Allied Greenwich 24: Sanding Interior & Exterior Repairs

March 6, 2019

I grabbed a few hours in the evening to sand the recent repairs to the exterior, the port primary bulkhead fillet, and the cabin settees. I began by water-washing all of the areas I intended to sand today. This process removes the amine blush that forms on cured epoxy resin - that is on resin that a layer of peel ply is not placed on, and thereby preventing the amine blush from forming. This waxy substance is a surface contaminate if not removed, and will interfere with subsequent lamination layers, fairing work or paint application. With all surfaces free of this surface contaminate, I thoroughly dried them off and started sanding the port bulkhead fillet. This fillet of thickened epoxy that I created at the intersection of the bulkhead and the hull/overhead/cabin sides will allow the fiberglass tabbing to lay down in a smooth radius, ensuring full contact of the fiberglass to the bulkhead and boat surfaces. I sanded most of the surface of the fillet with a small DA random orbital, and hand-sanded the tight spots.

I covered the bulkhead fillets both forward and aft.

While I was in the boat, I sanded the settees, both port and starboard.

I removed any uneven surfaces, where paint was applied too thick and resulted in runs, as well as anything material loose and flaking.

I then moved up into the cockpit of the boat, and worked the recently filled holes - the larger/primary holes. I also worked around some of the tighter spots by hand as well as with the smaller DA sander.

Next, I brought out the larger DA sander and hit the starboard side deck. Here the repairs were larger spots of cracking and crazing gelcoat that I had completely sanded off down to bare glass. I laid up a layer of 10oz fiberglass cloth and then faired the surface (filling the weave of the cloth and low spots) with thickened epoxy.