Every time I feel like I am making headway I hit a roadblock. Latest is the transom core and outside skin. I knew I had an air pocket on the port side that needed attention and finally got around to inspecting it. Tapping with a knuckle gave inconclusive results so I went to a hammer. Same deal as differentiating the tones was difficult. Then I tried the shears for cutting the fiberglass cloth. Just right! Big problem.
The air pocket was contained to a baseball size as I had thought. Tapping kept finding more areas eventually leading to me removing nearly the entire bottom half of the skin. Ugh. Ok, I have created a whole bunch more work for myself, but at least now I will not have to worry about and know it will be solid. Problem.
I ground down a taper all around, sanded it smoothish with 60 grit, filled low spots with thickened epoxy, wiped it down with DNA then grease/oil remover per my usual practice and tried to lay some cloth. No bueno. The cloth just kept falling off. My tried and true method is spread some resin on the hull, stick the cloth in place then fully saturate the cloth and get any air bubbles out. I could not get the cloth to stick in place. I tried full saturating the cloth first then applying and that did not work either. I even tried just a small 6"x6" piece and it would fall right off too.
I get my resin from US Composites and have been very happy with it. Recently they changed their composition of the medium hardener due to not being able to get an ingredient. The new formula works still, but it is thinner and clearer and does not blush. Ok, great except when you are trying to work on a slightly inverted vertical surface and upside down. I mixed the resin correctly and it was 78 degrees and not humid. I checked the resin that was left on the hull three hours later and it was a little tacky at that point.
Now I need suggestions on how to deal with this problem. I could mix up a few ounces and coat the hull, wait three hours and try applying the cloth then and see if it will stick. Or I could try thickening the resin a little with cabosil for spreading on the hull and see if that gets the cloth to stick. I worry about full adhesion and air bubbles with this method though. I could get a different hardener. I could try peel ply.
I am open to all suggestions.
Thanks
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