Transom Project 2
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Transom Project 2 |
Page 27
I got side tracked on a problem I have been dealing with on the Armstrong deck plate for the bilge access. I made a fancy lip out of klegecell and fiberglass, but the Armstrong plate will not go to place since the combination of the floor thickness and the klegecell thickness is so thick (nearly 1.25" thick). I got to work chipping and breaking the klegecell and fiberglass out of the area.
I used a few large chisels and a flat pry bar to get between the bottom skin of the floor and the klegecell. I pryed the fiberglass layers apart. I'll come back with the grinder and smooth things out and then make a new lip in the same shape as the klegecell was originally, but it will only be 1/8" thick at the most. Then I'll build on top of the lip to get the deck hatch flush with the top of the deck.
I hate going backwards, but I want perfection and ease of use. The only way to get perfection is to learn the hard way. In the end this will all have been worth it.
I had to cut a big chunk out of the top of my bulkhead in order to make some room for the new fiberglass ledge to have some surface area to get a good bond. I'll cover the exposed klegecell with a few layers of fiberglass once the rest of the opening is finished.
I made the fiberglass plate (ledge) It is made from 3 layers of fiberglass (a layer of 1.5oz mat, a layer of 18oz stitchmat, & a layer of 1.5oz mat).
Then I glued it in and clamped it up tight. The epoxy was setting quick.
I filled in the open cells of the NIDA core with thickened epoxy. Then I started laying 1" wide strips of mat on top of the lip to build its thickness. You'll see that I put some plastic on top of the mat in the pix. That is so I could take a piece of flat wood and push down on it and compress the fiberglass and make a nice flat surface.
I pulled the plastic off and went at it with the 4" grinder and the die grinder. Between the two tools, I got the opening to the shape I needed.
Here is where the previous set-up was wrong. The combination of the floor and klegecell ledge was so thick that the dogs could not get under the lip of the floor. Now that's not a problem. I got this sucker licked! YEAH!
The opening isn't done by any means, but the hatch at least goes to place now. Basically all I have to do now is some finishing work. I left room for a layer or 2 of finishing glass and gelcoat.
