: Hi,

: I have an Endeavor with a cut in the bottom.

How big is the cut? does it go through the wood and into the inside of the boat, or is it jsut through the outside glass and partway through the wood?

If you are talking about a cut under 2 feet long and an inch wide which does not completely penetrate the wood, theh jsut patch it and use the boat for another year or two -- accumulating scratches and cuts -- until the time comes for a major re-do.

:I wish to remove the varnish to
: reach clean epoxy,

The layer of varnish is usually not very thick, and not very tough. Sanding is the fastest and surest way to do this. I've used a belt sander to rapidly remove varnish, epoxy and glass fabric over lare areas that needed repairs. To just get the varnish off you can do the job by hand with a block of wood and a few sheets of medium grit sandpaper. ANY powered sanding device will speed things up, and should be considered if doing the entire bottom. Once the varnish is gone you'll be right on the epoxy layer, and the sanding will have scuffed it up enough that you'll get a good bond with whatever you want to add.

: add a kevlar bottom, and smooth it over with epoxy
: pigmented with graphite.

It would be a lot cheaper to just use glass cloth and your graphite.

: My question is how best to reach the clean epoxy
: without either trashing the topsides and cutting in to the fiberglass? I
: am thinking that I should mask off the areas that I don't want to
: affect,

Outline the area you MUST remove with a grease pencil or a wipe-off ( Dry Erase) marking pen like they use on dry boards or white boards. 6 inches outside that area you will outline a perimeter with a few strips of masking tape. If you are adding another layer of any type of fabric you'll want to blend in, or feather, the edges. Let's say you are adding a strip 24 inchs wide. You'll mark the 24 inch area with the dry erase marker, and on each edge you'll add a perimeter 6 inches more which is marked with masking tape. Sand off the varnish inside your marker lines. When you get close to the edges you'll sand through those marker lines and they will disappear. You can lightly sand up to your masking tape. When you add your cloth you'll be able to position it by centering it inside the lines of masking tape -- which are still well away from your work area. after the resin hardens, pull off the masking tape and sand the edge of the new patch to blend it into that 6 inch margin, thus disguising the addition.

and use a chemical stripper of some sort, assuming that it doesn't
: attack the epoxy. Do I need to run this one by WEST? Thanx, David Reid

Chemicla strippers are not needed, and probably are too expensive for this. Go with sandpaper.

Wear a amsk to keep the dust out of your lungs, and if you can dampen the area, you might be able to keep down more of the dust.

PGJ