Cabin roof fiberglass applied

With all the edges of the roof built up as described in the previous post, I gave the edges a good round over in preparation for fiberglass.  I also rounded the bottom of the cleat up in front to match the curve of the roof edge - I think that's a nice visual detail.

I cut a piece of cloth large enough to cover the entire cabin roof.  This was 50" wide cloth.

Then cut a hole in the middle for the mast trunk to poke through

And trimmed the edges to minimize the overhang there. 

I saturated the cloth with epoxy and watched the glass go clear.  I poured on the epoxy and used a 6" plastic squeegee to spread it around. 

After the epoxy cured I could trim back the ragged edges with a utility knife and then sand them with sandpaper on a wood block.

Which left things looking pretty nice.

Next I applied epoxy thickened with microballoons (tiny glass spheres) to fill the weave.  On this first coat I used the squeegee to spread it around, but on the follow-up coats I put it on with a roller, which was easier to control and gave a more consistent thickness.

Here's what it looked like after sanding.  Hard to know when this job is done.  I can still see the fiberglass cloth at this point, and that's OK as long as the surface is smooth.

It was fun to see this part of the project take shape.  This little curved cabin roof was a design feature that first caught my eye with this boat design.