I was unable to get to the boat last weekend due to family commitments, but I managed to get down both days this weekend.
My main mission yesterday was to get the cockpit locker lids epoxied on one side and get the gaps filled in. As with all jobs, its the prep that is important. All the sanding has been done and I needed to wipe all the wood down with panel wipe. Once this was done, I realised I needed to heat the epoxy up, so I did this with a sinkful of hot water. Once the epoxy was warmed up it was mixed and then painted on one side of the wood with a brush. I'm not really looking for an amazing finish as the boards will be sanded and painted, but I wanted to seal the wood so they will last a few years at least. Once I had got a coating on, I mixed the remainder of the epoxy with colloidal silica so that I could fill the gaps.
If you remember, here is a pic before the epoxy went on:
Here it is after:
As you can see it does look a little rough, but it will be sanded once it has cured fully (about a week or so).
Of course this is just one side, so I left this overnight and this morning flipped them over and did the underside. Here is a pic of the underside:
I didn't actually take any pics after I had finished, but its pretty much the same as the first pic!
I had then planned to go and paint the sides of the bilge ready for the new (to me) engine to go in. I discovered I had left the bilge paint at home so I put the engine cover back on again.
One thing I have been wanting to have a look at is the cooker. Solas has a gas cooker with 2 gas rings, a grill and an oven. It is a Plastimo Atlantic which looks like it was made a few years ago:
I haven't used it yet and have no intention of until I have decided whether I will keep it on board. I wanted to remove it to see how it was connected and what the space behind and underneath looked (as it looks pretty grimy from the bit I can see). I spent half an hour or so with a spanner, but could not get it undone, so I decided to use a hacksaw and just cut through the copper pipe (which shouldn't be connected directly to the cooker anyway). One the cooker was removed, I was left with a horrible empty space. I started to clean it and then remembered to take a pic:
Its worse than I thought it would be. I got a bucket of hot water and this went black almost immediately as it was so filthy. Two buckets later, I was left with this:
I can't even figure out how this whole thing has been put together! It looks as though there has been some sort of thin metal liner fitted inside another metal liner.
It still looked really horrible, so I decided that I would run some paint over it. If I decide to keep my Origo stove, then all this will be dead space anyway as the Origo will sit on top of this space on its gimbals. This is for 2 reasons. Firstly, the height is much better to cook with and secondly, it is NOT gas! I needed to take the unit door off and this was actually the hardest job of the day. I used a bradawl to dig the paint out of the screwheads and undo them. I just left the hinges on (as it looked as though they had already been painted over many times before).
So this meant some more sanding. I decided to sand by hand as the area isn't massive and it only took about 15 minutes and I was left with this:
So I spent a while going around and masking off all the areas I don't want any paint on. In my experience, this usually takes way longer than the painting itself. Once I started painting, I could see that one coat was not going to be enough. I didn't paint the top of the work surface as I intend to install a new Formica worktop.
Anyway, here is the result of the first coat:
As you can see it is far from perfect, but I think a second coat will finish it off nicely for the minute. Longterm, if I don't put the cooker back I will replace the whole front panel and build another storage cupboard for food or something.
It also made me aware that there is still loads to do! I realise now that there are still areas of the boat I haven't scrubbed out and painted yet. A little at a time though!
More to follow....
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