: greetings everyone!
: i've just finished off glassing the inside of kayak and it has come to my
: attention that i think i'm useing WAY more resin than i had intended to. i
: know this is my first s&g and first timers have a tendency to
: "overbuild". my concern is the type of fiberglass i'm useing.
: there is a local guy here who builds speed boat hulls off of forms, and
: his recomendation to me was/is to use this weave called "tiger
: hair" vs. a bi-axial weave. he sd that although bi-ax is very stong
: it is also very heavy. i bought a ton ( well not quite )of this tiger hair
: weave. to explain, it has a randomly woven look to it, and doesn't turn
: completely opaque (close)when wetted out. it looks like the stuff used to
: build fiberglass shower enclosures. lee, (from an other bbs who will go
: unnamed) sd that the stuff i'm useing maybe too heavy. i think he may be
: correct;but, should i use the stuff for the outside of kayak? i've cut
: into 6" strips and have doubled it up on the seams on the inside, and
: i've used the better part of a gallon of west 105 resin. suggestions with
: how i should proceed? any help would be greatly appreciated.
: brett "the hitman hart"
: south bend, in.
Hitman,
I concur with Jay and Chris. My first S&G went together with FG drywall tape and no sheathing. I used 3/16" (5.2mm) luan. I was satisfied with its strength and rigidity after losing it off the pickup at about 30 mph. Did mess up that fine Weatherbeater hull finish though! Thus tested I gave this boat to a friend as a retirement gift four years ago. He just sent me a snap of him and his Chesapeake retriever still enjoying it.

The WEST people state that the main purpose of the glass is to assure an adequate thickness of epoxy and to offer some abrasion resistance. My experience is that 6 or 4oz. cloth doesn't put up with much abrasion. I prefer to sheath my bottoms Dynel and epoxy thickened with fine blasting sand.

"Tiger Hair" is the trademark of one of the autobody suppliers, Dyno Hair is another. These compounds are polyester resin mixed with chopped FG strands (2-3"). They are designed to be used as body filler and to repair holes in FG and rusted metal auto bodies. They are far superior in strength to a regular body filler like bondo, but I feel the high ratio of resin to FG makes them unsuitable for structural use on a boat. You've got to remember that polyester resin only has 20% of the strength of the glass fibers and for maximum you only want to use enough resin to saturate the FG and no more.

I dislike FG tapes because of the bead of wicked resin that forms along the selvage. This has to ground down and filled to make a presentable joint. Better to cut bias tapes from FG cloth which have no selvage, or you could go to Home Depot and get some of that drywall tape.