Yet another update.

[Boatdood]

For those of you who remember that the resin had not yet set up on my last update, it still had not this weekend. Desperate measures were needed. Cool, damp conditions had prevented the chemical reaction from taking place and the resin had drained from the glass in places. My son was feeling realy down about the project and to be honest, I was a bit disgruntled as well. What to do?

I needed to jump start the cure process and I needed to get to the resin already in the glass. Desperate times call for desperate actions. I mixed up a batch of resin with styrene mixed in to thin it. My reasoning was that the styrene would allow the new resin to mix with the existing, reluctant resin. I also mixed in a bit of parafin wax to separate the brew from the still damp, cool air conditions. And finally, for good measure, I mixed in an extra dose of hardener. Then we brushed the concoction on the stringers. I was encouraged to watch it flow into the soft spots. In just a few hours, with the aid of a bit of sunshine, we have hard stingers. Finally we can fit the tank in the belly of the boat.

It fits fine, and the floor height looks good. I'll get to work on finding some foam to inject into the hollow stingers next week and we'll move onto the floor in good time.

While we had a bit of time on our hands we decided to start on the outside of the hull. It had been painted black over the original Fighting Lady Yellow. I gave the boy a D/A sander and put him to work on it. A half hour later I went back to check on him. I was surprised to find that under the black paint was another layer or white paint, and even some red. Sanding it all off would take a lot more work and sandpaper than I'd hoped for. We decided to try some paint remover. After trying two different types of strippers, we found one that worked fairly well, although it could take up to twelve hours to do it's thing. At the end of the day, we are waiting on the stripper, and the hull is again covered.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right, right?

[ocuyler]

In just a few hours, with the aid of a bit of sunshine, we have hard stingers.

Gee, that's funny, that's what happened when I first went to the beach yesterday...

[Abe's Rocket]

At the end of the day, we are waiting on the stripper

sounds like the week before my wedding...

[FELLOW-SHIP]

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