SANDIN HER DOWN.

[76GMC1500]

I just sanded mine. *I did it with a 25 pack of 60 grit discs for a random orbit sander. *A circular sander or dual action would have probably been faster.




I've been grinding fiberglass recently, that is a messy job. *I found a bit of a problem while doing some fuel tank work. *There was a 1/2" thick film of fiberglass dust along the bottom of my boat before I vacuumed it. *It's really miserable rolling around in the bilge with fiberglass dust everywhere. *Nowhere near as bad as on your back with bottom paint dust, though. *While doing the bottom paint, my goggles would fog up every 3 minutes and really did nothing to keep the dust out of my eyes. *It was terrible.

I am doing fiberglass becase a stringer was cut to pass the fuel fill hose through. *It was also cut deeper than it needed to be. *The result was the stringer broke, probably while trying to do 12-15 knots in 8-10ft swells at 8 seconds with 3-5 foot wind waves. *I didn't know it was broken until I pulled the fuel tank. *I was able to cut the damaged section out, scarf in a new section, and lay 2 layers of laminate in a day. *I was going to finish today, but it is 90+ degrees right now and I had the wrong hardener. *My resin pots were setting hard in 3 minutes. *The day before it was 60 degrees and I was getting 15-20 minutes before the pot would even start to gel, 8 hours till solid.

There is very good reason I do all of my sanding and such. *I did this in a day for $16 worth of wood and $150 worth of resin and glass. *I can't imagine how long it would have taken for a yard to do and what the cost would be. The bottom paint job costs $11 for sanding discs, $65 for a sander, $60 for primer, $12 for safety goggles, $24 for dust masks, and $180 for paint.

[willy]

GM I'm with you Bud, all my life I did all those things around the home (busting up concrete, sanding the house etc.) because I did not want to pay some guy to do it. Now I've got the recently reconstructed vertraba in my neck so the days of on my knees or back sanding are over. I will have to pay to have it soda blasted when I do it from now on. I will reserve my energy for the finish work and tipping a few afterwards 8)