Sunday, August 24, 2014

Stringers and Ants are Out!

It took about four hours, but the stringers are out, and the bilge is ground to a reasonably fair profile.  The harbor freight variable speed multi-tool worked like a charm cutting out the tabs, saving me from using the grinder initially.

Upon cutting out the forward stringer, I was surprised to see a stream of ants come pouring out of the rotted center section of the stringer.  They were not pleased with my renovation efforts.

You have to look close, but the tiny ants are in the picture.  I laid down an ant trap and went about working on other parts of the boat while they died in a sugar-water bliss.

There are a bunch of miscellaneous small repairs I need to do where there were laminate "bubbles" of detachment.  They are now ground out and awaiting new layers of glass.  There is also a crack in the bilge-topsides joint over the aft trailer bunk which will be easy to fill and repair.  The last odd job was grinding out a complete adhesion failure of a stainless plate on the aft bilge.  The installer never roughed the surface, to the fiberglass never adhered.  I've removed the top laminate, and should have no trouble fixing that problem.


By then end of the day, which coincidentally, was about the end of my endurance for hunching over a grinder, I was very pleased with the prep work.  The bilge is ready for me to start laying glass into place.  I'm getting very excited anticipating seeing the cockpit with fresh paint.  Still quite a bit of work to do before that happens though!




No comments:

Post a Comment