Plastic Classic Forum

bigd14

My epoxy was too green to sand this morning so I spent a few hours dry fitting the chainplates. The two bottom holes were already drilled from the inside, but since they didn't align quite properly with the chainplate holes I had to drill them out a bit. Once they were drilled out I tightened the lo...

bigd14

Rachel, overlapping layers is probably the most logical explanation for the vertical lines. Daydreamer the cracks were very fine in the gelcoat, defintely not scratches. I'm not convinced it was from a sudden impact either, there were no scuffs in the gelcoat. My bet is on a poorly placed support so...

bigd14

Here are a couple shots of todays effort. I ground away all the gelcoat then began grinding out the cracks on the topsides. The cracks appeared a little deeper below the waterline, so I decided not to grind them out all the way for fear of removing too much material. Instead I covered the entire are...

bigd14

Thanks for the replies. I will do a little more sanding and see how deep these things are, then decide what to do. Regardless of what I do, looks like I won't be getting the paint done this weekend. Its always something!

Doug

bigd14

Got some more goodies today. Here is a photo of the new spreaders, spreader bar, and repair plates. http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx286/Big_D_14/DSC_0042.jpg Spent last weekend sanding the rest of the hull and filling a few dings. Still trying to decide what to do about the weird cracks in the ...

bigd14

I am prepping the topsides for paint and I came across a very fine network of cracks in the gelcoat. I figured they would sand out but it appears that they extend into the fiberglass. You can see the fine cracks still in the white gelcoat in the photo. There is no cracking that I can see on the inte...

bigd14

New traveler going in. http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx286/Big_D_14/IMG_20100821_133426.jpg Spent today cleaning and sanding the topsides for paint. Cleaned all the wax off then I had to sand off a bunch of bottom paint that was put on too high. Then sanded one side to 150. My arms were too sor...

bigd14

... It must feel good to be at this stage after all of your work; thanks for sharing your progress! Well, yes and no. "Yes", compared to when I bought the boat almost exactly 2 years ago. "No" becasue I have recently determined that there is no way I can make an end of September...

bigd14

Chainplates have arrived! We've been whittling away at re-intsalling all the hardware over the past month. Slow work but progress is being made, despite taking last week off to sail in the San Juans. Here is a shot of the new chainplates. Hah, I think they will be the last thing left of this boat in...

bigd14

Thanks, guys. Mark- No I haven't heard from Ballenger yet. I'm going to call next week. I'll be ready to work on the mast in a few weeks. Hey Tony, yes its the yard behind Sextons. One of the few DIY yards around! Did you work on your boat there? Still cranking away this weekend. I'll post some phot...

bigd14

Things are finally happening! We got the companionway hatch and trim done, and a bunch of hardware installed with butyl sealant (great stuff!), including mooring cleats, jib tack fitting, jib tracks (ugh!), primary winches, and portlights. I also have my chainplates being fabricated, and a mast repa...

bigd14

Oh, I feel your pain! Just a couple weeks ago I sanded so much barehanded that I sanded about a dozen pinholes into one of my fingers. It looked so weird that I tried to take a photo of them but it didn't turn out too good. Here it is, anyway. http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx286/Big_D_14/P60900...

bigd14

Thanks, its been a long road to get to this point! The Kiwigrip was really easy to apply. Obviously I can't speak to its durability or grip when wet, but it looks really good. Its amazing how the boat suddenly comes together when you pull the tape off. I did learn a couple things: 1. When you mask c...

bigd14

The deck paint marathon is finally over! Two coats of primer, two coats of Perfection and one coat of KiwiGrip. And a whole lot of sanding in between. It ain't quite perfect, but the hired help was pretty cheap! Sorry, the photos are really lousy. http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx286/Big_D_14/P6...

bigd14

1st coat of primer on! http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx286/Big_D_14/P5310001.jpg Had a little scare (again!) when a bit of the primer flaked off. It was cool and damp overnight and I think it hadn't fully set up yet. Also there may have been some contamination in this area, since its right wher...

bigd14

I had a reputable local yard look reveiw my mast and tell me that I should be looking for a new one. Ouch. This is something I will consider at least until I get sticker shock. Anyone in the Pacific Northwest have a favorite local or semi-local spar shop?
Thanks!

Doug

bigd14

Wow, she's really looking nice! Great work.

bigd14

Wow that looks great! I suspect you won't notice the little flaws from more than a few feet away.

I can't wait to get started painting again.

Doug

bigd14

Here is a shot of the glassed in backing plates. Used plenty of thickened epoxy to bed them against the hull, then two layers of biax tape. The first layer extended to the deck, the second layer tied the deck and the hull together. I extended the biax about 18 inches on either side of the fore and a...

bigd14

This weekend I had our local boatyard metalworker help me drill the holes through the stainless strap. It worked pretty slick. The key was cutting fluid, lots of pressure (I drilled while he applied extra pressure using a long stick of wood as a lever for accessible holes and hand pressure for other...

bigd14

Thanks for the photo, Ray. I imagined that your repair plate would encompass more of the mast. Interesting. Quetzal I like the idea of doublers, but I agree more holes in the mast is not desirable.

I'll be talking to the boatyard down the way this weekend to get their ideas.

Doug

bigd14

Thanks for the replies. Chuck I did have a compression tube on each through bolt to prevent the mast walls from collapsing, but it may have been a little short. I will definitely be using compression tubes again. However, I understand that welding the aluminum can weaken it a bit, and I don't want t...

bigd14

I've been thinking about this on and off over the past year, and now is the time to really figure it out. The mast is in reasonably good shape except for the area around the spreaders. There are a bunch of excess holes, and the old spreaders have compressed the mast a bit (a dimple) on both sides. A...

bigd14

Well, I cut off the chainplates this weekend. Took me a few minutes to get up the nerve, but I went for it. Of course, none of them looked like they were in bad shape after I pulled them out, so it was probably not really necessary, but I will feel better knowing I can see them and easily replace th...

bigd14

Ahh, the Nuclear Option! I love it. Glad to see you are back to working on your boat, Chris.

bigd14

Read through your blog. Great job! Looks like things are progressing well. Seeing you at this point reminds me of how much I have learned from restoring my own boat and I almost feel obligated to do another one sometime so that all the acumulated knowledge won't go to waste.

Keep it up!

Doug

bigd14

Haven't posted in awhile, but stuff has still been happening. I got a sheet of 1/2 inch G10 epoxy and with that and some thinner G10 I had on hand made and installed a bunch of backing plates for every major piece of hardware on the boat. I burned up a band saw blade and trashed my favorite carbide ...

bigd14

Good work Ray. Its amazing how much effort these things can turn into! So what's the next project (hopefully go sailing)?

bigd14

Not much work being done on the boat these days. Life and work seems to get in the way a lot. But my daughter and I spent a few hours down at the boat completing the drain tube installation. I sanded down the top and bottom of the tube flush with the hull and cockpit. I discovered several voids in t...

bigd14

I installed the cockpit drain today. I took Ray's advice and glassed a piece of G10 fiberglass tube between the cockpit floor and the hull. I used 1.5" ID tube (1 7/8 OD), because that was the size of the existing hole in the cockpit. I needed about 8 inches and I had to buy 39 inches worth ($$...

bigd14

Glad to see you're back at it. I enjoyed reading your 2009 Grinder War posts! Looks like a great new phase of the project, I'll be interested to follow your progress.

Doug

bigd14

Sorry to hear about the alignment trouble, Ray, sounds exhausting! Your Panama Canal analogy is one I can certainly relate to. I don't have any advice for this (one of the reasons I decided to go with an bolt-on-and-go outboard), but I wish you luck in solving it. Keep at it!

Doug

bigd14

I love to see models like this, but I think if I were going to dedicate this much time to such a huge one, I would just go ahead and build a full sized version that I could use!

bigd14

Hi Marshall. I used a utility knife to score the plywood and dug it out with a small chisel. I sanded the wood flush before I saw your post about leaving it raised a bit. That would have been interesting. Anyway, its sanded flush and I did a final test fit on the boat today. Now I can finish it with...

bigd14

Quetzal/Doug I took your advice and cut a neat line to eliminate the ragged edge. Worked great. I cut some mahogany triangles to fit and glued them in with some epoxy thickened slightly with wood flour. It should look pretty good! Assuming that is that I don't burn through again when sanding them fl...

bigd14

Alright, I'm using Dave's excellent idea, except for the bottom portion, which would interfere with the hatch operation. I chiseled out two triangles on the bow end and will cut some mahogany to fit tomorrow. I will not be doing the aft portion. The top sheet of the plywood is splintering a tiny bit...

bigd14

What a bummer! That was one of the reasons I decided to go to an outboard (a minor one, really). I was able to pull one of the lag screws out of an engine mount with a pair of pliers! One would think that the mounts would be made of solid glass. Good luck with the repairs. I wonder if you could zip ...

bigd14

I did this on some countertops to install tile over the top. I first sanded with 36 grit, then scored the heck out of with a sharpened paint scraper. Really tore into it to rough it up. I used mastic which seemed to hold up just fine. You could probably use some kind of liquid nails panel glue or so...

bigd14

Thanks for the advice and supportive comments! Thats a great idea to put some contrasting corners in. I think I will do that. Although then I run the risk of messing some other aspect of it up! Luckily the damage is on the front end away from the cockpit, but its still painfully visible. I originall...

bigd14

Hatch is FINALLY almost ready for finishing! Unfortunately, I made a horrible amateur mistake that almost caused me to trash the whole thing. One of many in this whole endeavor. The hatch top radius was a little lower than the frame, so when I glued it together I needed to trim about 1/4 inch off. I...

bigd14

Yes, it was a spur of the moment decision to use the floating spline, and in hindsight I would have done it differently had I considered it more carefully. I am a little concerned about the ultimate strength of the joint. I may end up just countersinking a big screw through it now that its aligned a...

bigd14

Heh, I didn't even realize you could see my reflection in there. Thanks Robert for the compliment on the hatch! Hmm, I'll have to think about a solid tube. This would involve alot more glass work and I will have to check on the size of the cockpit drain opening to see if there is enough room. Not su...

bigd14

Thanks for the tip Ray. I would also be a bit concerned about the stresses there, but I could probably reinforce the heck out of it with an oversized tube or lots of wrapping on the outside. The current setup is a fiberglass tube at the bottom and a thru hull at the cockpit connected by a short piec...

bigd14

I started out the day by fairing the hull patches. I didn't get any photos of them. I then dry fit the hatch. It fits perfectly so now I can move on to the next step. http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx286/Big_D_14/P2120068.jpg I acquired a Yamaha outboard motor a couple months ago. Hi thrust extr...

bigd14

Thanks Jason, I thought about Lexan, but decided against it because I needed something strong enough to stand on and Lexan that thick would have been difficult to form (I hear you need a big oven!). I looked at a few other of your boat restoration photos- looks like you have had a similar experience...

bigd14

I did this project last summer. I was surprised at how much core was wet, but still firmly attached to top and bottom skin. I think there was an area about the size of my hand that was dry. There was no way to preserve the top skin, so I just left a bit on the center line to serve as a reference poi...

bigd14

Be careful with System 3 LPU. I used it and had major trouble- the paint peeled up in many spots and I ended up taking it all back off. You can check my Ericson 27 Project for more details. The final conclusion I think was that there were some areas where the paint went on a little heavier than it s...

bigd14

You can also leave strips of the thicker top skin material as reference marks. It holds its shape much better. I did this when replacing the entire bow core. I left a strip in the middle (the white stripe in the photo) that I could use as a reference and simply excavated core material out of it. I d...

bigd14

I gave a lot of thought to Ray's suggestion about building a backing pad in the interior of the hull and I think that is what I will now do. I removed a few inches of fiberglass on each side of each chainplate, both to inspect the condition of the welds and in anticipation of drilling holes through ...

bigd14

This weekend I worked on the sliding hatch for the companionway and continued pondering the chainplate issue. I also cleaned out some core material that was exposed around the rudder shaft in the cockpit. A little water had gotten in and rotted the balsa out, but it didn't seem to extend much beyond...

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