FIN BOX TIME

After the hotcoat, but before the sanding, comes the fin box. I made up this jig with some thin plywood, and taped in place for ease of use. I then routered out for the box, starting shallow and going through about four different depth changes so as not to blow out the stringer.

After the routering out of the box was complete, I scuffed the area around it with some 80 grit. Then it was time to install.

 

Give me all of your yogurt containers! They are the best for fiberglass jobs where you don't need a lot, only a couple ounces, and since I've got a plethora of them, I don't need to worry about cleaning them out or anything (although I do occasionally get two or three uses out of them).

And there it is, all glassed and taped in place. When I first opened the box I was surprised to see the Fins Unlimited fin box:  I didn't know they came with a 1/4" lip on top to stop resin from overflowing into the box and tabs on the side that need to be ground down after glassing. There's also a little bit of plastic in the center of the box bridging the gap to keep it from spreading. But yeah, so that little bit of plastic stops the fin from going all the way down, so I just wedged it in there best I could.

You can see how much it sticks up here. It's a lot, but at least no resin got inside.

Ground it down then sanded both sides to 100 grit, which would be where I'd stop if I were going to do a gloss coat over it, but since I'm painting it I'll probably go to 220 or 400. I just did to 100 to prep for the patch I'm going to put over the fin.

I sanded a little extra around it, to kind of make room for the patch of six ounce glass. The single fin box goes pretty deep, and takes out a good portion of the stringer on a pretty thin part of the board, so even though I've got a fin patch under this, I still wanted to do another little oval one over it.

And there it is, all taped off and glassed over. Now I just need to sand this down, blend it in with the board, then sand it all down, then paint, then gloss (maybe, I might just use an acrylic sealer of some kind). It doesn't matter anyway, because we'll never have waves again.

On another note, just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road. If you haven't read it, read it. Such an overwhelmingly dark book, really makes you thankful for the sun. And a lot of other things we take for granted. Like food, water, air, and not being chased by cannibals. Oh, and not having to move constantly in cold, wet, frozen rags of shoes with all your belongings on your back or a broken down shopping cart. Really makes you thankful.