Epoxy in the head

     Yesterday I installed the back piece for the head.  It took some sanding to get everything to fit just perfect before screwing it in place, but not much.  I also cut out a spot on the bottom for the sanitation hose to run through on its way from the pump out connection to the holding tank.  Once I got everything screwed in place I was a little disappointed with how flimsy it seemed, mostly where the three pieces joined each other.  Enter the epoxy.  If you look at the picture you can see wetness where the pieces join up and along the edges.  I also did along the bottom edge because I had a little left over and figured why not.  The spot with the most epoxy is on the bottom left corner near the seacock.  I tried to make this a smooth of a seam as possible when I did the cut out, but...

     The plan for today was to cut out a replacement piece for the front of the hanging locker box, but it is pretty miserable out right now.  The rain is holding me back from getting the saw out of the barn for now.  Hopefully it will clear out later this afternoon and I get a chance to make the cuts.  I was also hoping to get a coat of primer in the head, but I think the chilly temperatures are slowing down the cure rate on the epoxy.  I should give it another day or two to finish curing.

     The good part about not going outside today is it allows time to cook up Thanksgiving dinner part 2.  While at the grocery store the other day we picked up a bunch of on sale items, including a 12 pound turkey for $0.54/lb.  Not too shabby.  It has spent the last couple of days in the fridge thawing and is finishing up in the sink right now.  Guess I need to get off this site and figure out how to cook a turkey.  Happy Thansgiving (2) everyone!

Second Coat

     The wife took a work from home day today and I had a appointment with my oral surgeon, so my time was pretty limited today.  I did manage to sneak out for a little bit though, and put a second coat of primer on the backs of the pieces for the head shelving area.  That was my compromise between leaving it as is (was) and painting it with the Bilgekote.

     Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  I'll be at work, but it looks like it will be quite the feast.

Head progress

     Not the best of pictures, but hopefully it gets the point across.  This was taken while I was sanding down the pieces trying to get them to fit properly.  The gap on top of the frame looks a little weird, but it is level; the boat is acually crooked, not the frame.  As you can probably imagine, all the wood on the inside of the frame is going to be cut out to leave a nice pretty hole.  I actually already did that, but can't seem to find the picture, so you get one mid work.  I also had to cut out little blocks of wood for the screws because it doesn't take much to go through 1/4" of plywood.

     After getting the fit good enough to satisfy me, I removed everything and cut out the inside scrap.  After that I sanded down all the edges and primed the back side of everything, including my little wood "washers".  I haven't decided if I am going to paint the backs with the BilgeKote or just leave them primed.  You won't be able to see it anyways, and that stuff is expensive!

     Before putting it all back together I still need to figure out where the sanitation hose is going to run through and make a cut out for it.  I'm thinking about getting more 2" PVC to hide it on the outside over to the forward bulkhead.  That should keep everything looking cleaner and a little more professional.  Once everything is permanently installed I will be adding fiddles to the front edge of both shelves that match the frame and priming/painting the bare wood.

Painted shelves

     I started off the day by making more cardboard templates for the front of the shelves in the head and the front piece of the hanging locker "box".  After that I tackled the second coat of paint in these areas.  I cheated a little bit and skipped the bottom of the shelves.  They looked pretty good already, they won't be getting a lot of wear, and I am running low on paint.  Everything looks pretty good, now it's time to close 'em up.

     There wasn't much I could do with the wet paint without messing it up, so I headed home.  I cut out the pieces I need.  I used 1/4" plywood for the head, and 3/8" for the locker to add a little extra strength.  Unfortunately I didn't have a large enough piece of 1/4" so I had to split it into three pieces that I will put together in place.  I'm not sure if I could have fit one large piece in there anyways, so it wasn't something I am upset about.

Gloomy Day

     Today is a pretty gloomy day.  Grey and raining non stop.  Between that and my jaw still aching it doesn't feel much like a day to work on the boat, so I'm not going to.  Instead I'm making some ale braised short ribs for dinner and curling up with a book.  If only I had a fireplace and a bear skin rug.

     Tomorrow I will go out and put on the second coat of paint and if you are lucky I'll take a couple of pictures.

Back at it

     It's been over a week since I did any work on the boat and i was starting to feel antsy.  Life has been a little hectic lately but today I ignored my swollen face and carved out some time.  I didn't get a whole lot done, but it felt good to do something.  I got the first coat of white BilgeKote on the shelving in the locker and the head.  It is going to need at least two coats, but I'm off to a good start.

No news

     No news as far as working on the boat goes.  Monday I didn't do anything because I had (I thought) an appointment to get a wisdom tooth pulled.  The wife took the day off work to drive me, but it turned out the appointment was only for a consult.  Sigh...another week of putting up with this tooth crap is going to suck.  I'm too old for this.  Anyways, because the wife was home we spent the day together doing non boat stuff.

     Today and Friday are both being spent at the academy taking my EMT refresher course.  Not exactly fun, but at least I'm getting paid for it.  Pretty easy overtime.

     Wednesday and Saturday are both work days, so nothing is going to happen then.  Thursday is my only available time, but I never seem to get much done the day after a 24 hour shift, especially at my new station.

     If I do get out there the plan is to get a coat of paint on the shelves and areas I won't be able to reach later in the head and the hanging locker.  Not very exciting, but it should be an easy enough day that I'll be able to work myself up to getting out there and doing it before coming home and taking a nice long nap.

Shelving, still

     I started off today at the hardware store looking for the pieces I wanted to run the sanitation hose through.  I found what I needed, but it was more expensive than I thought it should be and it got me thinking.  The hose is pretty ugly and seems to accumulate grime pretty easy, so why not hide the whole thing?  It turns out that it fits very nicely in 2" PVC pipe.  It was a pain in the butt to get everything lined up properly and cut out but I think it turned out pretty well.  It is just sitting in place in the picture held up with the friction from the well sized holes in the shelves.  Once I have the hose run through I will figure out a way to semi-permanently hold it up.

     Before cutting the holes for the PVC I stepped back to admire my handy work when I discovered the two shelves were uneven by about 3/4".  It sucked having to adjust everything to get it in line, but I sure am glad I figured it out before cutting anything to install the pipe.

     The shelves in the head area as well as the hanging locker are all screwed in place and primed up.  The next step is to get a couple of coats of bilgecoat paint on everything before working on the front covers.  Much easier to do now with so much open space.  Hopefully it will be warm enough next week to make that possible.

     At some point I am also going to need to drill a couple of smaller holes in the shelves to run the holding tank vent hose through.  I wish I would have thought of this before putting everything together.  It is such a tight fit that I actually have to remove the cleats in order to get the shelves in place.  I'm not sure if I am going to take it all apart and do this before painting or figure out a way to do it later.

Shelving

     I got all five of the shelves cut out this morning before running some errands.  When I got out to the boat I was surprised at how well the ones for the hanging locker fit, and how poorly the ones for the head fit.  With the grinder and sander I got everything to fit and cleaned up.  I primed all the bare wood I wouldn't be able to reach later and then installed the ones in the locker.  The picture looks a little distorted, but i think that is because of the angle I took the picture from.  The bottom area will eventually have a front piece but I haven't worked on that yet. I'm planning on using some 1/4" hardwood plywood so I can stain it up nice and pretty.  The front of the two top shelves will have a fiddle installed as well as the rear of the bottom one.  I am waiting to get everything painted before installing them though.

     I also got the two shelves for the head fitted and primed, but I didn't install them yet.  I need to size out and cut a circular hole in the middle of them to run the sanitation hose through.  I took a little piece of the hose home with me so I can take it to the hardware store later.  I want to try to find a PVC fitting or something similar that I can install for the hose to run through.  This should clean it up as far as looks go and also provide a bit of chafe protection.  I will have to see what I can find.

More cardboard

     I started off today with the icebox.  I sanded down the second coat of fairing and got the cover to almost fit.  It is going to need a bit more sanding on the lid and just a couple touch up spots with the epoxy, but it is getting close.  I ran out of latex gloves so I decided to move on to another project for now.

   

     I moved up to the head area to start with.  I cut out and installed the side supports for the two shelves I positioned earlier.  I think they will need a support in the back as well, but those will need to be epoxied in place.  The no glove situation strikes again!  These will be easier to position properly once the shelf is installed anyway, so no biggie.  Next came the seemingly never ending cardboard templates.  It is hard to believe how time consuming it is getting them cut out for the shelves.  The words straight and even just don't apply to this boat.  I brought some plywood with me to cut these out, but I under estimated how big they would end up and didn't have big enough pieces.  It seems that will have to wait for another day.

   


     I decided how I am going to do the hanging locker today and started working on that as well.  The back part was originally storage shelves and I am going to keep those, with a bit of a remodel.  They used to be walled off with access holes but I am going to leave them open with a large fiddle on the front of each shelf to keep stuff from sliding out.  I am planning on using some of the scrap teak I pulled off earlier to make these.  I found appropriate pieces in my pile, I just need to cut them down to size, sand the nasty purple and green paint off, and varnish them before installing.  It looks good in my head; hopefully it will turn out the way I envision it.  I cleaned up the old shelf supports and cut out more cardboard to fit.  Thankfully this side was much easier because I still have the old ones that don't fit very well to work off of.

     The part closest to the head is where the clothes hanger used to be that I want to change up a bit.  The bottom of it angles pretty steeply making it hard to use.  This is also a good spot for the depth/fish finder to be installed and I would rather not be banging this around with other stuff.  The solution was to make a box of sorts in the bottom.  This leaves me room for the depth finder and a little bit of storage I will figure out later as well as a flat area.  It almost looks like a seat across from where the toilet will be.  The plan is to leave this open but have eye hooks up both sides.  This will allow me to stretch some bungee material across and leave a large storage area for the unused sails.  I installed the cleats to support the "bench" and cut out template for the top of it as well.  It seems I forgot to get a picture of this.  I'll be sure to take one once I get the wood cut out and installed.

     Looks like I am going to need more plywood.

Last couple of days

     So I have been lax in my posting, but I have been making progress at the boat.  No long days, but just picking away,

     I have sanded down the first coat of filling epoxy on the icebox entrance and have put down a second.  I'm pretty sure this will do it, and once it is sanded smooth I will paint it to match the inside. Still not sure if I want to paint the cover or leave it the way it is.

     I have also been picking away at the head and hanging locker areas.  In the hanging locker I made some cardboard templates for the shelves that will be towards the back.  I have also been thinking about changes to the front.  It was supposed to have a bar for hanging jackets and such, but I'm not sure I'm going to do that.  It would be nice, but this isn't going to be a boat I'm living on, just using for day trips and maybe an occasional overnighter.  I'm thinking about making it into a storage area for the unused sails and sail bags, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet.  Anyone have any suggestions?

     In the head I finished removing stuff I didn't get around to finishing earlier.  I also decided to put a couple of shelves back where the holding tank used to be rather than wasting the space.  If I put in another holding tank it is going to be in the V berth so this opened up quite a bit of space.  To trim it out I will use a nice teak frame that used to be back here that was painted a garish purple color.  Who would do that?  I sanded it down today using 60 grit just to get the majority of the old paint off. I will be going over this with progressively finer grits before varnishing it.  The before and after pictures are below.

Another day

     I spent a couple of hours at the boat today playing with the electrical system and the icebox.  I got the colored lights on both sides and the white one on the stern working, but struck out on the mast light.  The two sides had corroded connectors on the bulbs and the stern light just didn't have a bulb. Pretty easy fixes there.  

     The mast has two light on it, one up top that looks like an all around red/green/white light and another light further down the mast which points down and I believe to be the spreader light.  There are two wires coming out at the base of the mast, one a 3 conductor and the other a 2 conductor.  I'm pretty sure the three is for the top one.  If I'm guessing right, one is a ground, one is power for the red/green, and the other is for the white (to be used as an anchor light).  Earlier I wired from the 3 conductor through a connection by the base of the mast and back to the panel.  I was hoping to be able to figure out what wire is what through trial and error.  The first try led to sparks shooting all over.  Not what I had expected.

     It turns out that the wires I used in the connector going through the boat was too big.  Because of this the screws holding the wire in the pins stuck out too much and were making contact with the outer casing.  After fixing this problem it seemed I was back to where I started a couple of hours earlier.  This time when I tried different combinations of wires I got nothing.  Either the bulbs up top are burned out or it isn't even hooked up.  Neither would surprise me.  Now I'm going to figure out how to use the bosuns chair left with the boat and see if I can get up top to check it out.

     The two conductor still needs to be run through the boat and back to the panel, but I am in no hurry with this one.  The one on top would allow me to be out of the slip at night, and with the days ending so early this time of year that would be helpful.  There has been more than one time that I have been hurrying for the marina right around sundown. 

     I also did a little work on the icebox trying to finish it off.  The part where the lid fits in place was still just roughed in and while it worked, it left a lot to be desired.  I filled in around the foam with some 1/4" plywood and used some epoxy mixed with filler to smooth it out.  After it dries I will sand it down and more than likely have to do at least a second coat before painting it white to match the inside.

     When I left I was met with a car that wouldn't start because of a dead battery.  It has sounded like it was getting harder to start lately but I was hoping it was just my imagination.  Apparently not.  Thankfully the marina is close to home so I just walked.  It will be easier to deal with once the wife gets home from work.  Tomorrow I will bring the battery to a shop to get tested.  It is only about 2 years old, so I am thinking it isn't the problem.  Might be time for an alternator replacement boys and girls.  As much as that sucks, the car does have 130K + miles on it and I have gotten off very easy so far on repairs.  Other than routine maintenance, the only thing I have had to do was replace an O2 sensor and a clutch.  Hopefully this isn't the beginning of the end for the mustang.  I was hoping to get another couple of years out of it.

 

Thoughts

     I spent some time out at the boat yesterday, but didn't get much actual work done.  Most of it was spent sitting and staring at the head area and engine box.  I did replace my light that didn't work with a (I thought) new one of the same type I found, but that one doesn't work either.

     Staring at the head was actually productive even if I didn't get anything built.  I was trying to figure out how/where to build shelves.  This is complicated by the fact that I am going to need multiple hoses running through everything and the stuff is far from flexible or forgiving.  I may end up trying to make most of it out of solid PVC with "buffers" for movement being made with the sanitation hose.  I'm going to need to research this and see how plausible it is.  I also need to come up with a new holding tank before doing a whole lot.

     On to the engine box.  I am currently using an outboard to get me in and out of the marina, but have always had a desire to put an inboard back in.  Cost made me think this would never happen, or at least not happen for years to come.  I tried to build the engine box big enough to eventually put one in.  It turns out eventually might be a lot closer than I imagined.

      Not having any idea what I am doing with this boat, I often turn to The Plastic Classic Forum for answers and ideas.  One day I half joked to a guy trying to sell an Atomic 4 (the original engine type) in Kentucky that I would come and pick it up if he couldn't sell it.  Well, the other day he sent me a message saying it was mine if I could come get it.  Holy crap!  I immediately began trying to figure out how I could get it.  I was comparing shipping costs vs. renting a truck (the Mustang just wouldn't cut it) and driving out to get it.  Neither was looking very good money wise.  Putting this on hold for the weekend, I flew up to Michigan for a cousin's wedding.  Congratulations "L" & "J".

     While I was there i found out my brother is driving down to Cincinnati this coming weekend.  Quickly pulling up a map we found out this is only two hours away from where the engine is.  He agreed to go pick it up for me when we talked about it if he can get a hitch hooked up to his car using our other brother's small little trailer.  I don't want to celebrate prematurely, but it looks like it is going to work.

     Thank you "M" and  Surveyor, this is appreciated more than you know.  I guess I know what my winter project is now.

Sailing

     Spent a couple hours out on the bay doing some sailing with the Mrs yesterday.  While we still have a long ways to go before I would consider us good sailors, we are definitely making progress.  No pictures because we forgot the camera, but it was wonderful.

Engine repair 2

     So it turns out I didn't have the pieces put back together properly.  There are way too many pieces that fit in way too many places.  It took me a couple of hours but it is finally back together and working properly.  I should really look for a manual for this thing, it would have made my job so much easier.

     It is pretty dreary out right now but I am heading out to the marina now to plug away for a little bit.  Not sure what is on the agenda for today, but I'm sure I can figure something out.