

This is the best selling point (from mark bronkalla) of using glass over wood - ''Some other builders had questioned my use of fiberglass on the deck. but that may have to do with using an oil based stain. he does mention a small batch where the glass has blistered and some damage from the anchor bashing the hull. hes been running it quite hard for the last 17 years including extended period in the sun and in the water. Its written by Mark Bronkalla about his 20' runabout that is almost fully sheathed in glass (4 and 6 oz). I've been doing some more looking and found this article - WOW 17 Years Later There are also lots of previous project reports available from them. I don't do real boats, so read the book, and West System has a hotline for questions. A layer of glass makes it easy to build up the epoxy, and adds strength - including abrasion resistance. The one thing the book says is if you want the wood protected, you need to apply epoxy to all sides of the wood, to prevent movement due to moisture. It does scuff and leaves a whiteish mark - possibly not the best on a boat deck. Personally on a kayak I have been using Automotive clear coat like on high dollar cars. No doubt you have to protect the glass with varnish or other methods. Someone you never heard of or guys who made a living?
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Some will say they are just trying to sell epoxy, but who would know how to do it right?
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Its a free download of a book that has shown how to epoxy / glass construct boats for 30+ years. Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction book - WEST SYSTEM Epoxy You might look at the recommendations from guys who have done this before. Glass cloth is used for its whear durability. If you can see thrugh the finish so can uv light.Ĭanoes and such are subjected to great abrasion. In short order blisters will form as the epoxy resin is broken down by uv light. It is difficult to get cloth to permanently bond to wood. I have done a search but not much came up except for some methods. Why is it only kayaks and surfboards that glass over the wood and most other boats just use varnish/clear over wood.? What are the pros and cons of transparent fibreglass over wood? Will it add much goodness to the deck effectively making it a fibreglass deck (glass over ply like)? Is it worth putting down a layer of glass first? its almost perfectly clear and sprays well and seems to be abit more flexible than polyurethane varnishes. My plan at this stage is to go with Awlgrip's Awlwood MA. I want to build a boat with mahogany decks (around 30foot) but don't want to be varnishing every year and don't want any cracking around the joins in the wood (where it always seem to go bad). but you dont seem to see it too much on other bright work like on the decks of a J-craft for example. All the kayak/canoe builds i have seen seem to use a light cloth with 105/207 west system epoxy then a few coats of varnish to finish.
