Here We Go Again

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Strick

Again things are looking really sweet on that boat of yours. Keep up the good work and don’t forget the Beer.

I had been thinking about making a mold table myself approx 5’ x 7’ to make a glass panel for my T-top. Replacing the Sunbrella fabric one I have now which is starting to look old. BUT I just got a piece of Pro-Tec material in the mail this week which has a great looking finish on both sides for my top. SOOOO looks like I will drop the idea of making a fiberglass one and go with it instead. I figure I would save enough in Beer money to more that off set the cost of Pro-Tech.

FellowShip

_______________________________________________

My motto: Just for the Grins

[Bryan A.]

Nice idea with using the sides of the boat as a mold. How did they come out? What are you going to use to glue them in?

[RingLeader]

I saw a guy (Joker from the FS forum) taking a mold from the outside of a hull to make the inner liner sides when I visited his shop in Ft. Pierce about 3 years ago.

Very slick move... Its gonna be sweet!

[strick]

Fellowship- what is this stuff you speak of pro-tech? Me no find on Google!

I'll back up a bit. I first used the flat molding table to make some fiberglass panels. The panels were fitted into place in the inner hull sides. However the two most forward panels would not contour to the shape of the hull due to the bow flair in this area, Thats when I decided to pull a part off the forward bow area to use for the two forward areas.

Here is were I'm at now.



Staples were used with a cardboard cleat to help facilitate removal.




Exterior grade Liquid nails.... Thats right I said Liquid Nails (rated for fiberglass use) was used to adhere the panels to the cored sides.



For the two forward sections that I talked about earlier I used a mixture of cabosil and resin to glue the stubborn areas.



A few more shots




Strick

[Bryan A.]

That interior looks huge without the inner liner. Nice stuff!

I use a liquid nails like products to put together plywood skiffs up here in the northeast. Stuff works great and sticks real good. Takes a few days to totally cure though.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

HOOPS I should have said Pro Trim

Here you go.

http://www.pro-trim.com/product.asp?ID=56&nPage=3

FellowShip

_______________________________________________

My motto: Just for the Grins

[strick]

Thanks Fellowship. Never herd of the stuff but it looks good. Let us know how it works.

Bryan- I still have to pull the all the staples. I've pulled a few out just to see how easy they will come out and they come out easily. I'll pull them all this weekend. Liquid nails is $17.00 a gallon and it took a gallon to glue the panels in place. A lot cheaper then resin and I avoided the PIA of having to mix cabosil. Plus the stuff is more sticky then resin/cabosil. The panels just pressed right in place. It's very solid. Keeping costs down and getting the job done.

I still will use the panels I pulled off the sides of the boat to fill in the upper most portions that I could not cover with the flat panels. They held their shape OK.




I needed to get some marks on the panels while they were still on the side of the boat so I would know were to make my cuts. I used a really long 1/8" drill bit and attached it to my handy little angle drill.



drilled some holes from the inside out



and connected the dots



The panels did not hurt the outside of the hull in any way other then the little 1/8" holes that I will fill later.



I'll get more done this weekend hopefully.

strick

[BigMike8o9]

"I needed to get some marks on the panels while they were still on the side of the boat so I would know were to make my cuts. I used a really long 1/8" drill bit and attached it to my handy little angle drill."

Wow, Great idea. Did you see that somwhere or was it yours. I would have overthought that to the point of making all kinds of transfers and contraptions.
Perfect KISS engineering.