I weighed the Vickers V8 IOM this morning after the urethane was dry, and the hull weighs 733. Excel tells me that I'm on track for about 125 grams of corrector weights. Not too bad if I say so myself. Just hope I haven't forgotten to include anything! :p Will sand it tomorrow (if I can wait that long) and see how it looks. I've got some orange peel and a few drips. But I won't be afraid to spray on two more rounds (each round = 3-4 coats sprayed on in a session with 20 minutes between coats, then letting it cure for 48 hours) given that yesterday's coats only weighed 20 grams. That's lighter than varnish! UPDATE after the second round of clear-coating: After sanding the coats from the first round, and doing some weighing, I'm approximating that each round of clear-coating, after sanding, will weigh around 15-17 grams. The hull weighed 730 after wet-sanding the first round. It currently weighs 749 after applying the second round but before sanding. I...

Finally got warm enough in my garage, with the help of my heater, to spray Klass Kote two-part clear urethane on my Vickers V8 IOM. Got some runs and drips but I'll have to sand it anyway in a day or two, and then use the polisher to get it shiny again, although it'll never be as shiny as it is now. Next step... start sanding and polishing. Cheers!

The clear Klass Kote two-part urethane was sanded and polished today. Looks pretty good! Bought myself a new tool... the Porter Cable 7424XP 6-Inch Variable-Speed Polisher ! It worked much better than my cordless drill that I had been using. Here are some more pictures: You can see a bit of the deck in this one. That's the next step... finishing the deck and hatches. Then it's time for the rigging. You can see the small brass rudder keeper that I made. Below is a section from my Vintage Marblehead Construction Manual on finishing: How to get that perfectly smooth, gloss finish : So how do those guys get that perfect, glossy finish? 1.        First, they sand the paint . Just about any gloss paint will create some orange peel. To get a glass-smooth finish you will need to sand it down a bit. Start with very gentle pressure using a sanding block with 800 grit and WET sand it. This should just flatten the orange peel at least enough ...

Today I did the first coat of thinned varnish on the hull. Over the past four days, I've let the hull cure and harden. It then sanded quite easily. For the most part, I didn't completely remove the orange peel but just flattened it a bit. The varnish should take care of the rest of it after 5 or 6 coats. Then wiped it down with mineral spirits. I'm using Pettit's Z-Spar Captain's Ultra-Clear Varnish . The can says that thinning usually isn't needed, but I added some mineral spirits regardless. Will probably do so for the first two or three coats. While I've always claimed that varnishing is a dark art practiced by masochists, it does have it's benefits. It can hide a ton of flaws; scratches, slight orange peel, etc... Once it's built up, it can look fantastic. I'm part of the "roll and tip" school of thought for varnish. The idea is that you use a small, 4" disposable foam roller to roll on a thin coat, then you go back o...

Wasn't able to post last night, but sprayed on my first coat of clear epoxy. I'm using a new, gravity feed spray gun that I picked up at Harbor Freight for $14. It works pretty well, although you really need to run reducer through it or it will seize up within minutes of stopping spraying. Pretty easy. Just sprayed on the entire hull, but especially on the topsides. Only did two thin coats... just enough to start to cover the hull. Didn't even need to mask anything.   Today, I re-marked the waterline as it dissolved when I wiped the hull with reducer yesterday. After that, I masked the topsides at the waterline. Had to use a hobby knife at the sharp turns near the stern. Then I sprayed on one thin coat of clear. The idea here is that you spray on the same color that is underneath the tape so that the bleed is the same color and you don't see it. Finally, I sprayed on several coats of white from the waterline just about an inch or two toward the...

The epoxy filler on the Sun Wind II RC sailboat dried completely by the next day, and then I was able to sand it. The Interlux Primekote 404/414 filler is wonderful stuff. It sands much more easily and finely than epoxy. It allows you to get a plasticy-smooth finish that when painted will look amazing. You actually end up sanding most of it off. It may look a bit blotchy, but that's because it has filled some of the low spots and scratches. The scratches you see in white are actually scratches in the epoxy underneath that have now been filled and sanded smooth. Pretty cool, huh? The pictures below are after the hull has been sanded and then wiped down with a damp rag to remove the dust. (By the way, this job gets messy! Best if you wear a mask!!)   More later. Aloha!

Here we go... time for the finishing. Gulp... I get stressed out during this phase. Too much of a perfectionist I guess, but then I run out of steam and end up being satisfied with an OK job. Maybe this time I'll carry all the way through! Tonight, I added a coat of Interlux Primekote 404/414 epoxy filler. It's a two-part epoxy compound that fills all the small scratches and such. I'm only adding it below the waterline as that part will be painted red. The topsides will remain clear, so I can use this product there. The idea behind the Primekote is that you put on a layer or two, and then sand most of it off the next day with pretty fine grit paper. It should fill the scratches, low spots, etc... When you sand it fine enough, it should leave a smooth, plastic-like surface that will take epoxy paint very well. Here is how it looks with a coat on. I'm only going to do one coat, and then sand it off. Should be good enough. Yes, you can see brush strokes... it doesn...