Below are some pictures of the board after that 2nd deck layer dried. The board looks more refined and finished now. It's hard to get a good perspective picture when the board is lying flat - the two middle pictures don't accurately show the real shape. The epoxy is hard to the touch but still malleable, even now, 18 hours after glassing. When it's fully hardened I'll flip the board on it's side in the rack, and take proper glamor shots.
Overall I'm really relieved and pleasantly surprised with how the lamination came out. There are some minor problems...
...there are small air bubbles along the the left pin-line (but not the right one for some reason.) These are probably due to the problems I had when I forgot to brush-coat this area with epoxy as part of the first deck layer lamination. Since these bubbles are small and now covered by two thick layers of glass, I'm tempted to just leave them alone.
...also I again had some problems with the center of the fish tail. This area is concave and hence the stretch glassing pulls the cloth off the board. I'll put a separate patch there before the hot coat. I learned today that you can stretchglass across concave areas by covering those areas with a water- or sand-filled ziplock bag. That'll force the cloth into the convave area, but apparently the zip log bag won't bond with the epoxy. I'll try that on the next board.




Well, well, well: The end is in sight! The remaining tasks are: sanding, fins, leashplug, and hotcoat.
I have to decide on the fins now - either quad boxes or wooden twin keel glass-ons. The quad boxes would be a departure from the design I'm copying, but they'd make the board more travel friendly. If I go for keels, then I'd also have to build or order them. I'm leaning toward quad boxes.
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