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That’s a possibility, glassing entire inside of the doors. I think Eric does not mean that though, he is saying to glue the bottom door stiffener into place before cutting the door free. You would have to sand-to-fit the stiffener without the door in hand though… might mean crawling in and out through the transom multiple times. Ugh.
Glassing the whole door inside might have other issues as well, particularly with regard to window frame fit.
I will be there pretty soon, Eric! Good to know that it can be done.
Boy, glassing bye bottom took longer than I thought it would. It’s the biggest glass job of the whole project, IMHO. It’s really pretty easy given that it is all flat and all. Given this is my first fiberglass and epoxy project ever, my experience base is limited, but that said, I seem to get a bit better at it with each major glass step. For example, I spent a good bit longer laying out the fabric and getting it to sit “just so” before mixing epoxy.
I ended up with some air bubbles in the butt block fillet. I am planning to apply a couple of coats of paint to the bottom anyway, so I am not going to worry too much about it.
Also, sure glad I added the masking paper to catch drips! 🙂
Also glassed the interior of the vent hatch as well, though I didn’t get pictures of that. Sure went though a bunch of epoxy today!
In fact I just bought this aluminum box. $130 bucks. 48″ x 15″H 15.25″ wide.
I also think the price of CLC’s box is a bit much. I am just going to build my own out of plywood. May just paint it and forego glassing it….. I think a lot of the cost of CLC’s box is the epoxy and fiberglass.
I’m also looking at pickup tool boxes as an alternative.
C0ngrats! I glassed the bottom of mine today as well as the inside glass on the vent hatch. Largely doing mine solo. Starting on the doors in the day or two. And have a week off work soon so planning on a big push.
Did you do much for the electrical system? Defender.com delivered a pair of fans today.
CLC is working on something to do with the vent fan, I was asked to “wait a week to order it” so I hope to avoid some of the vent fan issues ya’ll are talking about.
Did the Big Flip! It actually went pretty easy considering how much I worried about it. It sat on the bottom facet just fine while I scootched it over to make room for the 2nd half of the flip. I am building in a single car garage so it is a somewhat tight fit. I did it solo.
Rounded over the butt block, trimmed the shell edges using a laminate trim bit in the router, which went well though it covered me in sawdust! Lots of shop vac cleanup after. Applied the butt block fillet after a bunch of sanding just to clean up the floor board underside.
Glassing the bottom tomorrow. Pix tomorrow of that.
Here are some pix of the hatch… glassed but not faired in, after sanding, and after the weave fill coat of epoxy.
Oh, yesterday was a run up to CLC, picked up the galley kit and had a nice chat with John Harris. He was very interested in my feedback on the kit, and he reads the forum here! It was great to finally meet him in person, he’s an interesting fella to talk with.
The trailer arrived yesterday as well, about ten days after placing the order. I’ll defer assembly for a few days, so it’s all still in boxes for now.
Hatch is installed and glassed. Did a bunch of sanding on the galley gutter. Fitted the transom, but ran out of time to fillet & glass it in. There is no way CA is going to hold it — have some small gaps — so I’m going to have to entomb some stitches in the transom install. Coming along! I’ll sand and fair in the vent hatch glass tomorrow as well and fill the weave in. Then more sanding….
Try Amazon & Ebay, perhaps. West Marine is another possibility. Also, look at various RV accessories web sites.
West Marine has a decent selection of LED lights and various electrical gadgets, albeit a tad pricey. There is a West Marine retail store near by me so that compensates for the prices somewhat, just for the convienance.
I’m going to CLC tomorrow to pick up my galley kit, I’ll look / ask about the gasket material.
Built the vent hatch this morning, fillet and glassed. Easy glass layup! Finished the galley hatch gutter, that was a PITA. Came out just ok. Going to hit it with the sander this afternoon and clean it up and fair it in better.
Had a major work day today! Did the “Big Cuts” and separated the galley hatch and the doors! I found that the galley flat sagged about 1/4 inch in the middle. I made a temporary brace they pushed it back where it is supposed to be, before installing the galley gutter. Fillet’ed the galley flat and that’s curing now.
Whew, glad that big cut is done. Got a tiny bit crooked at one point but I think it’s going to be fine, it’ll result in no more than 3/16 gap between the hatch and the shell — CLC’s demo TD galley hatch has 1/4 inch gap all around.
I applied a US flag to the transom last night, mostly as a test as if it turned out ugly I can either just use it on the inside or make a new transom pretty easily from a new piece of plywood, no biggie. Turned out “just ok”, learned a couple of lessons though that I thought I’d share.
I used a 12 x 18 “stick flag”. It was a printed flag, not one with embroidered stars. I think you could use an embroidered star flag but it won’t lay flat very nicely and you’ll get air bubbles. The flag had starch or some sort of sizing on it, as it was a bit stiff in texture. It came stapled onto a stick, I used needle nose pliers to pull the staples.
The basic process was to lay down a thin coat of epoxy, lay the cloth down and position it, then roll a medium coat of epoxy over the top. This all went reasonably well, except the area where the flag has been stapled to the stick. With the stiffness from the starch // sizing there was a little curl to the fabric that would not really quite lay flat in the area. Next time I think I will a) first rinse out the flag in hot water to wash out some of the sizing and let it dry and b) iron the thing totally flat, before trying to laminate it on.
The flag was made out of some sort of not too tightly woven cotton or polyester and it retained it’s colors pretty well, perhaps made them a bit darker when saturated with epoxy. I am wondering how a nylon flag would do, in particular will white areas turn transparent or bleed through underlying grain etc. similar to fiberglass cloth?
Epoxy overcoat done. Turned out just “ok”, it will need 400 grit sanding and probably another overcoat of epoxy. No biggie though as the overhead vent hatch construction will cause a need for additional epoxy overcoats anyway.
Tomorrow is the door and galley hatch cutout job! I have prepped the galley gutter as a work-ahead.
