Fiberglassing the Interior

As Ted Moores states in Canoecraft about working on the interior, "most amateur builders find this stage the least pleasant because it is dusty, uncomfortable, and frustrating to work on the awkward inside curves." As all ready stated about the sanding, the awkward curve is very difficult to sand. That being the case, multiple coats of epoxy resin needed to be poured onto the 4oz. fiberglass, because smoothing out the curve is more difficult on the inside than on the outside. Doing the same process as before, the fiberglass was smoothed out and hooked to the edge of the stern-line with clothes pins. The cloth was wetted out and after it dried the excess cloth around the stern-line was removed with an exacto knife. 6 oz. Fiberglass taped was placed on the keel-line to help strengthen the places where the strips didn't fully touch. Three additional coats of epoxy were applied to fill out the weave and ensure smooth continuity on the surface of the interior. However, near the stem the epoxy began to pool between the white oak and the cedar strips, which started to glob together and was hard to fix because of the tight space to work in. Nevertheless, most of this area will be covered with the deck and will not be visible. The next step was to make the gunwales.

Sanding the Interior

Sanding the interior of the canoe was not as time consuming as sanding the exterior. At least, it may have felt that way because I had the entire day to work because of Spring Break. Even though I had more hours to work, the process was more difficult because of the tumblehome or the curve of the canoe. Using an orbital sander, the sides of the sandpaper were quickly used up because more tension was being placed on them. The sanding was very tedious and tiring just like the exterior, and so I began to listen to another audiobook. Noticing many openings between the cedar strips, I decided against using wood filler, but used epoxy mixed with cedar sawdust. This was a good idea, except that it turned the color of the wood darker than I was expecting, but it does not look bad. It just darkens the naturally lighter cedar. I put to coats of this epoxy mixture on to ensure filled in cracks and a smoother interior. But like Ted Moore's states, you know what the end result of fiberglassing can look like, so you feel more compeled to take your time. The next step was to fiberglass the interior with 4 oz. cloth.

Flipping the Canoe over

This is probably the only time, flipping the canoe is a good thing. When floating down the river, a flipped canoe isn't all too great. Nevertheless, before the canoe was flipped over, it needed something to hold it when flipped. I know some canoe builders use saw horses, but I didn't want to scratch the bottom of the hull on wooden horses. So generally following the plans to build a cradle, from Ted Moore's Canoecraft, I built my own deviation from it with scraps of lumber from my garage. After the two cradles were built, I unscrewed the stations from the strongback and pulled up on the stern, but it didn't budge. Realizing some epoxy had glued a station #7 to a 2x4, I broke the epoxy bond and the canoe lifted off the frame. It felt weird seeing the underside of the canoe for the first time, since I had become so accustomed to seeing the outside of it. There was a lot of glue and wood filler that had made it's way through the cracks and holes, but, in all, the inside looked really good. It just needed a lot of sanding.

Sanding the Fiberglass

After the third coat of epoxy dried, the next step was to sand the fiberglass smooth. Especially near the fiberglass tape and the double draped cloth towards the stern, the fiberglass had to be sanded down smooth to create the "glass" look. Starting with 80, 120, and 220 grit, the canoe felt smooth yet some of the cloth was nearly exposed after the sanding. So I mixed up another batch of epoxy, and spread it smooth over the entire canoe. Even though there were very small streak marks from spreading the epoxy, I decided that wet sandpapering the canoe would be futile because it would have to be done again. Also, I waited to apply Marine Varnish for the same reason. The canoe looked very "canoey" but I still had the entire interior of the canoe that needed to be finished.