- Location
- amarillo ,tx
Screw it leave it if it bugs you that much or dont hold up youll have something to do next winter
First time build - FX-1
- Thread starter makejetskiinggreatagain
- Start date
Joker
...chaos? Its Fair!
- Location
- La Porte, Indiana
I recommend the cardboard trick also for when you go to lay the rest of the glass. It makes life so much easier. It's those little things that you never think about and when someone mentions it you get that... Oh duh moment.
- Location
- Houston, TX
It looks good. Way better than the first time I laid Biax. Don't sweat it. There is a huge learning curve to composites and you are doing pretty damn good so far. Like the others said, it's all about the little details and tricks that make this stuff easier. All great advice. Cut it smaller, wet out on cardboard is something I've done in the past, and you can also build up some thickened resin in areas that you feel the Biax won't lay right. So much of it is just getting a feel for how fabric conforms and wets out, and pot life. Once you have a feel for how long you have before your resin kicks, how far you can push a particular fabric around contours, where to make relief cuts, where to divide patterns, and so on, it all starts to fall into place.
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makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
Well it sure does give me a whole new respect for all of you guys who are making your own hulls and everything comes out looking gorgeous! Im just glad mine wont ever be seen lol.
makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
Ok so for doing the nose and under the handle pole, do you guys have any tricks to how you set the ski up to get access? I was thinking of hanging it from the tray bow eye, but if you have any other ideas im all ears. Also, if you have any random tricks for doing that area of the ski please chime in 
I plan on breaking it up into pieces like Nate_D mentioned before but if you have any other input I'd love to hear it. I'm hoping to get to that part tonight.
I plan on breaking it up into pieces like Nate_D mentioned before but if you have any other input I'd love to hear it. I'm hoping to get to that part tonight.
- Location
- Lake Orion
I recommend hanging it from the bow eye on the tray, so you can get a good angle or you could flip it upside down and stand so your head is in the engine bay
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Joker
...chaos? Its Fair!
- Location
- La Porte, Indiana
For nose I would hang it. For the pole bracket I would set the hull upside down on two saw horses. Then get a milk crate to sit under it
I HATED the batch of 1208 I got from us composites for that....it was so loosely stitched it stretched so much when wetting it out and squeegeeing the resin out. That was before transferring it from the cardboard.. The 1708 I got from them was stitched much tighter and was alot easier to work with. Their 1208 looked like hell when I made the panels for my tray lol.
VXSXH20
Sionis Industries
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
back to the cardboard transfer.. yes you can pull apart or tear it while lifting off and pulling it up to then lay down on your work areas. It helps if you use disposable wax paper ( like the baking sheets ) also note: you can take this paper and lay it up into the sides and bilge of your hull. trace the shapes of the areas needed reinforcing. then cut out and lay onto the glass to then been cut to shape and size. the same can be said for an old bed sheet or similar.
FWIW wet your engine bilge doesn't look bad. around the corners and contours I like to get a cheap bristle paint brush . take a pair of sharp scissors and cut the bristles off about half way.. this gives your a stiff tool that you can stab at the biax with. you can dip it in the resin. then stab the air pockets and contours. allowing air bubbles to come up and release as well as lay down a little extra resin for those hard spots. back to the wax paper... if you have a sharp corner or stubborn area where the biax wants to lift.. you can lay the wax paper on top of it . and use a weight or something to keep the pressure. then after it cures. just peel it off. sorry for the post work insight. be we all agree you are doing a great job and not afraid to ask questions and share your progress!
FWIW wet your engine bilge doesn't look bad. around the corners and contours I like to get a cheap bristle paint brush . take a pair of sharp scissors and cut the bristles off about half way.. this gives your a stiff tool that you can stab at the biax with. you can dip it in the resin. then stab the air pockets and contours. allowing air bubbles to come up and release as well as lay down a little extra resin for those hard spots. back to the wax paper... if you have a sharp corner or stubborn area where the biax wants to lift.. you can lay the wax paper on top of it . and use a weight or something to keep the pressure. then after it cures. just peel it off. sorry for the post work insight. be we all agree you are doing a great job and not afraid to ask questions and share your progress!
Absolutely! Great advice man. I forgot to say I used wax paper too. Made for easy cleanup so I could reuse the cardboard/flat surface too. A roller works great for wetting out without disturbing the weave too.
VXSXH20
Sionis Industries
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
^^x2.. and if you go no respirator... get your head and shoulders completely up in the engine bay... and breathe in! let your worries subside and succumb your mind and body to the chemical epoxytrip of your hearts desire! or in my case just a splitting headache along with the worse cabosil/campfire boogers ive ever had... a netipot sinus rinse works well
makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
Thanks man, I appreciate the insight. I still have some work to do so I'm sure it will come in handy. Or maybe later on someone will stumble on this thread and learn a thing or two.
makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
Ya I got one of the small rollers and it helped a lot. BTW how do I clean those things? I forgot to clean it last night after using it and I'm sure when I get home it will be hard as a rock and wont spin anymore. Should I assume its just junk now?
VXSXH20
Sionis Industries
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yes same happened to me awhile back it wasn't a cheap one either. I poured acetone in a plastic bowl and soaked it. The roller grooves were clean but the inside bushing where it spun on the shaft was gritty and made it pretty much worthless. Best to clean up ASAP lesson learned
- Location
- Lake Orion
The roller is probably junk but you can try soaking it in acetone, I soak all of my tools right after I finish laying up that way they are clean for the next lay up
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- Location
- amarillo ,tx
Ive been using a detail roller, pretty handy to use to get glass to lay down and get air bubbles out
makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
Well I just have to say that the wetting out on cardboard trick was awesome! To be honest I don't know how I would have done those nose pieces without doing that. Thanks for the advice guys!
since the ski is flipped over I started working on fixing that crack. It was all ground out but that took that ridge completely out. I forgot to get a picture if it at this stage...anyways, To build it back up I needed to add about 3/8 of material. I had no idea how to do it because if I just layered cloth it would take like 10 layers to build it back up. So last night I tried mixing up that west systems 404 filler and then added chopped strand into it. I used that to build and shape that ridge again and then I plan to sand it and add 2 layers of 12oz bias over it. What do you guys think? Will that method be strong enough? I can grind it out and do something different if you guys think I should. The one thing I am worried about is having small air bubbles in that mixture. I tried to work all of them out but you never know. There could still be some in there. all of Your advice on this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. The pic of the build up is below. It's hard to see what's going on but you can kind of see that I reshaped that ridge.
since the ski is flipped over I started working on fixing that crack. It was all ground out but that took that ridge completely out. I forgot to get a picture if it at this stage...anyways, To build it back up I needed to add about 3/8 of material. I had no idea how to do it because if I just layered cloth it would take like 10 layers to build it back up. So last night I tried mixing up that west systems 404 filler and then added chopped strand into it. I used that to build and shape that ridge again and then I plan to sand it and add 2 layers of 12oz bias over it. What do you guys think? Will that method be strong enough? I can grind it out and do something different if you guys think I should. The one thing I am worried about is having small air bubbles in that mixture. I tried to work all of them out but you never know. There could still be some in there. all of Your advice on this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. The pic of the build up is below. It's hard to see what's going on but you can kind of see that I reshaped that ridge.
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makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
I got that ridge shaped but there were still some pits so I filled them in and am letting it sit today while I take a break.
Joker
...chaos? Its Fair!
- Location
- La Porte, Indiana
what was your layup schedule on the inside along the crack?
makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
I ground it all out, filled some pits with filler, let that get tacky, then used filler mixed thick with a bunch of chopped strand and built up that mound. I know most videos said to lay glass in strips getting larger with each layer but it would have taken like a million layers to build that back up so I went with this method. Most of those videos were fixing cracks on flat surfaces tht only required like 3 layers of glass. I don't know, maybe this method wasn't the best but I decided to go with it. Next I'll be laying glass over the repair and sanding a seamless transition. Inside the engine compartment the area has been glassed with 12oz biax.