Winter 2008-2009 Refit | Friday, December 12, 2008/Saturday,
December 13, 2008
When I chose to apply the high-build primer late on Thursday
afternoon, my thought process had been to allow the primer a
full day and more before attempting to sand it; past
experience in cooler temperatures had proved that the primer
was often not ready to sand the day after application.
So I had planned on sanding it on Saturday. I also
timed the application so that I'd be able to sand the hull
on my day off and within an appropriate amount of time,
since the epoxy-based high-build primer becomes very hard
within a couple days of application and gets very hard to
sand.
Therefore, I was surprised
to find that by mid-afternoon Friday the primer was cured to
sanding consistency; I did a small test patch, and had no
trouble with the paper clogging. So although it hadn't
been my plan, I decided to grip the bull by the horns and
sand the hull immediately, while the primer was in perfect
sandable condition; it was only 1500, and since my regular
work day had wrapped up a bit early, I had some time on my
hands.
In about an hour and a
half, I sanded most of the hull with 220 grit, leaving the
transom and counter for later. I sanded each section
of hull to the point I thought was adequate, and then shined
a light at a severe angle over the hull, which highlighted
any areas that I'd missed.
Saturday morning, I
finished up the sanding with the transom, counter, and
details--such as the area just beneath the toerail, and just
above the boottop. Then, I went over the hull with the
bright flashlight again and sanded out a few areas that
needed a bit more to remove the texture from the spray gun,
leaving a very smooth, flat surface behind. |
I cleaned up the shop, as per usual, and hosed off the
staging and floor. With only a quick and light sanding
of the tiny filled area ahead, I was ready for final solvent
wash, tack-off, and finish primer in the near future.
As of this writing I had not determined my schedule for this
work, as I had to account not only for the spray time but
also a half day of sanding shortly thereafter, but I
expected to spray the finish primer within the next week,
hopefully sooner than later. |
