SO -
Yesterday was a grueling day. I spend a majority of it with a grinder in my hand and it was terrible. I was however, thoroughly impressed with the hardness of awlgrip paint. When it is stuck, its there for good.
I started off the day with my fuel tank hatch. Pulled of the weights, flipped it over and cut some cloth to seal it up.
I gave it a layer of light, 4oz cloth to start
I wet that out and give it a 2nd layer of 1708 for some strength
It only took about an hour to cure, so i flipped it over and glassed over the old pie plate. I am moving my tank forward so i'll need to cut another hole. I had to do a little build up so this was a couple of layers of alternating 4oz, 1708, and chopped strand mat
This part seperates the men from the boys. I had to grind out the seams, level them up a bit, in preparation to glass them over with fiberglass tape.
Both sides done - i ground out alot to give myself plenty of room to sort of "feather" it
I used a 4" cloth tape and wet it out to completely cover the seams all the way around
Both sides wet out and seams sealed up
That grinder work is strenuous. I was impressed with the thickness of the original gelcoat on the boat. I had to work hard to grind it down to bare glass. Really - the only glasswork i have left to do is to make a couple of bulkheads and some slats for my new tank to sit on. Then it's on to the hard work of sanding and prepping for paint. I'm glad that part of the job is done and i'm ready to move forward!!!!