Wednesday, April 2, 2014

More hull panels and a Whoops!

I have continued to install more hull panels, and it's been rewarding to start to get a more complete feel of what this boat will look like.  

After applying a panel I come back about a day later and hit the edges of the fiberglass tape with a scraper to smooth off the rough edge.  The tape has a little structure at the edge that sticks up and is rough, and one edge is worse than the other.  The scraper made quick work of it.


And after vacuuming up the shavings we see this.  I don't intend to attempt to further smooth this out.  It's inside the storage area, and all I care about is that there are no rough edges to snag anything I store in there.  the inside of the hull panel and fiberglass tape will get one more coat of epoxy to ensure all is sealed, and then two coats Rustoleum Gloss White to finish it off.


I found that the front of the garboard panel curved across the center line due to the keel from the bow transom down to the bottom of the hull having a slight curve.  


I used a plane to trim that panel back to the center line so that it would not interfere with the panel on the starboard side.


I then took a look at where the material was removed, and how much was taken, and got out the spokeshave to make the other side look the same



After installing the panel, the front edges meet up nicely. 


Moving on to panel number two, things got a little more difficult.  The bottom hull panel rested against the hull bottom, but panel 2 doesn't have that luxury.  I ended up suspending the panel with some thin nylon straps to get it roughly into position, and then wired it on in a few places.

I then took out some wires and loosened others.


This left the hull panel hanging loose enough so that I could get under there to apply thickened epoxy to the lap joint and then tighten things up again.


So, current status is four hull panels installed, filleted, and taped.


And it's looking like a boat!


But alas, all is not perfect.  I got so into getting hull panels installed that I forgot I needed to use the seats to align the bulkheads.  I've had some issues with this plywood in that the pieces tend to warp and twist somewhat.  Not sure why that is, but the net result in this case is that all the bulkheads no longer line up with the slots in the seats.  Whoops! 

This is the worst one.  Looks like I'll need to open up the slot on one side, and fill it in with epoxy (wood flour fillet mixture) on the other.  Should not be a big deal, and the hull panel shape looks good.


My wife consoled me, saying that no one would ever notice as long as I didn't blab it all over the internet or something :-)



1 comment:

  1. Looks awesome Dave!! You are doing a remarkable job. I'm fortunate to have your blog to read as I try to move forward with my build.
    Brent

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