March 24, 2019
Continuing the relentless pursuit of a properly prepared substrate that will yield a great looking topcoat paint, I went straight to work with more preparation. First however, there we some areas within the boat that required my attention with that certain junkyard dog of a tool, dangerous as free-soloing El Capitan, the 4" angle grinder without the safety shroud attached. I outfitted myself in full Tyvek, tapped bottles, sleeves, a hoodie, and full-face respirator.
I began in the bow of the boat, and sanded a radius in the openings in the molded v-berth platform created for the old head through-hulls. The new owner of the Allied 24 opted to close these holes in (great decision), and go with a simple portable head since this boat was to be a weekender or daysailer - no need for these holes to persist. I moved aft and lightly grinder the edges of the new 1708 biaxial I applied to strengthen the chainplate knees, and then dropped to the bilge to prep this areas for an application of bilge paint. Continuing aft, I cleaned up the forward portion of the underside of the cockpit well and adjacent outboard hull and bulkhead surfaces. I moved further aft, gaining access through the cockpit locker openings, and sanded the new applied tabbing and hull surfaces. With that, the grinding is finished (unless I come across something I missed, hopefully NOT!).
I cleaned up the interior by vacuuming, blowing the interior out, and then vacuuming again; I moved out onto the deck and cockpit, applied the blower and vacuum, and cleaned these surfaces. I wanted to get to some fill work done today as well, so went after the old eyebrow fastener holes (now filled with a light cloth epoxied in), and solvent-washed them. I also solvent-washed a few areas on the port side of the cockpit, as well as the old icebox repair, and forward portions of the coachroof.
After I solvent-washed these areas, I applied a film of epoxy resin without and thickening agents ("neat" epoxy).
I also applied this neat epoxy to previously faired surfaces, to include the old icebox pictured below.
With all the areas properly prepared, I moved forward with the application of lightweight fiberglass cloth for the port side areas. Since these areas were larger and would be subject to foot traffic, I wanted to apply at least a 10oz cloth as part of the repair. With the patches cut, I applied them to the already wet out surfaces.
With a foam brush and small amount of neat epoxy, I worked the resin into the cloth to fully saturate the fiberglass.
I moved onto to some other work on the boat, but eventually cam back to these areas when they had become tacky, and applied a skim coat of fairing compound to both fill the weave of the cloth and fair out to the surrounding surfaces.
I continued on with filling the old fastener holes for the eyebrow trim, beginning on the aft starboard side of the cabin sides...
...and finishing on the port side.
I returned to the shop and prepared another batch of thickened epoxy, and applied that to the forward portion of the coachroof. There was a substantial area of cracked and chipped gelcoat, and that required me to remove it down to fiberglass substrate and fill and fair.
I moved over to the port side of the coachroof and applied the first round of fairing compound to the area that I had recently installed new core and top skin to. I chose to only apply fairing compound to this rather large area of the coachroof due to the fact that I had additional lamination work at the mast step (the area that the shop vacuum was sitting upon).
The last area that I applied a round of fairing compound to was the old icebox repair. With the hole structurally closed in, the work left to do is to fair it in with surrounding surfaces.
Total Time Today: 5 hrs
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