the top side paints can be used on the bottom for several days. I will let Jeff tell you the best as time varies by brand.

Tom

I spread the first complete layer of fairing across the entire hull. I put it on a little thick as it was the first layer. I had thought that I had smoothed the hull out real good but I was incorrect. I have a linear air sander so it came out pretty well. But sanding it was very slow going. The next layer will go on real thin and I think that will sand out a little faster.

Looking good. Those straight line air sanders are nice, and make sanding much easier, but they don't create a fair surface as well as a long board (why do they call them torture boards?) will. At the least, use a long batten to identify the high points so you can focus your work where it's needed. Use a coarse grit like 40 or 60 until you get close to where you want to be. And of course, use good dust protection and ventilation- work outside if that's possible. One nice thing about doing the sanding outside is you can hose off the dust, and the wet hull will give you a preview of what a glossy paint surface will look like.

So I have put on three very thin layers of the fillet goo, and now one layer quickfair, I think I will have one more layer of quickfair to go and then the first go at priming the hull. I guess the key to the fairing process is to keep the layers as thin as possible. Also, I completely agree that it is much easier to fair the hull without the rub rail or splash guard. But then with the way I installed the splash guard and rub rail (glassing over both) I would have destroyed the nice faired surface anyway. Just the thickened epoxy surface After multiple layers of the fillet goo providing a nice even surface surface with reasonably smooth transitions between each section of glass After the first thin layer of quickfair

So there is a really big difference between the silica thickened epoxy, easy fillet, and quick fair. The thickened epoxy and easy fillet are pretty tough to sand and I used them predominately for the fairing process. But the quick fair, man that stuff is really "quick". I goes on like spreading butter, and it sands really fast. It does make a very fine powdery dust that floats everywhere.

mineratt wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 10:28 am So there is a really big difference between the silica thickened epoxy, easy fillet, and quick fair. The thickened epoxy and easy fillet are pretty tough to sand and I used them predominately for the fairing process. But the quick fair, man that stuff is really "quick". I goes on like spreading butter, and it sands really fast. It does make a very fine powdery dust that floats everywhere.

Silica thickened epoxy is not used for most fairing. Just something like squaring off a transom and never final fairing passes. It is too hard, but good to use for fillets; moreso if applying tapes immediately so sanding is avoided

Indeed, I used the silica epoxy paste to build up the various transitions, imperfections, tape edges, etc. That was before I opened up the easy fillet past. The easy fillet past is really pretty good and I used that. But then I noticed that the came with the quick fair and so I started to use that and i have to say its like icing a cake. And it sands so much faster. And it applies so much smoother. It is some amazing stuff.

My first comment is that airless sprayers suck when putting on the primer. The sprayer worked well for a bit but when the paint level in the bottle got a little low it would spit the paint instead of spraying it. So I used the old airless sprayer and paint roller to put it on a smooth it down. Not the best. But the first two coats are now on and it looks reasonable. I will need to sand it down a bit then re-apply the primer.