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Re: fixing a ding
By:Paul G. Jacobson
Date: 9/10/1999, 3:45 pm
In Response To: fixing a ding (Jay Babina)

> If you owned a stripper for a while you'll get a ding at some time where
> the cloth is fractured and remains white and will not wet out again. I
> usually paint over them with some stained varnish.

> Has anybody tried to cut the glass away with a razor and placing a new
> small patch of cloth etc?

> thanks

The process I've always used is described in Gil Gilpatrick's book on stripbuilt canoes. I used coarse sandpaper to sand down to the wood, and medium sandpaper to'feather' the edge an inch or 2 inches wide on all sides of the repair.

I outline the area with dabs of masking tape that I put about 2 inches past the feathered area. That is my idea, not Gilpatrick's. Without the dabs of tape I can't easily find the area I'm working on once I start to put on resin.

I paint on a coat of resin with a foam brush, lay on a scrap of fabric that almost reaches to my dabs of tape, and cover it with my remaining resin, using the foam brush to work it in so the cloth wets out well. For areas up to a foot square I've had no problems with the fabric sliding off. The resin is tacky enough to hold it in place until things set up. I pull off the masking tape now.

When the first coat of resin has set I sand off the edges of the patch, feathering it into the surrounding area. Effectively I have 2 to 4 inches of overlap in the tapered areas of the original glass cloth and the patch, while the center of the repair is the same thickness as the original construction.

I put on anohter coat or two to fill the weave, sanding lightly by hand between coats to eliminate telegraphing the weave. I'll usually lightly sand a larger area and put varnish over that larger area to completely disguise the patch.

Works great.

Hope this helps

Paul G. Jacobson

Messages In This Thread

fixing a ding
Jay Babina -- 9/10/1999, 8:17 am
Re: fixing a ding
Dale Frolander -- 9/10/1999, 5:27 pm
Slick Method!
mike allen -- 9/10/1999, 8:19 pm
Re: Slick Method!
Dale Frolander -- 9/11/1999, 2:58 am
Re: Slick Method!
Ian Johnston -- 9/11/1999, 4:21 am
Turn Out the Lights!
mike allen -- 9/13/1999, 1:06 pm
Re: Turn Out the Lights!
Ian Johnston -- 9/13/1999, 10:48 pm
Re: Slick Method!
Dean Trexel -- 9/10/1999, 8:47 pm
Re: fixing a ding
Paul G. Jacobson -- 9/10/1999, 3:45 pm
Re: fixing a ding
keith hunter -- 9/10/1999, 11:49 am
Re: fixing a ding
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 9/10/1999, 8:41 am