Fishwater's FS18

[Fishwater]

I cleaned the boat once last night and will do it again this afternoon to prep for glass. I also cut all the tape and glass cloth I'll need, labeled it and put it aside.
I've called everyone I know to help me glass the bottom tomorrow and everyone is either busy or just doesn't want to help...no big deal.
This afternoon I'm going to try to find some small disposable plastic containers that have lids and premeasure a bunch of haderner and resin; keeping them separate of course. This way I'll be able to grab a container of hardener, pour it into some resin, mix and begin working. Basically, I'll take out the measuring part of the equation when glassing tomorrow. This should allow me to work nonstop until it's done. I'm going to try to start at 7:00 and am hoping to be done by noon.

[JamesT]

i know its a silly comment, but make sure and label your containers! I've read over and over where when people get in a pinch they get them mixed up.

[Joe H]

"Man, you really built a boat."

Next comment will be "Man, your still building a boat."
But you seem to be moving at a very good pace, keep on rockin.

I was ready to tackle my fiberglassing by myself too but my son stopped on by at just the right time, wrong time for him, and said hey Pop's what's up? 4 hours latter we had the whole hull fiberglassed, it really helps even if you just have someone mixing well you are laying it, but it sounds like you have a pretty good plan.
sitandfish has it right "label your containers!"

One more thing, I didn't mind the sanding at first either, now I'm in the fairing stage, sanding sucks, I can't wait to flip her!

Have fun with it.
Joe

[sitandfish]

"Man, you really built a boat."

Next comment will be "Man, your still building a boat."
But you seem to be moving at a very good pace, keep on rockin.

I was ready to tackle my fiberglassing by myself too but my son stopped on by at just the right time, wrong time for him, and said hey Pop's what's up? 4 hours latter we had the whole hull fiberglassed, it really helps even if you just have someone mixing well you are laying it, but it sounds like you have a pretty good plan.
sitandfish has it right "label your containers!"

One more thing, I didn't mind the sanding at first either, now I'm in the fairing stage, sanding sucks, I can't wait to flip her!

Have fun with it.
Joe

JamesT is the one who has it right but, I'll go ahead and agree with him so maybe I can share some of the credit.

Those guys don't have time to help with the building of the boat. I wonder if they will have time to go out on the boat when it's finished? I'll let you make the call.

[TJS Redchaser]

Tex,

Great progress the boat is looking good. That hull came together nice.

Any other FS18 builders have an estimate as to the quantities of primer and paint I'll need for this project?

I didn't catch this earlier or I would have answered. Of course it depends on what you do paint scheme wise and how good of a painter you are but I'd think 2 maybe 3 quarts for the sides and bottom, 1 quart for inside the hatches/under deck and 2 quarts for the decks and sole. As for primer, I'm using a 1 gal 1 qt high build primer kit that looks like it will be plenty. I used graphite and epoxy on the bottom so I didn't need any paint on there, even so I used almost two quarts for the hull sides and transom. But I had problems rolling and tipping, so that's about 5 coats of which probably half got wet sanded away. That's why I've covered my hull sides in paper and have to keep the kids away, too much work

The gray primer here is two coats and I have about half of the kit left for the topsides.


This is what I had to sand away.


This is after two weeks of painting and wet sanding.


Hope that helps.

[Daddy]

Just take your time, wet it out, squegee the excess into the dry cloth, use SLOW hardener and keep at a steady pace. Wife and I did my lb22 in three hours so you should be ok.
Daddy

[Fishwater]

TJS, thanks for the response. That will come in handy in a couple of weeks.

The dogs woke me at 6:30 Saturday morning. I really felt like putting them outside and crawling back in bed with the wife. Instead I went to the corner store and picked up a giant fountain coke to help with the after effects of a few too many Colorado koolades the night before. I started mixing epoxy at 7:00 on the nose while looking at the cleaned hull ready for glass.




I had premeasured enough resin and hardener to do what I thought would be the keel, transom, and chines. I finished the keel with it. At least if I attempt to do this much glassing by myself in the future, I'll have a better idea on estimating. I will say a 4" tight foam rollers are the way to go precoating and wetting out the tape. It gives a nice even layer.

The keel.




I used the remaining epoxy to coat the transom edges.



A look at my watch reads 8:00AM. I'm going to have to bust some ass to get it all done by noon.
The transom is wetted out and the leftover epoxy was used to coat some of the starboard chine.



The watch reads 8:45. Plenty of the giant fountain coke left...plenty of epoxy left to mix.

I finished the chines some time before 10:00. I'm still not finished with the giant fountain coke.








Time to coat the rest of the hull in preparation for the glass.







Now began the marathon session that was laying wetting out the glass fabric. I've a system down for mixing the right amount of epoxy so it doesn't kick. I'm in a zone. The wife interrupts only once. "Can I get you anything?" "More gloves" I respond.



It's almost noon...I'm not done and peering into an empty giant fountain coke.
One final push and I completed the task at 12:30. Wet on wet, just like I wanted. And only a half hour behind schedule.



I close the garage doors and have one last look at my work.



Off to tie some flies for the dock tonight.

[wegcagle]

Clean job. That didn't take you NEAR enough time. You need to build a bigger boat next time

Will

[tobolamr]

Phenomenal! I bet more fellas than just myself are drooling at your update pics... Makes me wonder how I'm gonna pull that off with the same results when I build! Keep it up! Looks great!

[tech_support]

Thats pretty darn good.