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Strip: Seam strip fiberglass
By:Aaron Potter
Date: 9/17/2017, 5:49 pm

I put fiberglass tape on one of the outside seams between the deck and hull and I'm not happy with the results. The weave is very evident on most of it, so much that from a distance it looks like cloudy patches. The tape is 3" wide 6oz tape. The temps yesterday were in the 80's and I had a light on the MAS resin and slow hardener. The mixed epoxy was noticibly thinner than when I had applied in my basement at cooler temps. I put masking tape on both sides of the seam, applied a thin coat of resin, rollled the tape out then applied resin to wet out the glass. When the wet out coat was still tacky, I used a box cutter to cut the glass to the masking tape and applied a fill coat. The cut edge turned white as I was peeling back the cut edge and didn't go clear with the fill coat. Now I have a wide semi-cloudy strip with two white lines.

I'm sure the 6oz tape didn't help. It seemed thicker than the 6 oz cloth I used on the inside of the kayak. I've read a lot of posts about getting a clear finish on the boat and I tried to follow that advice. I have two questions:

1. How do I avoid this on the other side? (unfortunately the other side is the one that got too much heat in one spot when I was repairing an issue inside the hull so it will have an obvious repair visible on it)

2. If I decide not to live with the seam as it currently appears, how do I go about removing the seam tape. I'm assuming I would have to sand it away without sanding into the cloth on the deck and hull. Is there a better way?

Messages In This Thread

Strip: Seam strip fiberglass
Aaron Potter -- 9/17/2017, 5:49 pm
Re: Strip: Seam strip fiberglass
Laughing Loon CC&K -- 9/18/2017, 8:43 am
Re: Strip: Seam strip fiberglass
Jay Babina -- 9/18/2017, 3:31 pm
Re: Strip: Seam strip fiberglass
Aaron Potter -- 9/20/2017, 9:28 pm