Finally it’s starting to come together. I’ve finished painting the hull and the cockpit (well not quite done in the cockpit yet). It took two coats to cover.
The varnish took a little longer. I used the time-tested wet-edge technique to apply the varnish:
- Pick a small area about 18″ wide in most cases one side of the boat
- Dip the foam brush in about 3/4″ in the varnish
- Spread the varnish on the section width-wise
- Without re-dipping run the brush length-wise over the section to ensure complete coverage
- Go over the section one more time width-wise drawing the brush from the dry area into the wet area the lifting the brush at the end of the previous section, avoiding brush marks
- By always drawing the brush into the previous wet section, a wet-edge is maintained, avoiding overlap marks
- Avoid brushing out sections that have begun to dry
There are a number of YouTube videos demonstrating this technique and most will explain it better that I did.
I prepped the garage to do the work by sweeping, closing the door then spraying down the floor with water. That worked almost perfectly keeping the dust off the finish. However by closing up the garage with the humidity and temperatures around 100 degrees, my otherwise perfect base finished got the dreaded “sags”. I was sure that when I finished the first coat was perfect but because of the temps and humidity about an hour later I had some runs and drips.
So instead of building up a few coats, I used 220 grit to remove the drips and applied another “base” coat. This time it turned out much better.
After each of the next three coats I used 320 grit to level it as best I could also trying to fill in the pin-holes that kept showing up (I never got rid of all of them).
The last two coats I used 400 grit wet which was just enough to cut the gloss to allow the next coat to stick.
So after six coats of marine varnish, I have a finish I’m OK with. It’s not perfect. I can see some scratches in the cedar and some in the epoxy. NO dust bumps! Overall it looks fine.
It’s back in the basement shop for the final work, Here’s what’s left:
- Front and rear hatch
- Front and rear bulkheads
- Seat and back
- Handles