Work on Canopy and Floor

Since the last post there has been a lot of sanding, sealing, fibre-glassing and painting. None of this is very photogenic but here are some of the steps along the way.

The canopy was covered with 3mm thick ply.

After filling the holes where the plastic nails went in to hold the ply while the glue set (seemed to be hundreds of them) and sanding the whole thing the fibreglass went on.

Then the sanding started and it took hours to flatten it out!

Here's the first coat of primer going on the underside; the top of the canopy has been primed and undercoated.

The canopy is now undercoated all over and will wait a while for the finishing coats.

The four plywood panels that make up the floor were sealed with Wattyl SeaPro TP80 sealer and then covered on the top with strips of White Beech so the will match the fore and aft decks. Here are the panels laid in the boat.

Another photo of the panels after the gaps between the strips were filled with black Sikaflex. I put masking tape either side of the gaps to try to keep the Sikaflex under control. Once the gaps are full and the flattend with a spatula the tape peels off and leaves a fairly clean surface on the timber. After a couple of days for the Sikaflex to cure the whole surface can be sanded flat.

The planking was then coated with Deks Olje Number 1, applying multiple coats wet on wet until no more would soak in. The excess was wioed  off with a cloth.

Here are the floor panels turned over, primed and undercoated ready to put back in the boat.

I needed to add a couple more floors to support the end of the aft floor panel and the board behind this panel that will carry two of the batteries. Here they are, glued in place and primed.

Here is the aft floor panel in place. One of the new floors is visible behind it. I'm pleased that the paint matches the original colour - I was a bit worried about this as I created the original colour by adding a bit of dark green paint to gloss white.

I've put the temporary seat back in so I can figure out how to make and support the final horseshoe shaped seat.