: Night Heron. Ready to fiberglass in 2 weeks (warmer weather then).
: 1.Seems like I read that 80 grit is as high as I should go...before
: putting the glass on...so it would stick better. Someone told me
: that if I want a later-on super finish...I could/should(??) sand
: up to 120 BEFORE fiberglassing? which one is it?
: 2. Haven't put the glass on the hull yet, but won't I end up with a
: lot of extra material at front and rear because of the pointy
: areas? Do I make a cut at stern and bow and overlap a little?
: That sounds kind of tacky?!?
: 3. Plan on overlapping the deck about 3-5 inches down onto the
: hull. Will this leave a raised line? Can I sand this down
: smooth? what grit?
: I planned on making this an art project. Have used many exotic
: woods on deck. So...anyone got a recommendation for a super
: high-gloss varnish? Planning on at least 5-6 coats. Hey, I'm
: retired, Folks.
: KAYAK looks awesome...almost afraid to tackle the resin/glass part.

Btw I'd highly recommend Nick's books for answering most of these questions.

I've btw, played with lots of varnishes, now I use Zspar Captain's Varnish, easy to apply, works well with epoxy (not all varnish does) and dries fairly quickly. I only wet sand varnish, get too deep of scratches dry sanding it that are difficult to fix on the following coats. A perfect varnish job can well be 15 or 20 coats, but that's getting silly, you'll cause more damage the first time you paddle it to make that worthwhile. 4 or 5 coats will usually result in a nearly perfect surface.
(btw, when you do varnishing for a living, sometimes the clients require perfect varnish )

Bill H.