First off this morning I trimmed the green fiberglass around the edges of the panels for the rear bulkhead and then grabbed the sander. So far I've used nothing but 60 grit and today was no exception. I sanded both sides of the both panels smooth.
Then I moved into the boat and sanded the rear deck. The fairing in the low spot got leveled out, the epoxy bumps above the screw holes got knocked flat and I found one seam that wasn't quite smooth.
And then it was time to install the rear cabin panels. I set them up on the shelves, one on each side. Made some epoxy and coated the edges that I wouldn't be able to get to later, painted the edge of the deck and the face of the doubler to go at the top of the panels. The rest of the epoxy was turned into peanut butter and the edge of the deck, the top of the deck supports, stringers and tank bulkheads got a coat. The rest of the peanut butter was spread on the doubler.
The starboard panel was set in place and loosely braced and then the port panel was set in place and lined up and all the bracing locked down. Screws were used to pull the panels tight against the deck and on the starboard side I had to use two braces to force the panel into contact with the deck.
The doubler was screwed and clamped into place at the top, and at the bottom a small piece of scrap plywood was used to pull the two panels into alignment.
More epoxy and peanut butter was made and the panel-to-side joints and the panel-to-deck joint were filleted and fiberglassed.
The next trick was how to get peanut butter and fiberglass into that gap between the panel and the vertical brace? Originally the panels would have been right up against that 2x4, but by installing the belly tank the way I did, that forced me to move the panel back about an inch. I managed to get a fillet of peanut butter up in the gap, but what about the fiberglass? There was no way to paint epoxy in there and then get the fiberglass in, so I reversed the process. I grabbed a used garbage bag, put the fiberglass strips on it and painted them with epoxy. After peeling them off the bag I carefully pushed the strips into the gaps and gently worked them into place. Took some time, but worked well!
Fiberglassing the rear deck was next. Now as I told you yesterday, normally you want to epoxy the wood first and them lay the fiberglass on top, but this is such a large area that was never going to work. I started to roll out my two left over pieces of 10oz glass and wouldn't you know it, one piece was six inches short! Durn it! So I switched to 7oz triax. I cut my first large piece and carefully laid it out, smoothing it square and trimming around the vertical supports. My triax is 50" wide which still isn't enough to completely cover the deck so I cut a long wide strip and a short square piece to finish it off.
Then it was time to pour on the epoxy. I started by leaning through the transom cut out and poured the epoxy in the port corner and spread it with a brush. I kept pouring and spreading working my way starboard and forward making sure the glass stayed smooth as I went. Eventually I moved around into the cabin and continued working until I had the entire piece epoxied. I put the small square piece in the starboard forward corner, and then I put the long strip in starting at the port forward corner and working across by leaning through the cabin door. I lapped the fiberglass up the sides about two inches all the way around so I've got a real good lay out of fiberglass, 14oz, on all the deck-to-everything joints.
I needed to give this time to set up, so I went to visit a friend in the hospital and then went and got dinner. After I returned it was time to spread the layer of weave filling epoxy. It would be no problem to reach the first two feet of so of the deck from the transom and the doorway, but how to get the middle? Prior thought had the answer to that. I cut three 2x4s to length, screwed them together with a piece of 1/2" plywood and set them on the cross brace between the vertical supports.
Worked a treat! Plenty strong enough to support my weight, wide enough to be stable enough to work on and move around and all I had to do was step from the transom out onto the platform.
With that I called it a night.
Tomorrow I'll start work on the rest of the arched cabin and cuddy roof braces. I'm still working out how to figure the arch for the piece that will go all the way forward in the cuddy. I also need to purchase the 1/4" and 1/2" plywood for the sides and the roofs.
7 Hours