scrunched up and throwin' some 'glass

Meant to post this on Monday but work was a freakin' bear this week.

Okay, I took my very last vacation day this past Friday to devote to glassing the keelson in. Pam took a day off too to help me. She is becoming quite the boat restorer, my mom is. :D

We knew going into it that glassing in the keelson would be one of the toughest projects we will probably ever have to do on the boat. Besides the fact that we're inexperienced and it's a structural repair, the real thing that makes it hard is it's location. My boat is tiny (18 feet long). So you can imagine that all the spaces in a tiny boat are also tiny. And you would be right if you guessed that the space underneath the cockpit floor is minimal. It's so minimal in fact, that I'm not sure anyone larger than me could even scrunch up in there enough to get to the repair, much less work in such a small area.

This is how I spent my weekend.


See what I mean? There is like NO room in there. Fer real.

So, we have this keelson we need to glass into the bottom of the hull. The keelson is flat and very stiff since we coated the whole thing in fiberglass to protect it. And the hull is rounded and stiff. So these two pieces aren't going to join properly without some help. So the idea was to build up the area underneath where the keelson will go in so that when we glass it in there are no gaps in between it and the hull.

So I started by laying the keelson in place and then going down every few inches and measuring the gap between the bottom of the keelson and the hull. I then drew a line representing the shape of the gap, so we would know about how much to build up the area.



Here's the keelson area after the first few layers of glass:


And here it is again after a bunch more layers of glass:


While I was stuck in such a small area I decided to go ahead and repair the transom. It was just in need of a little reinforcement and some cleaning.

Here is the transom repair:



Nice fillet, if I do say so myself. :P

We basically glassed all weekend long. It was fun, if a little scrunched. :D And now it's already Friday. I plan to go home in 45 minutes, get some beer (a requirement for boat work), and then put a layer of glass in the keelson area to get a jump on the weekend.

Wahoo on the move, sort of

In between bouts of hot weather, hurricanes and back aches we've slowly progressed on the boat work. The next big projects all involve structural fiberglassing, and neither of us has any real experience with fiberglass, so we've been taking our time coating the keelson and bridge step support, and I spent several hours laying cloth down to strengthen the berth supports and to learn this new medium. What have I learned? It's messy. Very messy. And you have to be ready once you mix it, cause the whole process goes down so fast. And be prepared for the messiness...have lots of paper towels and vinyl gloves.

The hardest part so far was figuring out how to wrap the cloth around corners. After much trial and error (and messiness) I decided it's easiest to just to lay it out in flat pieces and just cut the extra off when it dries, cause this stuff doesn't like corners. Also took me a bit to figure out how to get epoxy in the hole in the keelson (the hole that the cockpit drain runs through). The entire keelson needs to be coated in fiberglass and epoxy to keep any water out. So we initially had to cut the hole a little larger, to make room for the needed protective epoxy coating. I thought maybe I could wet out some small fiberglass strips and just line them along the inside edges of the hole to build it up, but that didn't work. There were several variations along this line of thought that I tried, but nothing would work on the inside without causing bubbles. Then it occurred to me that I could just fill the entire hole with epoxy and then cut out the correct diameter hole for the cockpit drain after the epoxy is cured. I mean, I have a gallon and a half of the stuff. Why not waste a little to make a job easier.

In a not-so-bright moment I thought masking tape on the bottom would help hold the liquid epoxy in. Duh. When it started oozing out rather quickly, I crammed a plastic cup up in there to help hold it. A LOT leaked out but not all, so I let what remained cure enough to get a little hard and then mixed up another batch and poured it on top, because even with all the mistakes and do-overs, I have enough epoxy to last me years. :)

The tape wasn't the best idea.


So the as the time nears to actually start glassing in these new pieces we've made, it became apparent that it would be very difficult to level the boat (you don't want to build a boat on unlevel ground the same way you wouldn't want to build a house on an uneven foundation) on the ground next to the garage, which is where Wahoo has lived since I bought her in July of '07. It's a slight uphill, and though it would be possible, it was not advised.

So we decided to move the boat to the driveway! :D Right in front of the garage! :D :D

It's not too hard to move the boat. Just hook it to the trailer hitch and with a little careful yard navigating, off you go. The shelter was another story. It's 12' x 20' and has 6 legs. You are supposed to be able to remove the legs, which would have allowed us to each pick up one end of the roof and move it, then move the legs separately and reattach at the new location. But, it's been a wet year (or summer at least-ask anyone here the last time their lawn was green in August/September!) and the legs rusted a tad making them impossible for two tiny girls to remove.

Here's Wahoo in her new spot.


So, on to plan B. Mom mentions roller skates - we could roll it there. My first thought is to laugh. Then I remember those inline skates I bought a few years ago.

A perfect fit.


So we put a skate on each of the legs on one end and I found some little casters from a plant stand that fit on the middle legs.



Then all that was left was for mom to grab one leg and me the other and off we go!


If you look hard you can see the skates on the rear legs.


It took less than ten minutes to move it. A proud moment of Rube Goldberg engineering if there ever was one. Small chicks who work on boats have to be resourceful.

Here she is all safe and sound and soon to be level.


Since it was a hot day and we had the boat sitting on concrete we thought it would be fun to wet sand a few spots to see how much difference it would make.

Along the gunwhale, the previous owner had painted over the pretty blue with a dull blue. I'm guessing it was the wrong kind of paint as it was much more dull than the rest of the hull.

After wet sanding with 400 grit wet/dry - It's like finding a pretty hardwood floor under a nasty old carpet! :D


Seeing the pretty blue come out just made me want to wet sand all day. So we did! :D

Here's a few shots of the deck after the first wet sanding with 400 grit.



And here I applied a little polish just to see if it would shine. And it did. :D


Nice to know we won't have to paint the hull right away. We just have to finish wet sanding the whole thing with 400 then up to 800, then 1000 and then do some serious waxing and she should look decades younger. That's all hard work of course, but not near as hard or as costly as a new paint job.

Next up - this weekend we hope to begin glassing in the keelson. This is a big one. Wish us luck!

From fiberglass dust to sawdust...

So this is it...the big transition from boat demolishing to boat restoration. The big project for this past weekend was to construct a keelson to replace the rotten one I removed earlier. Since the keelson is structural and is glassed into the hull from inside the boat, it pretty much has to be done first, before we can go on to the next project(s).

Here is a pic of the boat as it is now, with the old keelson removed and ready for the new one. The keelson will run from the back end of the boat at the transom forward all the way past the hole where the cockpit drain thru-hull goes.



So, the first step, find some wood. Seems simple enough. There's a lumber store here in town. On their website (was surprised they even had one) it says they carry Douglas Fir, which is exactly what we need to construct the keelson from. So I get there and wait for too long only to be told "no, no.....nothing like that around here." The guy was a bit of a jerk, looking at me as if I don't know what I'm asking for. Anyway, so his advice I guess is to give up, as there is no douglas fir in these parts. WHATever!

I know Home Depot doesn't have it so I go to the Lowe's website and it shows Douglas Fir in 1x4 boards. So off to Bossier to the nearest Lowe's. They didn't have a lot, but they had the pieces we needed to get going with the keelson and also the bridge step support and cross support (support underneath the main bulkhead) so I was pretty happy about that. Also, while researching all the repairs I'm having to do on the boat it became obvious that at some point I would need a router. Gonna have to get those round edges on all this wood somehow. Lowe's carries Black & Decker tools and the last few things I got from B&D have been pure crap so I'm wary of their stuff. So, even though Home Depot pisses me off frequently, they carry the Ryobi brand tools that I like so much, so we picked up a nice Ryobi router with table and also a nice set of 8 starter bits....all from the Depot.







Anyway, everyone got a cut of my money this weekend, except the one I really wanted to give it to the most, the local small-town lumber supplier. Oh well, he was a jerk, so I kicked him to the curb. No boat money for you!

Cutting the board to size was easy. What wasn't as easy was figuring out the exact way to use the router. I mean, I know what it does and how it works, but couldn't figure out how to set up the table guide to feed the wood to the router smoothly. After a few curse words and a slight loss of temper, I figured it out and got right to business, rounding all the edges on the keelson. The keelson needs to be covered in a layer of fiberglass and epoxy and cured before installing - the glass and epoxy makes it stronger and protects it from moisture. You never want fiberglass to bend at 90 degree angles so all the edges must be rounded before glassing. The router did a clean, thorough and fast job.







Next was figuring out where the hole in the keelson that the cockpit drain will go through is to be located. Not sure the precise way to do this but the way we did it was for one of us to get in the boat with the keelson and line it up and the other to get under the boat and draw a line around the inside of the hole onto a piece of cardboard.

Next up, cutting a big hole in the keelson. It took several tools - a drill to get the first hole in and then a few more to make it big enough for the jig saw blade to fit. Then jigsaw almost to the edges of the hole. Then back to the new kickass router table to finish out the hole.





A quick sanding with the dremel and we're done. So, let's put up all the tools, the router and table, everything...put it all up, anything that we won't need again today. I'm one of those people who likes to clean up from one thing before I start another. After everything is put up, Mom reminds me we better check and make sure the hole in the keelson is bigger than the hole in the boat as the hole in the keelson will still need to be coated in glass and epoxy, so we'll be adding thickness to it. So in the boat Mom goes and underneath I go, and it's almost the right size, but not quite. DOH! Back out with the router and table one more time.


Here it is....the nice hole, and the router that made it. :D





Next step was sanding the keelson all over (to make sure the epoxy will adhere to it) and cleaning with acetone. Then, on to some glass work.

First we cut the fiberglass cloth to the desired size. Then, wearing all the appropriate safety gear, mix your epoxy and start wetting it out.



You want to make sure you get it all wet, but not so wet that the glass tape wants to float. You want to squeeze out the excess, then as it starts to get tacky add more layers of epoxy to fill in the weave.


Here's what it looked like after the first coat.



And after being left in my garage overnight it was done (completely hard and not sticky) by lunch today, so that's about an 18-hour cure time.


Know what I think about the new tools, the new skills and the new keelson for the boat?





Thumbs up! :D

epoxy pon me

Epoxy is fun. It's like play-doh for grown-ups. I've used it in tiny batches before, but never in large amounts or with fillers. Fun stuff.


Mixing up the first batch.



Be sure to measure carefully. I have big bottles of resin and hardener that you measure using pumps. It's a 2 to 1 ratio so 2 pumps of resin to 1 pump of hardener. The first time you use the pumps, be sure to not count that first bit that comes out on the the first pump. You want 2 FULL pumps of resin to 1 FULL pump of hardener. Mixing epoxy is an exact process. Measure properly the first time and save yourself a lot of trouble later.

Once your epoxy is mixed, the clock starts ticking. Pot life and cure time depends on several factors including the type of epoxy you use (slow or fast curing), the temperature (the hotter it is the faster it cures) and also how the epoxy is contained after it is mixed. Epoxy is exothermic so the more surface area that is exposed to air, the longer the mix takes to cure. If you leave the epoxy in the mixing container, it will heat up very quickly and can not only become combustible, but will also cure too fast. To lengthen cure time, spread it out like butter. I like to use pieces of cardboard for mine.


Once you have it thoroughly mixed you normally want to wet out the area you'll be working with.



Then add filler to thicken it for filleting.



The amount and kind of filler depends on the application. You'll need a peanut butter consistency for overhead or vertical areas, but not so thick for making fillets, finishing or bonding things. I needed a mix for filling some gaps and making fillets, so I used microballoons and mixed them until I got a good mix that wasn't too soupy but still thick enough to hold a shape.


Making a fillet.



Because epoxy cures so quickly you normally only mix a small batch at a time. Once you're done, you have a few choices. The easiest is to continue with another batch right away, or you can wait until it gets to a rubberry consistency and then add more epoxy. As long as the epoxy you just laid hasn't cured it will still bond chemically with new epoxy. However, if you wait until the epoxy has cured completely (usually about 24 hours) then you will have to sand or grind to get the new epoxy to stick. Once epoxy has cured it loses the ability to bond chemically with fresh epoxy, so you have to provide a mechanical bond by sanding or grinding, thereby providing a way for the fresh epoxy to 'key' into the old epoxy.


Ha! I sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Phase 2 - complete!

Most important things first...


On vacation I discovered a favorite new beer:


LANDSHARK!





Is very tasty. :)


Between family medical emergencies, work and vacation...we've not had much time to work on the boat lately. Managed to turn that around a bit this past weekend and we got some major "Mo" going now. It's a good feeling. :D


Prepping for the last bit of grinding calls for baby powder so the fiberglass doesn't stick to your skin as bad.








Unfortunately, we ran out of regular baby powder before we were thoroughly coated, and all I could find was some perfumed powder that was really old. Ew. We reeked of little old lady perfume and fiberglass dust. Not a pleasant combo.



(yeah, ran out of Landshark, so back to the old standby of Miller High Life)


So phase 2 is complete! FYI - Phase 1 was the first big project we did, which was to reseal the hull-to-deck joint. Phase 2 was to pull out everything rotten from the aft section of the boat. Grind out all the old glass that was holding in all the rotten pieces. Remove the damaged bulkheads, berth tops, cockpit drain, keel winch support and the rotten keelson/stringer. After what seemed like MONTHS of nothing but grinding, we finally got all the grinding done for the aft section late yesterday. Next up is a serious cleaning and then a major wipe down with acetone. Then on to Phase 3, which will be rebuilding all that stuff we just removed. I'm really looking forward to this next part as I suspect rebuilding will be a much more rewarding job than tearing it all out.


Then of course, after we rebuild the aft section, we have to start all over again with the forward section. But it should be in better shape than the aft was (fingers crossed).


Hope to be done coating myself in baby powder and dressing like the Michelin man for awhile. Just need gloves and the respirator for epoxy work! :D


Plan to get the cleaning/acetone wipe down done this week so that we can start actual repairs this coming weekend. Yay! Am stoked! Also still need to order a cockpit drain and the douglas fur needed for the keelson and keel winch support.


Go with the Mo!