For light boats which will be finished bright on the inside, you need to do
a reasonably good job. After all, when using the boat, you'll be looking
at the inside. For canoes and dinghies, i start with a 3" paint scraper
that's been ground to a curve that's tighter than the hull's tightest curve.
Actually, i have several. If the planking is lying fair, this step only
needs to remove the glue dribbles and the feather edges of the strips'
coves. This is followed with a a random orbit sander (P-C 7335) with a soft
pad and a 40-grit disc. Then another pass with 80-grit on the same sander,
then #120 on a foam block and i'm ready for glass. Be careful with the #40.
I've seen folk sand through their canoe.

If the interior isn't to be bright, i'd use the scrapers, the #40, then
epoxy-microsphere fairing putty in major divots and the #40 again. Then
glass.

In either case, even if aesthetics aren't an issue, you want the surface of
the strips to be flat enough that the glass lies flat without ridges or
furrows. Currugated glass would be heavier and weaker.


wrote in message
...
I understand the need to plane and sand the outer side of the hull of
wood strip built boats so that it is fair and smooth. You'd
definately want it as smooth as possible to facilitate passage through
the water.

But doing the same to the interior makes me wonder. Fairing the
interior reduces the thickness of the wood strips. Maybe this isn't a
big deal, and it also has the benefit of reducing weight. But I just
wondered.

If you aren't going to show the boat, wouldn't it make sense to just
clean it up and apply the fiberglass?

Thanks, Corky Scott