Here We Go Again

[strick]

The weather has warmed up a bit here in California which has helped to speed up the cure rate for fiberglass and I'm taking advantage of that. There has been a lot of fairing and sanding going on especially on the transom. Up till now
I've been making my own fairing compound with the vinylester mixed with cabosil and microballoons.

Shot showing the transom and rear gunnel/cap area



This is Tim's fairing block and it can really level an area out fast



Glass is added over heavily faired areas to prevent future cracking. These areas will get sanded again and faired once more.



More fairing compound is added to the area were the forward deck meets the walls to blend it all together. This area has been faired and glassed once already so this is the second
go around. Another layer of glass will go on top of this and then a final detail fairing over that.



I was at a welding supply company the other day picking up some liquid nitrogen that I use for work and happened upon a really cool tool by accident.



The wad of sandpaper has a hole in the middle. It fits over the bit shown. This little guy makes short work of hard to reach areas like tight corners.



It was time to start thinking about getting the floor looking good so I made a big template out of poster paper. I then cut this template into six smaller templates three for
each side.



I laid up two 4x8 flat panel's. There is a layer of 1.5 oz matt and a layer of 1708 over the duratec.



The templates were traced onto the panel and the parts for the floor were cut out.



Test fitting the panels



The entire floor was floated twice with fairing compound and sanded after each floating.



Once it was smooth and level it was cleaned with denatured alcohol and a layer of 1.5 oz matt was laminated in place.



while the floor was still wet I took my fiberglass panels and coated the down side with a heavy coat of vinylester resin and set them in place.



3/4 inch MDF is placed on top of the panels and is weighted down with cinder blocks to ensure good even contact.



I busted my butt trying to get it all down and weighted while everything was still wet and I'll pay for it later tonight when I stiffen up....no jokes please capt chuck

I got my order of system three quick fair in the other day. This is a 3 gallon kit so it should last beyond this project.



If you have never used this stuff you should try it. You will never go back to mixing your filler again. It is epoxy based so you can put it over vinylester or epoxy. It's expensive $205 for a 3 gallon kit so I'm using it for finish fairing not for high build type fairing.

I put some on the transom and were I made my mods to the rear gunnels.



As you can see it smooths out like butter.

Thats it for now. I'm wooped and going to take the kids out for dinner.

strick

[Bryan A.]

You're getting good with those panels. Nice Job!!!!

You should write a book.

[RingLeader]

Keep chuggin' along Strick. I know the whooped feeling. I worked solid from 9am until 10pm yesterday. I only stopped once for a bottle of water. I lost 6 lbs during the day! Needless to say, I'm very thirsty today. Not smart.

I"m going to have to get one of those speed files like Tim has.

[BigMike8o9]

I'm starting to feel bad for all the neglected animals in Pitsburg CA

[BigMike8o9]

Hey...did you move?

[strick]

You should write a book.

something like the idiots guide to boat restoring

Ring- a tip on the the fairing block. Instead of using regular sandpaper get the stuff for the belt sanders and cut it to fit the fairing block. The belt sandpaper is really tough and lasts forever.

Big Mike- yes I moved two towns over to Oakley about 1/2 mile from the river. Yes there are some animals being neglected. Funny you say that. While I was out fishing with my brother on Friday a client had a horse go down. Kinda ruined my day. It's hard for me to take a day off and enjoy myself.

I could not stand it any longer so tonight I removed the cinder blocks and 3/4" mdf from the floor to see how it came out.



You can see in the right side of the pic were I screwed up and cut the panal wrong. That piece in the middle should have been near the stern like the one in the left of the pic. Now I have one more seam to fill. Aside from that everything looks good. The panals stuck down nice and clean. There was only one small area in a corner were I had to inject some resin.



Tomorrow it will be solid too. The seams will get ground out slightly and a layer of glass will be laminated over them. Then they will be faired smooth.

strick

[Trayder]

I tried the panels on my 20 restore i could never get it right (the panels wound up becoming the sides of my livewells) you certainly seemed to of mastered making and installing them! nice work.

How much do you think she will weigh when finished?

[strick]

Thats a good question. I keep telling myself that I'm not putting much more into the boat then I already took out. The fiberglass panels I'm putting in are lighter then the glass from the inner that I took out. The 1/2 inch plywood floor is the same as what I took out. The balsa did not weigh anything at all. A little glass over that. The transom cap should not weight more then the old transom and seats that I removed. I did add some extra glass to the transom itself. There are other factors. The fuel tank is twice as big as the old one. So it's really crap shoot but if I had to guess the boat will weigh between 400-600 pounds more then it did before I started not including added fuel capacity.

All the seams are ground down to accept glass to bridge the seam's



Around the perimeter I ran a very wet bead of cabosil in the seam.



I let this set up a bit then ran 1" tape over the bead and some resin over the tape. It smoothed out really well.



It's coming along slowly but surely. This weekend I'll be sanding and fairing the seams to a smooth finish. The transom will be sanded and faired again. Also I hope to get the bilge ready for primer by finishing the work that needs to get done for the fuel tank, Seacock and bilge pump.

Strick

[strick]

A little more progress this weekend.

This is a shot of the front of the fuel compartment. I needed to make a ledge for the fuel hatch to sit on. So I took a 1/2' x 4" wide piece of plywood and 5 minute epoxied it to the underside of the floor.



This next pic shows a little do dad will serve two functions.



This is several pieces of plywood laminated together and glassed to the upper bilge. It will provide support for the fuel hatch and middle piece of floor that I still have to install. Also the fuel tank has a rear flange that will screw into this. Also note the two pads glassed in place in the rear of the bilge. One for the sea cock and one for the bilge pump.

The bilge is finally ready for paint so I sanded it one more time and cleaned it really well with denatured alcohol. Bigshrimpin had a bunch of System three epoxy paint left over so I used it to paint the bilge.




shot showing that front fuel hatch support glassed and painted. It's a little sloppy looking but at this point I could care less. Your never going to see it anyway.



looking back



The last piece of flooring can now be added. It is glassed to the transom cap top and bottom. Cinder blocks press down in the fiberglass panel just like I did earlier.



Shot showing all the mess but you get the picture





I took some MDF and ripped some 3/4" wide strips. I drew out a 6' x 26 1/4" wide fuel hatch on my molding tale. The MDF strips were then screwed to the outline on the molding table.



Modeling clay was used to make a little radius all the way around the inner edge of the mold. Once I was certain everything was square and flat the mold was waxed with part all paste. And then laid up.




The first 2 layers are 1.5 ounce matt and then 1 layer of 1708. The corners are reinforced with 1708 tape in the pics above.

Once that set up lines are drawn to mark the outside perimeter for the coring.



cabosil paste applied



Coring added




The coring is 1/2 inch scrap plywood that I had laying around. More cabosil paste was used to fill in the gaps between the plywood and then more 1708 added on top of the coring




Thats it for now.

strick

[Trayder]

Looking sharp I really like the fuel hatch