I picked up a piece of Exterior Plywood at Lowes today . . .

Checked out my cardboard templates and got ready to cut out the new wood pieces for the storage compartment floor and the main bulkhead.





I laid out the templates on the plywood and made my cuts . . .



I checked the wood pieces for fit. Here is the structure pieces for the storage area floor.



Here is the floor piece for the storage area . .



And the main bulkhead . . .



I also put the first coat of epoxy paint on the fuel tank.



I have Tuesday and Wednesday of this week off from work, so my hopes are to finish grinding the tabbing areas and get to some fiberglassing.

Looks good your making good progress

Tank looks REALLY nice!..............You decided NOT to try to obtain Perma Panel or other equivalent type wood for the plywood structures?

Yea, I probably could have shopped around and ordered a sheet of perma panel . . . but not enough time in my days to do such. I also believe that with a different approach to glassing in the wood components, I can achieve better isolation from moisture. See my picture below . . .

I plan on putting a layer of CSM on the underside of the new stringer and bulkhead pieces and then doing a full glass over the top. The storage compartment floor will also be glassed on both sides. So, it should have good longevity, even though it is not PT panels.



I am also going to put a layer of CSM glass between the new floor structure and the two forward bulkheads, so that moisture cannot transfer (easily) between the various sections of the boat. It should be quite sufficient for the prevention of moisture penetration and propagation. (I hope )

Well, it probably WILL be. Your meticulous attention to detail will ensure that!!

When I replaced the bulkhead between the engine and the fuel tank and re-glassed the engine compartment in my 1987 Four Winns Lib, I found that Four Winns also didn't do a very good job sealing the wood from water intrusion. It's amazing how a tiny little hole or break in the glass can cause so much headache later!!

Another update . . .

I am starting to do the preparation glassing of the new structural pieces. This is the CSM (Chopped Strand Mat) that is going on the lower edges of the wood and on the faces of the bulkhead and floor pieces.

Here are a few pictures of the work so far . . .

I cut out holes in the flooring piece so that I can pour in the expanding foam into the cambers of the storage compartment floor structure



Here are all the little pieces with CSM wetted onto the edges



Here are the floor piece and the bulkhead piece with CSM wetted out.

Floor Piece - this will be the under side . . . the several holes need to be cut out before installation. Then the final layer of CSM will go on the other side, which will be facing up.



Bulkhead Piece



I have been using Vinyl Ester resin, which is similar to what Formula uses on their hulls. The open time of VE is quite long as compared to poly resin. In order to ensure that the resin does 'kick' and due to the slightly colder temperatures that I am working in, I have been using a 2% catalyst ratio, instead of the recommended 1%. The resin still stays open for a couple of hours at about 60 degrees F. that certainly is a good thing if you need more time in doing layup work, but not so much if you are just trying to get through the prep work.

I am hoping for some warmer weather over the next week so that I can get these pieces tabbed into the boat. It was 34 degrees F and snowing yesterday morning . . .

34F is not my favorite temp to work in!!

Yup, fortunately my garage was about 60 F, and I was pulling air via a venting fan from the house to keep the working temperature up.

The next few days are supposed to be in the low-mid 50's. As long as it is sunny, the tarp, being dark green heats up the boat another 10 degrees or so. With that, I might be able to get the pieces installed in the boat.

Had a nice warm day, yesterday . . . about 60 F . So, I got some more fiberglass prep done. Today is going to be colder, but Monday - Tuesday look OK.

Here are a few pictures . . .

Bulkhead and Storage area floor pieces all prepped with glass coating and holes drilled . . .



I found a bit of rot along the crack in the center engine mount stringer. It was fairly isolated to the spacer and base pieces. So, I ground out the soft stuff until I got to good wood. Then I sprayed some 'Chemotherapy' into the area.



If I can get the boat up to about 60 degrees, then I'll try to install the wood pieces.

I also got another coat of paint on the fuel tank.



I did a 'pull' test on the first 2 coats of paint, using some really sticky tape. . . and the paint seems to be well adhered to the tank. I could not get the paint to 'pull' off the tank.

I used Interlux Interprotect 2000 on the tank, which is a 2-part epoxy paint. It is normally used as a barrier coat, but also has good application as a bare metal primer.

Ted,

Did you use some sort of aluminum "etch" prior to painting like "Alumiprep" or equiv? http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo.../alumiprep.php