Miscellaneous Fiberglass Work (Underside of Port Side Decks)

August 2, 2019

I took a little time in the afternoon today to apply some last minute panels (albeit small) of fiberglass to the underside of the port side decks.  There were a couple areas that demonstrated some poor workmanship over the years, and I therefore wanted to both clean up the appearance and strengthen the area prior to painting.  To that end, I used the 1" belt sander to remove the last of the cabin paint tenaciously holding on to the substrate.  Happy with the preparation of the substrate for fiberglass work, I then vacuumed and solvent-washed the surfaces.

Back in the shop, I transferred some measurements taken from the areas to be worked.  I cut a 14" long by 7" wide panel for the underside of the side deck where the aft most cabin sides transition to the side deck; I also cut two 12" long by 8" wide panels for either side of the forward chainplate knee on the port side.

I first wet the panels over a sheet of plastic.  I inverted the fiberglass and placed them on a panel of peel ply, and then that pairing on top of the plastic sheeting.  In this arrangement, I could simply remove the plastic and place the peel ply and fiberglass pairing onto the substrate of the boat.

Below, I have applied the aft most panel on the side deck; again, where the aft most cabin sides transition to the side deck.  With the peel ply on, and after the epoxy resin has cured, I will simply remove the peel ply and finish sand (if needed) prior to painting.  Otherwise, not having peel ply on the surface of the cured epoxy, I would then have to water-wash the surface to remove the waxy amine blush and sand prior to further work.

With the aft-most panel in place, I turned my attention to the forward two panel yet to be installed.  I took them from the shop and brought them over to the boat.  Rather easily, I placed one panel on at a time, working to remove any trapped air bubbles.  Again, I'll remove the peel ply, address any small amount of finish sanding required, and then paint the surfaces of the cabin and v-berth.

Total Time Today: 1.25 hrs