It is a little cold outside, but don't worry I have the hot coat on

Sorry about the horrible pun, but it is a little too early/late for me to be to clever. Anyway, I just got done putting on the hot coats for the surfboard. A hot coat is a clear coat layer that you put on after the fiberglass layers have cured. You do this for a few reason. First you have to cover up all the fibers of the fiberglass. If you don't it will just wick in water when you take it out. Second, it fills in the weave pattern from the fiberglass and smooths everything out. Lastly, it gives you an extra layer of resin between the foam and the water.

The other day I took my time and smoothed down any rough spots that I had from when I put the fiberglass on. Needless to say, I had a few. Especially around the nose and tail where I had a couple wrinkles. I also had some pretty big drips from the laps. This wasn't too bad, I just took my time and worked all the high spots down until it looked pretty good.

I got a cheap-o Dremel knock-off from Harbor Freight a couple weeks ago for 8 bucks. I threw on the sanding drum and worked some of the smaller problem areas I was having. Again, mostly around the noise and tail area.

Once the lam. layer looked good and smooth it was time to break out the resin. I got some Additive F from greenlightsurfsupply.com so I threw in a cap full of that, 10 pumps of resin, and 5 pumps of hardener. Dumped the mixture out on the bottom and started brushing it on with a cheap paint brush. Next time, I'll go with the foam brushes. They are way cheaper and it is a major hassle trying to clean out the regular ones.



Once that was hard to the tap, it was time to flip over and do the same thing. That's where I'm at right now. The resin is curing up right now. In a few hours I'll be able to take off the masking tape and start working on the vent plug and fin. I've got a busy weekend ahead of me.

Sorry about the lack of pictures in this post. It's kinda hard to take a picture that shows much progress when I'm sanding or putting on a clear coat. Don't worry, plenty more to come soon.