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My husband surprised me today and revealed that for my birthday he’s ordering me the Teardrop kit. I’ve never worked with fiberglass before but I’m super optimistic and excited despite the fact that I’ll be working in a dark, unheated garage… in Alaska… At least by the time I get the kit it should be pretty easy to heat even just a “small” area with a space heater or two.
I plan on reading the manual at least twice before even starting to put things together but after reading through the forum I had some thoughts that I suspect may not be covered in the manual and since I’ve never done this before I really plan on following the instructions like my life depends on it.
I’ve seen some folks run out of fabric when doing the bottom and I want to avoid that. I was thinking I could cut the pieces for the bottom and maybe the galley flat since they’re flat and simple then when I’m ready to glass the rest of the shell the top section should be easy to layout. That just leaves the sides, am I right? I’m paranoid that I’m going to lay the sides out wrong and waste my fabric.
Finding a trailer is going to be interesting… I’ve got a couple feelers out to fabricate one, hopefully at a decent price.
Reading the manual multiple times is a good idea. I actually got an electronic copy of it from CLC that I started reading immediately. The lead time on my kit was about 4 weeks, so that was plenty of time to get ahead of the game. I simply emailed them mentioning my order, etc and they sent it to me.
As for the fabric for the bottom. I ran short from the perspective that I did not have two lengths long enough to cover the bottom and the transom as singular pieces. So I simply did the ‘ layer approach with thumb tacks like you might have seen with the top to the sides. Here is a picture of it. It turned out great without any complications. The reason I ran short on the length was simply due to a mis-cut for one of the sides. Just take your time and I’m sure you’ll get it right on the first try. If not, then at least you know there is an easy and simple fix. 🙂
Good luck!
I agree with abrightwell that you will have enough fiberglass cloth if you follow the recommended process in the manual.
as for temperature–I started my build last spring and I heated my workshop to 65. I discovered that at that temp the resin and hardener don’t flow too well from the pumps on the bottles, so overnight I kept the bottles in the house. if you can’t do that (maybe your workshop is remote) then you could fill a small rubbermaid tub with warm water and warm the bottles up that way.
Thanks for the positivity, probably just worrying too much because I’m so excited! That’s a really good idea to get a copy of the manual while I wait for shipping, I’ll do that.
Our garage is detached but it’s still close enough to the house that I can go back and forth from the house to the shop to refill my MAS products, at least when I first start out. I’m sure it’ll be a pain but it’ll be worth it. I probably won’t post my entire build because that’ll just slow me down but I’ll definitely post some updates. I plan to devote some serious time to this because ideally I’d like to use it this year.
Hi, the temperature in Delaware now (Jan) is 27 to 60, I found a post about building a tent over the work and using (4) 75w bulbs for overnight heating, I put 1 x 3”s in Tupperware filled with cement about 6’ tall, they work well with spring clamps and clamping reflective lights. I covered it with a cheap plastic drop cloth this has kept work at 65 deg overnight
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Thanks, handersen, I was thinking about doing something similar but probably more ghetto 🙂 There’s a couple things I’ll be able to do inside my house which I’ll take advantage of and it should warm up outside quickly after I receive my kit. Today it’s 8 degrees and falling (ugh, even as I type it dropped a degree) but 4-6 weeks changes a lot up here. If you were able to keep it that warm for that long with no space heater it makes me feel less nervous about being warm enough.
I had no issues with fiberglass running out or having to be patched. If you do screw up it is fairly easy to get that weight cloth at any marine supply store, like West Marine, if there is one near you.
Read through this forum and learn from our mistakes! Also, fiberglass has a learning curve, it will be easier! When in doubt and you can’t find anything here, call CLC , great customer service. Enjoy building it, it’s a lot of fun and be prepared to get stopped often to answer questions when you take it out!
All the positive input has been super reassuring, I love it. Kit has been ordered, because of the promo they’ve got going I got my roof vent for free – and it ships out next week. I was so excited when I called to order that I totally forgot about the electronic manual so I emailed the salesperson and was sent one right away. I’ve flipped through a bit and I’m up for the challenge!
These CLC folks are on it. I got the UPS part of the order within a week and the rest arrives today (just 2 weeks, I was expecting 4-6), weather/driving conditions permitting. I’m going a wait a little longer before I start working out in the garage because the temperature keeps dipping down to single and negative digits. But while I was clearing room for the boxes I found a really nice heater my husband had stashed in the back corner; fingers crossed that it works. In the meantime I went through the manual and picked out a couple things I can work on until then to keep me busy (like the hatch bezel, maybe even fiberglassing the door hinges, we’ll see). I’m trying to get my corgi excited about all this, keep asking if he wants to go camping 🙂
I’m also VERY glad I asked for an electronic copy of the manual and studied it, it’s not a huge deal but my physical book doesn’t have anything about the mounting block for the galley hasp whereas the e-manual does. Cheers to being anal!
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