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