Here We Go Again

[strick]

A little more progress this weekend.

This is a shot of the front of the fuel compartment. I needed to make a ledge for the fuel hatch to sit on. So I took a 1/2' x 4" wide piece of plywood and 5 minute epoxied it to the underside of the floor.



This next pic shows a little do dad will serve two functions.



This is several pieces of plywood laminated together and glassed to the upper bilge. It will provide support for the fuel hatch and middle piece of floor that I still have to install. Also the fuel tank has a rear flange that will screw into this. Also note the two pads glassed in place in the rear of the bilge. One for the sea cock and one for the bilge pump.

The bilge is finally ready for paint so I sanded it one more time and cleaned it really well with denatured alcohol. Bigshrimpin had a bunch of System three epoxy paint left over so I used it to paint the bilge.




shot showing that front fuel hatch support glassed and painted. It's a little sloppy looking but at this point I could care less. Your never going to see it anyway.



looking back



The last piece of flooring can now be added. It is glassed to the transom cap top and bottom. Cinder blocks press down in the fiberglass panel just like I did earlier.



Shot showing all the mess but you get the picture





I took some MDF and ripped some 3/4" wide strips. I drew out a 6' x 26 1/4" wide fuel hatch on my molding tale. The MDF strips were then screwed to the outline on the molding table.



Modeling clay was used to make a little radius all the way around the inner edge of the mold. Once I was certain everything was square and flat the mold was waxed with part all paste. And then laid up.




The first 2 layers are 1.5 ounce matt and then 1 layer of 1708. The corners are reinforced with 1708 tape in the pics above.

Once that set up lines are drawn to mark the outside perimeter for the coring.



cabosil paste applied



Coring added




The coring is 1/2 inch scrap plywood that I had laying around. More cabosil paste was used to fill in the gaps between the plywood and then more 1708 added on top of the coring




Thats it for now.

strick

[Trayder]

Looking sharp I really like the fuel hatch

[Bryan A.]

Nice job, as always.

[RingLeader]

If the California tree huggers just knew what you were doing over there...

Looking good! You are making some good progress.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Ha Strick

You got almost 8,000 hits on this thread so far. That got to be a new Record, I don’t think it will be broken for a very long time. Matter of fact I think we should give a award for that. How about calling it the BOAT PORN HEAD PIMP OF THE YEAR award.




FellowShip

_______________________________________________

My motto: Just for the Grins

[strick]

BOAT PORN HEAD PIMP OF THE YEAR award.

LMFAO Thanks Fellowship I'm honored. I'll get busy on my acceptance speach.

I poped the hatch out of the mold tonight. Here area few pics.



It's fits perfect and is solid. This is the way I'm going to make hatches from now on. BTW if you are wondering why I did not prime it with duratec like I did the floor it's because I was in a hurry and forgot to.



I left it sit slightly high on purpose. Now all I have to do is grind about 1/4" off the hatch lip so it sits flush with the deck and then I'll prime it.

strick

[GradySailfish]

Strick, its great you just did that project because I have a hatch I need to build as well. The tank coffin lid on mine was warped and cracked....basically unsalvagable, so I had the idea of making my own.

Once my Grady is back in the water I'll start work on the SC again and thats one of the first projects I plan to tackle. My plan was basically the same as yours, but I was going to put some gelcoat in the mold before hand, but since I'll be painting the boat anyway, it doesn't really matter if I do that.

Can you explain how you got those edges so perfect? I know you used clay but can you be more specific? I saw somebody use bondo to create the rounded lip....do you think thats a good idea? Did you use MDF to lay up the tank lip?
Thanks in advance...your project is looking great.

BTW Otterlycool, this is Alex from Capt. Dan's Capt license class. Remember me? I'm rebuilding a 20 SC right now. Getting the topcap off was no problem...I undid all the screws holding the cap and hull together, cut the adhesive between the hull and cap, and after some persuasion utilizing crow bars she popped right off.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e5...h/IM000954.jpg

That pic is kinda unclear but shows the cap pulled foward. I later got help from a couple guys and we lifted the cap off the boat, placed it on the ground and I recored the cap and put it back on......which required crow bars and jumping on the cap!