Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Sanding a fibreglass hull


Sanded fibreglass hull
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
There is no task that can't be completed if you get a big enough hammer.

I had planned to leave the fibreglassed hull along for 48 hours to make sure it was properly dry. Impatience got the better of me and I gave it a little tickle with the detail sander. This made some impression of a couple of the runs in the resin and as they seemed to have hardened all the way through I pressed on.

My detail sander is a basic battery powered DIY model picked up at a car boot sale for a couple of quid last year. It's proved to be so useful that when it dies I'll get another and even pay full price. After about half an hour the battery was obviously going off the boil so I stuck it on charge.

Not wanting to stop I wondered if the mains powered sander would be too vicious. Maybe with some fine paper it would be OK I thought, if I use it gently.

Well, what I learned is - fibreglass is tough. In the end I loaded the roughest paper I had and it worked a treat. Even with the rough stuff I had to work pretty hard but the results are great. The hull now sorts a matt finish except for the low spots which show up as glossy pools. Hopefully a bit of filler will give me the smooth surface I desire.

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