Glassing troubles

[funbun]

Okay, I glassed the boat last night. This morning there are air bubbles along the sides and along where the bottom and sides meet. I'm not sure what I did wrong. How do I correct it? I'll post pictures whenever I can.

 

[Kayak Jack]

When I suffered bubbles like this, I'd puncture the small ones with a hole and , using a plastic syringe, inject fresh epoxy into the bubble.

On larger bubbles, I'd put in two holes on opposite edges. That way, I could inject fresh epoxy on, say, the left side, and it would fill the entire width and exhaust on the right side.

This would fill the entire bubble with new epoxy.

 

[a Bald Cypress]

epoxy

Generally speaking, bubbles are a fact of life when using epoxy. You can cut down on the number of them by waiting untill the temp starts to cool in the afternoon before doing your glass work. But mostly, I just hang around for an hour or so and when one appears, just get rid of it.

Air pockets at the side and bottom join are a bit more difficult. Those are normally a result of the glass not laying down and sticking. This can be caused by a couple of problems.

1. to little epoxy or to much
2."sharp" corners. Fiberglass likes a smmmmmooooth trip around corners.
3 The glass being allowed to sag while being applied.
4. A gap in the surface.ie. the "prep job" of sanding did not smooth out all the surface.

A couple of corrective steps can be taken.

Bro Jack has given you a good one. Just inject epoxy into the void.

Another way is to wait until the area is sandable and sand the bubble out and put a glass/epoxy patch over the spot. The reason I say to wait is because if to try to cut out the bubble before the epoxy has set, you will most likely either cut into the wood and leave a scar or, you will snag and pull the glass that is laying flat and have a bigger problem.
If you feather the edges, the patch will be darn near invisable.

I'm sure there will be other replys once we get to see a pic or two.

Don't worry, it can be fixed and we all have been in your position many times.