Fiberglass wood grain look.

[alex1665]

Fiberglass boats that have a wood grain look ? does anyone know the process.

[the1much]

never seen it but i imagine the "pattern" is in the mold,, if you dont have a mold, you can lay sticks( small small twigs) down, put wax paper over them,, then lay up on the paper .

[PAR]

I have my suspicions about the "twigs and waxed paper" technique, but what does work is to laminate on a piece of wood. Of course you'll need a release agent of some sort.

Most currently are printing a wood grain pattern on a piece of rosin paper, laminating this to the hull shell before clear coating. Some have adopted a computer generated image and are using a type of photographic method to apply it to a substrate, which is then clear coated.

Personally, there's nothing less attractive then fake wood. You can use a veneer of real wood that is encapsulated in plastic, then clear coated for UV protection. This is the now old school method, though not traditional (yet). The traditional method would be a piece of wood, left natural or with oil or varnish applied to protect it. A real wood veneer needs only to be a 1/16" or so thick.

[alex1665]

PAR
Thanks for your reply, do you know the name of the company that produces the computer generated images?

[PAR]

Sorry, I don't but would think it a reasonably simple request. Most graphics software have "samples" of wood grain. What are you trying to do Alex?

[Kaptin-Jer]

Alex,
Many of the first "glass boats were made to look like wood boats. Lapstrake was common. The molds were made from existing wood hulls. I doubt if a computer generated wood look can work because it will only be in 2D and the grain needs to be in 3D. 1Much is on the right track, a wood mold does need to be made first then transfered to the shape you need in either female or male. It's not too different than re-molding the non-slip pattern back onto a boat. Look at the PVC garden chairs that you buy at Wal-Mart w/ the wood grain look. I think you'l agree w/ Par about the look of fake wood.

[Eric Sponberg]

Alex,

When I designed the Cherubini Classic 20, we originally set out to print the wood grain on fabric, lay the fabric into the mold behind clear gelcoat, and lay up the laminate behind that. Getting the image correctly printed was the easy part. Anyone with a large feed scanner can do it. We scanned an actual layup of teak and ash deck like on the old speedboats, 3 feet wide, and then manipulated the image (actually images) in the computer to fit the boat and patterns we wanted, and then printed those onto a thin low-stretch fabric. In the computer, we added scarf joints and bung holes for a realistic look. At the Annapolis boat show we fooled practically everyone, including professional cabinet makers, with our prototype boat. It was extremely realistic, you could not tell the wood pattern on the deck was not real. If you go to my website, the boat in these pictures is the prototype boat, and all the "wood" that you see is the fake wood on the printed pattern.

http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/CC20.htm

But ultimately we were not completely successful in our effort. There were two major problems, which likely could be solved with a little more time and effort--we were really close. First, the red pigment reacted with the catalyst and cause the image to fade--a lot and really fast, within a week or two. A new formulation had to be developed to either use a different catalyst, a different chemical for the red pigment, or to use an inhibitor in the pigments to protect them from the catalyst.

The second problem was getting the grain nice and straight. Once the fabric went into the mold, it was very difficult to lift out or rearrange. So if you got some squiggles in the lines, it was really hard to correct them. The fabric did stretch a little bit, and that spoiled the image. Your eye can pick up the slightest squiggle. The image and fabric damaged easily, so you had to be really careful with it during molding and layup.

Unfortunately, I did not get all the details of the specifics of the process. The factory developed it and kept it totally proprietary. They were going to work on the problems some more, but ran out of money and had to close. The CC20 is still in production, however, and all the wood on board now is real wood.

http://www.cherubiniyachts.com/20.html

Eric

[Kaptin-Jer]

Mr. Sponberg I stand corrected. I guess with a lot of money, time, and thought you can make anything. Actually there is a boat in the yard right now that has a fiberglass hull that is covered with 3" strip teak planking then laminated again. It does look like a very nice wood boat.

[the1much]

o.k,,,,,i felt stupid but tried it,,,,i took a piece of 1/2" x 4" and put it in my sandblaster and blasted the heck out of it,,it leaves it with RAISED grain,, i stopped after about 1/4 " deep,,then took some wax paper over it,,then poured the gel-coat on it,,,,,i had to use a brush and put tape on side to make a dish-like or ,,heh, boat like,,more tub,,but had to really work it in because the paper didnt want to take form,, but anyways, it worked pretty good for what it was ( 20 min break from real work) . i can imagine if i used that wood for a mold and gelled it,, it would make a pretty convincing look and feel.

[fiberglass jack]

layed up on plywood many times and got a true grain look, get some floor wax and rub it on the ply i find it works good and cheep, never tryed to get the wood color though, if you brush on some gel of a light color and just before it kicks brush some darker over it with a higher % of mekp to stop alagation, I often brush gel into smaller moulds which i paint 2 coats of gelcoat i often add a little more pigment to the second to see the coverage, after i pull the parts i see a grain look so if you play with wood colors you may get someting good, by the way the parts i talked about get painted so the the color of the gel doesnt mater , might give it a try later this week

[ondarvr]

You can make a gel coat surface look very much like wood. Use a wire brush on the piece of would you plan to use as a mold so it will add some extra depth to the grain, this is needed because when you wax it some of the depth will be lost. Use clear as the first layer of gel coat on the wood, the second layer will depend on the color of wood you want to match, light tan for light color and a darker brown for a darker wood finish. After you demold the part use normal wood stain on the clear gel coat, you will need to use more than one color for a more realistic look and for an even better look, use an air brush to highlight it. To get it right will take bit of experimenting, but it can look very good, it's the way they make high end FRP doors. It may not be the look you're after, but since we were talking about wood finishes I thought I'd add it.


I should add that a plug is made off the wood, then you make the mold.

[Kaptin-Jer]

Back in the day---
Before production molds the original 'glassers would build up Hydro-cal on old hulls then pull the hull out (some times in pieces) after reinforcing the mold they would then clean and wax. When they pulled the new boat it had all the wood characteristics. The first guys were afraid of having a perfectly smooth hull. They were afraid no one would buy them.

[the1much]

i wonder if you could lay up,,then on top of that stretch some of that chop gun glass across ya glass, then resin over it? of course leave the "strands" long nuff to go all the way across.

[juiceclark]

This is the stuff:

http://www.fibreglast.com/showproduc...aveil-190.html

Think I'll do an entire hull with the "Outdoor Camo" version.

[Eric Sponberg]

Juiceclark,

Thanks--there it is, fabric patterns for just the ticket. These standard patterns could be useful for the topsides of a boat. You might be able to get the company to do a complete boat deck or hull pattern if you're in the production end of boatbuilding.

When doing the CC20, we did a sample camoflage pattern which was really neat. I can see its advantage for hunting boats.

Eric