After three rounds of clear-coating (3-4 coats each round), waiting 48 hours between each round and then sanding with 600 once dry, and then today wet-sanding (600, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000) and then using my power polisher with compounds, this is what I ended up with. It weighs 769 after the final sanding and polishing, which is weird because I gained a gram since the last spray round but sanded the crap out of the clear coat. I'm guessing that I have a gram or three of wate r in the hull as I used a hose to clear off the sanding residue and absolutely soaked the hull. Perhaps there's some exposed wood too? The polishing compounds really shouldn't add any weight... right? At this point I'm hoping that I'm around 115 grams of corrector weight, but we'll see if I can find a few more grams in the rig. Next step... build the rig. I can't avoid it any longer. Cheers!

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!

Today I wet sanded with 800 grit and then sprayed on a second round of 2-part clear urethane. It looks better regarding the underlying scratches, but I'm still getting some orange peel. I'll see how it looks when dry and then decide if I'll wet sand and polish the whole hull or just leave it as is. Aloha!

The paint is on! I began the finishing process (applying filler, paint, and varnish) by brushing on some two-part epoxy filler below the waterline. I'm using Interlux Primekote 404/414 . Great stuff, but extremely smelly! Pretty expensive too. But it sands down wonderfully. It fills all the deep scratches and pits and such. The filler goes on pretty thick, but you end up sanding most of it off. Keep in mind that I'm only putting it where paint will go. The topsides will stay natural. The pictures below are after sanding the filler off.  It may look rough, but it's actually just filled the scratches and other low spots. It feels very smooth now. Then I masked the boat. I'm making an accent stripe at the waterline. There will be one thin line of clear wood, and then another thin line of white above the waterline. Next I mixed up some two-part Klass Kote epoxy paint. The first coat was clear. It's really only to act as a "bleed" coat...

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...