new build GT Cruiser 23

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fallguy1000
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by fallguy1000 »

Here is a picture showing a high finish. The tape seams are all face filled across the entire surface. You can see two layers of tapes have been filled with fairing compound. Excess overlaps here were ground flatter with the sander to reduce fills and the entire face area inside was filled with compound. If you have a high hump on the corners here; it creates the need for even more fairing..

...to be clear, all I did was overlapped everything to the ends on each run and then ground the excess off with 40 grit being careful to not go through all four layers..

And this is a progress pic, not the final before paint. That would have a pink tone.

And an xtra pro tip. Avoid using red sharpies. They bleed thru a lot.
25515B0A-5E88-4C3E-8B3A-594D5B245E12.jpeg
Last edited by fallguy1000 on Mon Jul 18, 2022 6:26 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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fallguy1000
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by fallguy1000 »

Here is a workboat finish. All I did was a single pass of fairing compound to eliminate the razor sharp edge. Look close and you can see the tapes. So, no grinding is required, well, sorry, just one pass with 40 grit before, one fill, and then one pass with 60 grit before paint. Look close and you can see a ridge of compound and ridges of triaxial glass.
8DC73E13-137C-41DA-A3C9-A6EAA15988B1.png
D451CF14-13E8-49E6-B91D-57EF314878E7.jpeg
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LaChefels
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by LaChefels »

That looks great. Thank you for the photos. I will go with a workboat finish as well. What I .don’t understand is how to deal with a corner in which transom sides join hull panel and side panel. That corner will have 6 layers and will stick up oddly. Does it get sanded down to 2 layers? My gut says at a three way corner bunching is very bad as is breaking the fibers of the glass. How do you fold the ends over neatly-cutting so they lay flat?

fallguy1000
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by fallguy1000 »

Well, so often what happens is the outside corners fail to get coverage.

If you want to, you can cut 45s strategically, or you can dart corners. If the outside corners fail; you can mud them up with milled fiber or just patch on a tangent to the corner with a small piece and grind off the edges.

I did build up the transom corners quite a lot because I had 4 overlaps each side and wrapped, so for that I had to get creative and tried to avoid making massive humps to grind away.
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LaChefels
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by LaChefels »

Thanks Dan.
Once I get the seams finished, do I need to quickly get the big cloth on and done, or can some time pass until I have help here?

fallguy1000
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by fallguy1000 »

LaChefels wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 5:44 pm Thanks Dan.
Once I get the seams finished, do I need to quickly get the big cloth on and done, or can some time pass until I have help here?
The sun is the only enemy. Anytime you wait awhile; epoxy can degrade. Cover it, and sand it with 60 grit because it will alsobe secondary bonds. But boat builders do that all the time.

And yes, you want help doing the full glasswork.

Also, before you glass, put pictures up and we can check a few things; mainly radiuses must be done, but can also discuss glass layout, etc.
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LaChefels
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by LaChefels »

I’m going to start fiberglassing on the stern transom Saturday. The morning temps will be in the low 70’s. My plan is to mark off the overlap with a straight edge, wet the wood, then wet the tape in a trough and roll on a paper towel roll for easy unrolling. Then roll out with the roller that pushes out air.
Am I missing any steps? Any advice? I’m nervous about this step.

I will send pics tomorrow afternoon. I have to work on a deer feeder in the morning.

fallguy1000
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by fallguy1000 »

LaChefels wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 8:36 pm I’m going to start fiberglassing on the stern transom Saturday. The morning temps will be in the low 70’s. My plan is to mark off the overlap with a straight edge, wet the wood, then wet the tape in a trough and roll on a paper towel roll for easy unrolling. Then roll out with the roller that pushes out air.
Am I missing any steps? Any advice? I’m nervous about this step.

I will send pics tomorrow afternoon. I have to work on a deer feeder in the morning.
Paper towel roll is too weak. Wet tapes get heavy.

I prefer to wet the tapes on a plastic piece on a table. The trough will be pretty slow. I have done trough wetting, but honestly, it sucks.

What I do is get an 8' plywood or table and lay plastic on it. Lay the tapes out to fit, say 3x 7' overlaps for 23' tapes or so. Then pull back the top two layers and pour mixed epoxy onto the tape section, quickly roll it with a 4-6" wide roller. I like using my bubble buster. All surfaces must be wetted. Then pour another strip of epoxy and run your bubble buster over it fast and lay the next part of the tape down. Then roll it again. Then add more epoxy. After wetting all the tape to the top, flip the piece over and hit any dry spots. Sometimes, I like to even pour a strip of mixed resins on the table first. You can trough, but lots of time is lost trying to roll it. For the long tapes on the table, once wetted, I do roll tjem onto a 3" heavy cardboard tube. I prefer to keep any mat tapes mat down, but okay if not. They roll faster this way and less fighting with it, but try the way that feels right.

Another thing about the trough...after an hour of work, the trough gets gooey as first resins kick. So a trough is okay for anything you can finish in an hour. I used troughs for the beam socket work here. One piece per day, like 3 rounds around the beams on string, Calvin helped me; the parts were 50" wide and 3 rounds or about 90" long or so.. the troughs are also really easy to get resins all over you...like leaning over the sink eh!

My tapes are 34' long for main hulls, and a couple days, I did 200' of tape on plastic on table. And I had to chuck plastic for gooey resins.

Start on short tapes first.

Ask me anything. I'd done a LOT of tape wetting!
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fallguy1000
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by fallguy1000 »

Weigh the tapes or calculate the weight of the tapes. For an amateur use 110-120% of the resin weight.

Always tries to have a few jobs on standby for epoxy. It is pricey! Never do the standby work until the rest is DONE!

For an 8' tape 4" wide from db1208, the calc is 19 oz per yard or so. So, 8'x1/3' is 8/3 sqft or 8/27 sqyd or 0.3 sqyd. Or about 6 oz resin at 100% or 7oz at 110 or 8 at 120%.

You'll do fine, start on short pieces, try to consider table wetting on poly. I always tape the poly down on the table edges. Sometimes, you can flip the poly, say a 3' wide piece over and use it to wetout and the close up the old goo that's kickin.
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BarraMan
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Re: new build GT Cruiser 23

Post by BarraMan »

There is more than one way to skin a cat! :lol:

My boat is 22' long and I wet out at least 1000' of 6" x 12 oz biax glass tape in my build. I wet out all of it, by myself, using only hard foam rollers - hundreds of them! 8O
I'll stand my glassing up against anyones!

Image

Here's what I did:
1) measure the length of tape required for the job. Cut the correct length of tape and roll it up.
2) wet out the area to be taped and let it kick - then when its just tacky roll fresh epoxy onto 3 or 4 feet.
3) roll out the glass tape to within the last 3 or 4 inches of the freshly wet area, then wet out the tape until it looks clear.
4) repeat (3) until the jobs done!

I used slow hardener because I worked in temps around 80-90oF, but even so I had time to mix the epoxy in batches as required - learnt early in the build.

I used the exact same method for my large glassing runs, although I did engage an assistant (wife) to follow up on the wetting out and chasing air bubbles! :lol:
Said assistant also came in handy for roll and tip painting - tipping my rolled on paint! :D

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