Restoring Deadlights (Part 1) & Fairing

February 25, 2019

I grabbed a couple hours in the late afternoon to begin work on bringing back the deadlights.  That is to say, to bring them back to a point where they were ready for installation.  The previous owner had used butyl tape to bed the deadlights and other opening ports, as well as various deck hardware items.  Removing butyl tape is, well, whew!  A chore to say the least.  Acetone, as aggressive a cleaner as this is, barely raised its hackles.  I moved to a more pedestrian approach - using a hard-edged object to scrap most of the exceedingly sticky bedding compound from the deadlight frame.  

The picture below is of the port deadlight...the "before" shot.

The picture below is of the starboard deadlight...the "after" shot.  I made great headway with tongue depressor (stir stick) cut on a bias.  This tool allowed me to remove a majority of the material.  I found that Interlux 2333N (thinner for spraying or rolling paint/primer) worked well.  The slow flash-off characteristic of 2333N allowed ample penetration into the butyl as well as time to remove it with a rag.  I decided to leave the port deadlight for another session, and so turned my attention back to the boat.

The biaxial fiberglass that I applied to the five primary cockpit holes (to be filled) was fully cured, so I went aboard and removed the peel ply.  In the process of applying the epoxy resin and thickened epoxy, I strayed a bit from the perimeter of the area(s) to be filled, leaving epoxy resin to cure outside of the protective peel ply.  Well "protective" is probably not the best descriptor of the intent in using peel ply.  Peel ply allows some excess resin, if any, to leach through the fabric, prevents amine blush (wax contaminate) from forming on the curing surface, and also prints a "mechanical" surface on the cured epoxy that allows one to continue with lamination and/or fairing without the need to sand.  That said, I had areas to sand.  The first order of business was to go ahead and water-wash the surfaces.  I used a 3M Scotch-Brite pad, and with water scrubbed the surfaces to remove the amine blush.  I followed this with a towel to dry the surface in preparation for sanding.   For sanding the surfaces, I broke out the DA random orbital, and with 5" 40-grit pads got straight to work.  I removed any thickened epoxy that ran errant of the target area, and then brought down any areas of the patch that stood proud of the surrounding vertical surface.  I also worked the backsides of the patches, as well as the recent top skin that I applied to the core material on the aft bulkhead of the coachroof. 

With the sanding finished, I moved on to vacuuming the surfaces and solvent-washing them to remove any remaining surfaces contaminates.  I made my way back to the shop and mixed a batch of epoxy resin thickened with a combination of 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density fairing compound.  Armed with a small squeegee and a 5" spreader knife, I applied the first layer of fairing compound to both the exterior and interior surfaces.  Sanding these surfaces will be next, followed by any required second application of fairing material.

Total Time Today: 2 hrs