Hello all,

I would like to impose some questions on you experienced builders regarding varnishing and how to hide mistakes.

1. The first finishing mistake was when I epoxied a 2" cloth around the sheer as a clamp for the deck and hull. I faired in the edges on the deck and hull by sanding the epoxied cloth on the edges to fair it in. I managed to fair the edges but it got ugly.
2. The second mistake was not taping when varnishing the hull, the varnish dribbled underneath and has varnish lines in the underside (deck) on the sheer clamp on the deck. The varnishing technique I used was the cross hatch.

I varnished the hull with Mcklosky spar varnish because it is not completely clear (amber tone) hoping I could hide a lot of mistakes on the hull and cover-up the shiney print- through from the sanded cloth along the sheer clamp. It did not work, the print through seemed to appear amplified to the surface.

Question; After sanding the sheer clamp - apply a dark mahogany aniline dye on it then varnish over it. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Question; To knock down the drip lines on the sheer clamp on the deck, I was told by a auto-painter to wet sand with 1500 grit then 2500 grit then compound with an auto wax /compound to get rid of the drip lines. The deck area also has the print through. Should I use a scraper to knock down the hight parts of the drip line before sanding?

Question; After varnishing the hull yesterday, upon inspection this morning. I saw specks of dust all over the hull. Can I hide the dust by varnishing over the dust and do this without sanding? The varnish is not completely dry yet (a good time to do this?).

Thank you,
Douglas