Hi Jim,

Were you using overlapping strips of carbon fiber or did you cut out a few full circle pieces from a large sheet?

I used a bunch of 3" wide strips most about 10" long (6 oz fiberglass) and overlapped them around and around until I had about 5 layers deep.

Where I ran into trouble was when the glass didn't want both go around the corner and form to the upright and over to the vertical lip at the same time.

Most of the problem was at the tight radius corners in the back of the cockpit and I got some lumps and bumps because the glass didn't want to lay flat.

Along the sides where there is very little curvature all was well.

I also used the same wet-out method, pushing the cloth into a wet surface but didn't thicken the epoxy on the first layer. I really wish I knew a good method for doing this, all my attempts have been VERY messy...more like a good 3 stooges skit really

: I know this thread has been "dead" for awhile, but I built my
: carbon fiber coaming last night on my Cape Ann Storm according to Vaclav's
: technique but added one initial step that really helped with the layup.

: After everything was masked, I mixed up an epoxy/microballoon slurry to about
: the consistency of thick maple syrup and brushed that onto the mold. I
: allowed it to set for about 15 minutes then pressed/layed the first layer
: of fiberglass onto the mold on top of that slurry, pressing it in well
: enough to completely wet it out. It stuck very well, no problem with the
: fiberglass and subsequent layers of carbon and fiberglass laying down
: flat. For the rest of the process, I FIRST brushed on the epoxy THEN
: applied the next layer of cloth for each layer, just the reverse of a
: normal glass layup. My latex gloves got very gooey but the carbon and
: glass saturated very well with no lifting or dry spots.