Back to Work

Seems like I have been busy doing everything but work on the boat the first part of this week. But I back at it with some help from Chad. I cut and spliced the top for the port side fuel tank. Then we glassed both sides of it.

We layed up 1 layer of 24 Oz. Combomat, 1 layer of 1.5 Oz. mat and 1 layer of 8 Oz. Cloth. I did it that way so that the finished surface would be smoother and require less filling and sanding to get a smooth surface. I am very pleased with the results.


















Here is a shot of the seal on the plywood which I used for the core of the top. You can see it quite clearly though the 3 layers of glass. That is the mark of good glass work.

After sanding all the edges of the taping I did in the interior of the tank I got to work on the preparations for glassing the top on.
My plan is to glass a lip onto the top of the bulkheads and the hull side which the top can rest on. When ready to put the top on I will wet out 2 layers of 1.5Oz. Mat on top of the lip all around then put the top on and press it down onto the wet glass. Then it will be glassed on the outside like the starboard tank was.

This is a shot of the underside of the form for the lip.
The main advantage of this method is that it is a lot easier to complete the inside of the tank and make sure the access covers seal well with the top off. On the starboard tank I put the inside bulkhead on last, thinking that I could glass every joint inside and out that way. I was able to reach the inside corners of the inside bulkhead though the access ports. But it was a real nightmare and then I had trouble getting the inside surface around the access port even so the covers would seal.
So this time the top goes on last.