Last night I laid up the sole for the fuel tank compartment. The PO scabbed onto the keel stringer to bring it up to the same height as the stringers on either side of the compartment.
I took advantage of that support to make my sole almost flush with the tops of the stringers. Basically, the sole is built like a hatch with ¾” plywood cores between the stringers, and about 3/16” laminate over the stringers. The tank compatment sole I removed was a piece of 1/2" CDX plywood with glass mat on the top only. It was waterlogged and slimey. This should be an improvement.
First, I cut ¾” plywood to fit between the stringers with about ¾” space all the way around. Then I used my table saw to cut a 16 degree bevel around the edges of the plywood and scabbed them together at the correct spacing. I put 6 mil visqueen on top of my work bench and then screwed down the cores from underneath.
I cut two layers of 1808 to go between the cores and around the outside edges, and one layer to go over the whole thing.
Then I laid it up using epoxy resin.
Flipped right side up:
Trimmed and excess resin ground off:
And trial fit in place:
When I’m ready to glass it in, I’ll use thickened epoxy to glue it down to the stringers, and then go over the whole thing with another layer of 1808 to tab it to the stringers and bulkheads. Before I do that, I need to run the discharge pipe for the fresh water tank underneath. The pump will be located in the engine compartment.
Dave