More and More Fairing!

Nothing much to say other than more sanding and more fairing! I read somewhere that you can almost spend as much time on the final finishing aon  boat project than building it. I'm beginning to agree!

I put on another coat of primer and added some more fairing material at the joint!

Will sand it down this weekend and put another coat of primer! Hopefully we are getting close!

More Fairing

The first coat of primer on the hull gave a pretty good indication on what areas needed some TLC. I wanted to make sure that the chines were somewhat consistent so I went ahead and added a bead of fairing material to areas that looked like they needed some help. It was also readily apparent that I did not get enough fairing material on a couple of the joint areas so I went ahead and added some material to those areas also.

It is worth noting that it was a good idea adding a coat of primer before proceeding with this fairing step - It really allowed for some "sacrificial" sanding material so that in the process of  sanding down the fairing compound I would not "break through" the laminating epoxy.

Next step is to add another coat of primer and see how it looks!

Fairing the Hull

Had some time off between Christmas and New Years and the weather has been extremely pleasant! So it was a good opportunity to get the PaperJet down from the ceiling and start the fairing process. You would think that a a hard chined boat like this would not require a whole lot, but it turns out that you have to do some blending in of the fiber glass seam tape and the hull. In hind sight I should have used a 4" tape vs. 2" as specified in the instructions that way I could have had some room to blend the tape vs adding fairing material.

The other area that needed some work was the bow, so I applied a liberal amount of filler in that area so that I could get a uniform shape on both sides of the boat.

I spent a lot of time sanding down the fairing material and getting smooth with the hull. This initial fairing highlighted a few spots that needed additional work. Mainly I need to add some more material to the joint in the hull, and secondly I need to add some fairing material to the chine areas so that I get a nice consistent chine across the hull.

I was debating whether I would do a second round of fairing prior to primering the boat, but decided that I would be better off adding a coat of primer and doing the final touches of the fairing over the primer. I really had a couple of thoughts behind this. Firstly, Stan Sussman affectionally known as Paint Boy from Interlux suggested that it would be better to have a coat of primer under the fairing material. Secondly in my effort to blend the fairing material into the hull I was beginning to get a little thin on the clear epoxy coat!

I feel like some progress is being made now that I am seeing a primered hull!

Next step is to add some more fairing material, do some more sanding, and another coat of primer!

Let's Get it Started!

Wow! It is hard to believe that it has been over 6 months since I last worked on the boat! You can really blame it on the re-fit of Tru Luff, my Catalina Capri 18, for a couple of summer ocean trips in California and the stinking hot Arizona summer!. Now that the temperatures are finally getting in the pleasant range I hope to finally finish this project! The first step was to finish sanding the hull in preparation for some fairing work and primering which I am glad to say I finished last weekend!

Hopefully next weekend I can start the fairing process!

Primer coating of Deck Complete!

Finally finished primer coating the deck. I ended up applying 3 coats total. I tried a couple of different rollers and found that the best finish came with the sponge type roller vs the more traditional low nap "hair" type roller. The only downside with the sponge type roller is that the chemicals in the epoxy primer breaks down the material therefore you have to keep an eye on it and replace it once it starts getting somewhat limp!

Putting the blue painter's tape on it 3 different times was a bit of a pain, but worth it.

Overall it looks pretty good. There are some areas that could benefit from a little filler to smooth things out but most of them will ultimately end up under the non-skid therefore I'm not sure its worth the effort at this time.

I decided to wait on painting the deck until I sand the hull and primer/paint it. I'm pretty certain that there will be some vigorous sanding going on with the hull and there is no point in ruining the final finish!

We flipped the boat after the last coat dried and now it's time to start on the hull. Looks like another long sanding project to me!

First Coat of Primer!

Last weekend I applies fairing epoxy to all of the low spots etc that I had on the deck, and I followed up this weekend by sanding the excess material off and getting the deck finalized for applying its first coat of primer.

I am using Interlux two part epoxy primer called Primekote. Prior to taping all the bright work I wiped the deck down with the recommended solvent to make sure there was no oils etc that would interfere with a good bond.

I used a roller to paint the bulk of the deck, and a brush to get in some of the tight places and the bottom of the cross deck. I must admit that the bottom of the cross deck has lots of nooks and crannies that are hard to get to!

After I was done with the first coat I took the tape off to make sure that it did not stick on permanently once the epoxy primer dries. I have always had less than good luck with painters tape being a pain to take off so I decided to take no chances.

The deck definitely needs a second coat but it is good to see some paint on the boat! I am hoping that I can get a second coat on this week, but realistically it will be next weekend.

The Deck is Sanded!

So it's been a very long time since I dedicated time to working on this project. I had to get our Catalina 18 ready for a 9 day sailing trip in Lake Havasu during the middle of February that took a lot of time! After which we seemed to have one event after the other that was pulling me away from the boat.

So, after 3 months of not touching the boat, I put on my tyvex suit and went to work and finished sanding the deck this weekend! So she is now ready for some minor fairing prior to the primer going on!

I on purpose did not sand any of the bright work which I will do once I get ready to apply the finished coat to the deck. I must admit I am not a big fan of sanding epoxy! It is almost hard work!