Terry,

I dug this out of my files from old posts and updated it a liitle. You are past the preparation steps but I'm lazy and posted the whole thing. Hope it helps.

Dave

I tried and tried to get the perfect varnish finish on my kayak using only a foam brush. I ended up with dust bumps so I sanded (wet) and put on another coat. Then I got some sags and runs. More sanding and another coat with more bumps and/or sags. This kept on until I finally said screw it. At that point the hull looked ok but the deck had a sag and a few dust bumps so I decided to polish the deck. If you are looking for the perfect finish with hand applied varnish polish is the answer.

The best start is with a faired hull. A fairing board leaves the hull much more ripple free than a ROS. This applies not only to sanding wood strips, but also to sanding the epoxy fill coats, even on a plywood hull. Make sure all the little shiny weave indents in the epoxy are sanded out. If the glass gets exposed it has to be sealed with epoxy or the fabric in time will start to show white. I dry sand epoxy because water on the hull while I wet sanded hid when I was sanding into the glass cloth. I sand to 120 grit and then wash the hull with running water before varnishing. The varnish will not fill blemishes, in fact the gloss makes them show up even more. A good foam-brush-applied-varnish job is necessary. I wet sand between varnish coats with 220 grit. A thicker application is obtained with fewer coats by brushing over the rag wipe on method or spaying. Be sure the varnish is well cured. Wait a couple weeks; go paddling.

Then get one sheet of every grade of wet/dry sandpaper from 320 to 2000 (building supply and auto supply stores you'll have to go to both). Wet sand with a bucket of water mixed with a small squirt of dishwashing detergent or with running water (hose) and a closed-cell-foam-sanding block (from the local boat shop). Sand the entire surface with each grade paper (1/4 sheet) and wash between grits to remove all paste and loose grit, and use fresh water with each grit. It doesn't take much sanding with each grit but don't skip any, then it will. Be extra careful with the coarse grit to remove only the brush strokes, bumps and sags.

Next you will need a power buffer or rotary sander, three new wool buffing pads and Meguiar's No. 1, 2 and 9. I had to go to an auto paint supply house to find all three Mequair's, the auto parts houses never had all three. Label the pads on the back with a permanent marker 1, 2 and 9. Polish the entire surface with No. 1 wash the boat and change the pad. Repeat with No. 2 and No. 9. You'll be amazed with the results. If you didn't use the fairing board instead of ROS on the epoxy you'll wish you had.

Follow the "clinics" on Meguair's web site: http://www.meguiars.com/
I didn't use their expensive, foam, buffing pads or their sandpaper.

When you get done you will go out cover the boat with sand and water drops, ding it up with the paddle, dock, roof rack and whatever and few people will notice the improvement for having polished but the other kayak builders will. Also with time the epoxy tends to shrink with continued curing and the texture of the glass weave will telegraph to the surface. But if you want that perfect finish that's, at least one way, how to do it. Now that I have all of the tools and materials I will polish the deck on my next kayak.

Also take a look at http://www.greenval.com/FAQvarnishing.html