45. Varnish on Deck

Well the effort to create the plastic room to tame dust paid off tremendously! The first cot of varnish is dry on the deck with ZERO dust specks in it. Truly flawless finish.

44. Room in a Room

The hull now has 4 coats of varnish and is finished and oh so beautiful. We had a slight problem with dust specks. My attempted solution is this room in a room. It will give dust 2 full days to settle before we put the first coat of varnish on the deck. Almost there!

43. Wet Sanding

What a great day to sand outside. This is the 1st outdoor work I have been able to do. It was raining, but hey, I was wet sanding. It went very well. Used 400 grit paper and sanded every inch of the kayak by hand. The 3rd coat of varnish will go on the hull tomorrow morning.

42. Varnish Coat 2

Got 2nd coat of varnish on today. Very weird to scratch coat #1 with a green scotchbrite pad. But important to give the next coat a physical surface to grip. One spot on coat 1 had a small run, this was smoothed out and coat 2 does not show it at all. With 3 coats still to go I cannot believe the deep gloss this baby shows! Ang was instrumental in getting coat 2 this smooth. I applied varnish while she "tipped it out" by gently removing all bubbles and brushing all varnish in a single direction. During the apply apply apply tip out stage you really only have about 1 to 2 minutes work time to get it right. Any mistakes get sanded before next coat. As a team we rolled right through it.

41. Varnish Coat 1

I was very nervous about his step. In post 40 below you can see the final coat of epoxy. The kayak is seaworthy in that state but the epoxy will yellow after long sun exposure. The real final step is the marine varnish. Well I sanded and sanded last weekend to get everything super smooth. This morning I applied the 1st varnish coat. It actually went very well. And the results! AMAZING! I had no idea the results would be this good. As seen in the picture it is completely dry. This is coat 1 of 5. I have to say WOW even at my own work.

40. She's Done!

It took 40 posts to this blog but she is done! Well the sanding finally got done for real and the final coat of epoxy has been applied. The finish is super nice and I am very happy with it. Once the epoxy cures this baby is ready for water! Of course she will need varnish too. But that's just another step.

39. Final Sanding - Deck

Final sanding of the deck has been completed. This is one of those steps where you think you are done but then when you look again there is a little more. A few more spots... I have also attached the hooks to the underside of the hatch cover and the blocks inside the hatch to anchor the bungee cord.