IF you read my albacore build log… you see that I have encountered some glass problems.
namely Pinholes
I did not do a float test before painting (dumb I know). so what is the best method for curing the pin hole problem while adding the least amount of weight…
layer upon layer of paint. until it sands smooth?
bondo/ sand, primer paint,
thinned epoxy, primer paint,
Laquer…
Help…
Oh the best part. I have 2 weeks until the season scoring starts…
…
I had this problem with an early balsa plank build. I didn’t notice it until after several sailing sessions, when I started to see the planks “print through” the outer glass layer. The pinholes were in the inner layer of glass and not the outer surface, thankfully!
I made a warm box and had a fan move air around the entire hull, with everything opened up, for several days. The balsa finally began to dry out and the print through diminished.
Once dry, but while still warm, I did the thinned, epoxy soup idea, and sloshed it around the inside of the hull. Since the epoxy was relatively cold compared to the hull, I hoped that as the hull cooled rapidly it would suck the thinned epoxy into the pin holes and seal them up.
You might try the warm hull, cool “soup” idea and wipe it all off before the epoxy starts to set up on the surface.
Good luck with it!
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If using epoxy (and probably works with polyester resin too), it is a good idea to have the substrate warm and the epoxy “cool” as HEW suggests. As the substrate cools down, it will pull the epoxy into the core materials. This eliminates any “out-gassing” which causes bubbles on the surface of the epoxy. If you do it the other way - (cool substrate and warm epoxy, or try to warm the epoxy to flow), the substrate will release the bubbles causing a final epoxy finish to be “pock-marked” from bubble out-gassing from the substrate as it warms up.
spent about an hour. and found only 2 pinholes in the hull… so I will probably just use the method that alan recommended in the albacore build log… on those two spots.
'll wait a couple more days and see if any other ideas come up with how to deal with the deck… but I like warm substrate, cool thin epoxy. it worked well on getting a good coating inside the deck/hull joint…figure I can get a paintbrush and brush on the epoxy…
sailed the boat this weekend. no more leaks… using thinned epoxy, with some fiberglass grindings filled the holes…
thanks for the suggestions folks…