Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Strip: carbon fiber
By:Randy
Date: 2/17/2015, 4:34 pm

I put a full carbon fiber covering on the bottom of my 7 yr. old grandsons kayak because I knew it would be handled fairly rough. I have never used carbon before so I thought it would be a good place to learn. I learned it is difficult to tell when it is wet-out, it is difficult to remove excess epoxy and it is difficult to tell when I am about to sand into the fiber.

It took 4 fill and sand coats to get a good smooth finish to varnish but - - here comes the question. . . .

Part of the hull looks fantastic, the weave of the cloth is showing and it looks a foot deep, like a bar top. Other parts it is just plain black. I would prefer the weave showing with the foot deep look. I just don't know what I did differently from one area to the other to get such different results?

In the beginning I thought after building a couple of kayaks I would be ready to build a beautiful one . . . . . . think I better build about 10 more before I get to serious about beautiful :(
Thank you,

Messages In This Thread

Strip: carbon fiber
Randy -- 2/17/2015, 4:34 pm
Re: Strip: carbon fiber
JohnAbercrombie -- 2/17/2015, 9:49 pm
Re: Strip: carbon fiber
Brian Nystrom -- 2/18/2015, 7:01 am
Re: Strip: carbon fiber
Mike Bielski -- 2/18/2015, 9:14 am