Fiberglassing in cold temps

Jeff in Farmington, MI · Tue Dec 28, 2010 2:13 pm

Hello everyone,
After some undesired time away from my project, I am finally ready to fiberglass the deck of my kayak. The trouble is, I live in Michigan, the outside temperature is well below freezing, and I am working in a normally unheated garage. While stripping the hull last winter, I would fire up my kerosene heater, but I know that burning unvented fuels may contaminate the epoxy and also add water vapor to the air.

Since I am on holiday this week, I am desperate to get the deck glassed. So, I have sealed around the cold steel garage door and stapled a plastic sheet over it as well. I have plugged in three 1500 watt electric heaters, and I am hoping to get the air temp up to at least 60 degrees F. The garage is attached to the house on three sides, so that helps, but I am not sure that I can get it to 60.

I am using West System 105/207, but I have never glassed below 70 degrees. The West manual says the minimum temp is 60 degrees, but have any of you glassed at this temperature? Any useful tips or observations?

Thanks!
Jeff

Latest photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19215801@N ... 3239153820

SpiveyMtnMan · Post by **SpiveyMtnMan** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:19 pm

You probably know that you can leave the resin in the pot longer than normal to allow it to generate some heat before spreading, that seems to help. Some sort of plastic tenting to direct a warm air flow over the wetted area will help as well.

podunk · Post by **podunk** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 7:11 pm

I glassed my Ranger in the winter using US Composites epoxy. I built a plastic "tent" around the canoe in the garage. Garage is unheated and detached. I ran a propane sunflower type heater in the tent to bring up the temp, turned it off when I glassed. It was about 45 outside. Actually worked out okay, had alot more working time just had to wait days before recoating. I thought the tent also kept the dust down. Not sure what the temp was but I was sweating. I'm sure it did drop fast but I did run a torpedo heater outside the tent every now and then to warm the area up. This was in a big 2 car garage. Gotta do what you gotta do.

willo · Post by **willo** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 7:29 pm

I have glassed a few boats during the winter in my garage with just a 4500 WATT construction heater. get your garage as hot as you can , and if you can keep the epoxy warm , I use a poultry heat lamp. As long as you get the temp to at least 60 you should be fine, West /207 is very thick when cold , but is very forgiving , like I said keep it warm , but do not heat it up to much as it will set up faster , and I would not recomend letting it heat up in the pot as mentioned above as this will decrease your working time , even at cooler temps.

pumpkin · Post by **pumpkin** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:42 pm

I'm not sure if your house is like mine but we have lots of old (or could be old) blankets. My wife saves them to give the dog a snug bed in the winter. Cover that steel door and plastic sheet with as many layers as you can. Much better than just a plastic sheet.

I have also gone to the fabric stores and bought bolts of whatever fabric is thick and dirt cheap. Quickly sew 2 lengths together and you have an insulated door tarp. It also makes great row covers for the garden on frosty nights, good drop cloths, etc. When it gets too ugly I'm not out much.

Matthew

Rick · Post by **Rick** » Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:28 am

Do a test with some clean plywood, fiberglass and epoxy at the temperature you'll be working at and note how the wetout performs and how long till the epoxy gets tacky enough to apply fill coats.

Allow some cloth to droop over the plywood edge and watch for any milky characteristics in the thick epoxy as it drips off the plywood edge... the epoxy should cure clear. Milky epoxy may be amine blush, or it can mean that the cold temps are making the epoxy absorb water from the air and this can't be washed off like blush.

My guess is that everything will go well at 60 degrees, but doing a test beforehand can help prevent problems and boosts confidence that everything is up to snuff. You might want to pick a mild day to heat the garage, just to keep some margin of safety in the working temperatures... good luck!

Jeff in Farmington, MI · Wed Dec 29, 2010 6:01 pm

I am happy to report that the glassing of the deck went quite well today. The three 1500 watt heaters, plus taping around the outside of the garage door, plus stapling plastic over the inside of the door allowed me to get the garage up to a balmy 67 degrees!

I'll update one of my earlier posts with some new photos. Now for the inside of the boat!

Jeff