The sprint & a little dead weight...
20 April 2007 | Everglades City,FL
Jeff
Whew... The entire epoxy process was an exhausting sprint. Fortunately midway through Anne arrived to assist with spreading epoxy. Inserting the new core and existing deck is a two person job if done wet on wet. Wet on wet - means the epoxy remains wet through the entire process. This creates a chemical bond between the layers of epoxy that is much stronger than the physical bond created when one joins wet epoxy to cured epoxy.
Despite the use of extra slow hardener, once I started to mix the first batch of epoxy the clock was ticking. I had the camera out and planned to snap some shots along the way, but time did not allow.
Here is a quick run down of the steps
1) Wet out the under side of the core
2) Apply thicken epoxy to the void in the boat (Thicken to limit the runs and ensure proper coverage).
3) insert new core.
4) layer of epoxy on the back of the skin
5) Wet out a layer of mat on the back of the skin
6) Wet out top side of new core
7) insert skin
Whew... Image above displays the dead weight resting atop the layers.