Grain Surfboard Construction Part 14

Now for the really crazy stuff... The laminate and hot coats.

This is the process of crating a tape lap on the rail and taping up the fin box and then laminating fiberglass to the bottom of the surfboard.

This process starts out with a laminate coat of epoxy on the fiberglass. Then about 4 hours later doing a "hot coat" of epoxy to fill in the fiberglass weave.

Now, every youtube video I watched and all the info on the web pointed to the laminate coat taking about 2-5 minutes to complete... It took me about an hour and a half... Fortunately, I am not using polyester resin - otherwise I would have a brick instead of a board, I think.

The hot coat took me a while because I kept chasing imperfections. I thought it would come out smoother and more finished for some reason.

So... I started laminating at about 7pm and finished messing with the hot coat at about 1:30 am... Long night... AND one can not partake of the Modelo while working with epoxy as there is all kinds of toxic sticky stuff around and all over your (gloved) hands...

Pics from the laminate coat:
1) From the tail:


2) From the side:


3) From the nose:


4) From the nose (2):


Pics from the hot coat after the rail lap trim and the finbox trim:
1) From the tail:


2) From the side:


3) From the nose: