Before we put in all the deck rigging, the hatch straps, knee braces, foot pedals, rudders, etc... we decided that we would just varnish the boats first. You don't have to varnish your boat right away, you can paddle it for months before the weather really starts to take a toll. But we figured since we will be going on a three month trip and we have the shop space and time for just a little bit longer that we should do it now. And to varnish the boat means that we need to sand the shit out of it. So that's what we did. We started with 120 grit and finished with 220. It isn't going to be a perfect finish but like we've been saying all along, for us these boats are for paddling, not for a showroom. They're gonna get all beat up right away anyways.
You want to sand it enough so that it is kind of a matte finish. You don't want any gloss left over. The varnish will make the dotty texture disappear, you just don't want to sand through the fiber glass! (which is fairly hard to do with 220 grit sandpaper).
Still glossy on left. Mostly matte on right.
We used a palm sander with some hand sanding as well.
You want to sand it enough so that it is kind of a matte finish. You don't want any gloss left over. The varnish will make the dotty texture disappear, you just don't want to sand through the fiber glass! (which is fairly hard to do with 220 grit sandpaper).
Hey guys - glad to see you are coming along and almost done. I was delayed a bit when I ran out of epoxy but I'm back to work now. I am wrapping things up working on installing the hatch lips, hatch strapping, and cockpit coaming. At this stage I probably won't be done until April.
ReplyDeleteI am curious what sort of varnish you are planning to use. I bought the water-based WR-LPU but I'm reconsidering and thinking of the Spar Urethrane now after reading about how difficult it can be to apply the WR-LPU. If you've already done this step, I'd be interested to see what sort of results you got with your varnish.
best of luck,
Paul
Hey Paul,
ReplyDeleteWe used the Z-spar flagship varnish, it was pretty easy to apply, we used the same 1/8th in rollers and foam brushes to apply. I would say I got a pretty good finish, but it definitely could have been more even. If I had more time I would have added more coats (we did 3).