Small 12' Panga Build

Finished glassing the hull a couple of days ago and sanded half the hull with 40 grit on a belt sander and then a little touch up with 60 grit on an orbital sander.

Went through 3 belts sanding half the hull. I'll make sure I'm cleaner with my glassing on the next boat.

In addition got the front compartments filled with flotation foam and mounted the top. Will get to flip the boat next week and finish up the interior.

I also add 1/2 ply reinforcement on top of the front compartment of the bow and attached to the 1/4 ply top. I'll be mounting a light and a cleat and or anchor roller.

Having a great time with these plans from Spira International

 

I'm putting extra effort into making the hull really smooth. I'm using a Rustoleum oil based primer and Rustoleum oil based Hunter Green for the hull color.

Not sure what final grit to sand with before painting or if I should sand after priming so appreciate any input.

 

Here is a good article I found on prepping the bare fiberglass hull for painting:

http://www.awlgrip.com/support-and-advice/gelcoat-and-fiberglass.aspx

 

Greg I found 60grit worked best for epoxy glass with coated with fairing mix. Any finer clogs up too quickly and any coarser digs too much to the point of cutting into the glass. The 60 seems to give a good teeth to attach the primer to the glass. For my boat I then faired again and cut again and so on and on and on and on.... Once I was happy with how the surface was getting then I primed again and cut with 400grit to get a 'water break free' surface. That means that when you drip water on it spreads rather then beads. I like this kind of surface for applying color coats. I cut the first layer of color with 800 I think and sprayed more including clear finish coats which I cut with 2000 and buffed with cutting compound under power and polished with wax last. I used what I am good with painting cars and more then happy with the results

 

Painted half the hull today with primer and decided that I really need to make a fill coat as shown in the attached video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsupx-IXOzU&feature=related
There is just way too much porosity in the fiberglass surface for my liking so I'm going to sand both sides rough with 40 grit and then use a roller brush to apply a fill coat. After the fill coat cures, I'll sand with 120 grit to roughen up for primer and paint again.

 

Thanks for the tips Saqa. I'm not familiar with Fairing mix and will look that up shortly. I really appreciate the input. I would love for the finish to be "water break free"

 

I also found out that the local RevChem shop carries the fairing compound in both epoxy and polyester. Not too different from Bondo. I like that they have the hardener in different colors so that you can guage your progress.

 

my fairing mix was just talcum powder and epoxy. Light mix for initial filling of pores and heavier to build up low spots. just heavy enough to prevent dripping. I waited minimum for the previous coat to tack up or max within 24hrs of previous coat

 

Been using a nice polyester fairing compound/filler on the hull. Here are the steps I took to give me a nice finish to paint on. Not car show quality, but nice enough to turn heads
1. Glass the boat with 2 layers of 6oz woven cloth
2. Make sure to squeegee out any excess resin
3. After resin cures use a roller to put on a filler coat to fill in all the porosity from shrinkage
4. sand with 60 grit belt and orbital sander
5. put on nice thin coat of fairing compound over entire hull using plastic spreader
6. sand with orbital sander 60 grit, nice and even
7. mix up resin with red polydust and spread on super thin over entire boat to fill any tiny holes
8. Sand hull with 60 grit, then 120
9. Next step is to apply primer, then paint. Will post pics when I get to that step.

 

Is there something wrong with my computer? Why is this Greg fellows posts in 72 pt. and the pics x-tra cinema wide?

 

I have a 22" monitor and the pics only fill 75% wide. Also the text is at Size=5 in the source of the html. Looks normal on my system.

 

I don't have a sprayer so rolled on the paint using the smoothest roller I could find at Orchard Hardware. First put on Rustoleum oil based primer in white and let dry for 24 hours. Then I put on two coats of Rustoleum oil based enamel Hunter Green and let dry about 12 hours between coats. The finish is really nice, glossy and smooth.

I then took the strong back jig and cut it down so that I could flip the boat and still use it. Now it's time to figure out what to do with the interior and decide if I want to use the existing flooring, add a deck or just some planks.

In addition I'm thinking about adding a nice piece of teak or mahogany on top of the gunwhale that will also server as a rub rail and a nice mounting point for some cleats.

 

The paint looks good.

 

Thanks Canracer,
A couple of spots are a little saggy, so I'll color sand them after I get the rub rail on.

 

Today I was trying to figure out a good way to get a rub rail on the boat. The plans from http://spirainternational.com have a nice do it yourself rubrail, but I wanted something that I didn't have to put a lot of work into and that would look really clean. I stopped by Home Depot today and found some nice pre-cut moulding that looks great on the boat and is really cheap. I got the processed MDF style which is only about $3 a 7' strip to test with.
The MDF is a little soft, so I might get some oak moulding instead for $10 per strip.
I also decided to line the inside of the boat with some 1/4 oak exterior rated plywood.
Still planning on putting a deck in with planks and will probably work on that this weekend.