Bulkhead wings installed.....

Yesterday and today I was able to glass the bulkhead wings in. There is not much to say just a few pictures. I am getting close to installing the gas tanks and putting the deck on. Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Bulkheads installed.....

Yesterday and today I was able to get the bigger bulkheads installed. I used one layer of chop then a layer of 1708 biax then another layer of chop. After all that then I used 1708 biax to tap them to the bigger stringers. They came out great.

Nida-Bond Stringer Pour.....

Over the last two days I was able to cut the caps on the stringers and fill them with Nida-Bond transom compound. The length of the cavity is 4.5 feet, covering the motor and tranny mounts. After this cures for a few days then I will cap the whole stringer with +-45 then 0-90. This will give me the stiffness I need. Here is a short video and some pics.

Nida-Bond Stringer Video

Gas tank dry fit.....

Today I picked up the gas tanks. Eight feet looks big when you are standing next to it.

They are not done but we wanted to fit them before it gets welded all up. If something needs to be changed, now is the time.

They fit perfect, now I just need to figure out where the fills, vents and pickups are all gonna go. I have somewhat of am idea just need to do the math and see if it will all fit.

More stringers installed...

I was able to get two more sections of stringer in today. These things are huge so it takes some convincing to get them to do what you want. Well not much to say the pictures tell the story.

Bilge Stringer install.

Well after a few weeks I decided to go with Compsys again for the bilge stringers. Picked them up on Tuesday and started to install them Wednesday. The stringers where perfect again from Compsys. We where only able to get two of the six install because of there size. I wanted to make sure each eight foot section was perfectly level both Horizontal and Vertical. It took about two working hours to get these two installed, so an hour each. I used one gallon total of resin but again I was spraying the resin. Here are the pictures.

Motor is running....

Because I am still waiting on some structural components I have had time to tackle a few things for the boat for later on in the restoration. I picked up a motor a few months ago and had some time to go through it and get it fired up. It runs great for an 81, there are a few things that need some fixing but nothing that will hold me up come install time. I hope to have some good news tomorrow form Fiberglass Florida. Not sure if I have mentioned but, I meet allot of people in my real job and all the folks at Fiberglass Florida are amazing. There goal is to make sure you get what you need not just sell you something. They have gone above and beyond what any company I have ever delt with has too. Anyways I am just rambling now. Here is a picture of the motor running.

Hatch building...

Well I am kind of at a standstill with the hull so yesterday and today I decided to start making my hatches. I had the molds done already. So Shawn and I got the big one PVAed, gelcoated and layed up. It can out really really good. Today we did the hatch. These are the big hatches, I will be using for over the bilge area. Enjoy the pics.

This is the Mold of the frame.

 Gelcoat applied (3 coats)

 Layup. 5 layers of chop, 2 layers of biax

 This is the part just out of the mold. Looks green because the PVA is still on it.

Here is the final frame part. Just trim the flange and recess the deck and install it.

Here is the mold of the hatch. It is already PVAed in this photo

Gelcoat applied

Layup

Layup

Finished Hatch. Still has the PVA on it

Poured rudder pad and rest of transome....

Since I am waiting for some more composite parts I decided to pour the remaining part of the transome. I had a crazy idea to frame in the rudder pad and pour it with the extra NIDA-POUR I had. Well the idea worked great. I still need to grind and far the edges. After I do that I will glass over the new pad with a few layers of biax. Here are a few pics....

This is the frame. Made it with paint mixing sticks and blue 3M tape.

 This is the new pad just after I poured it.

 Here it is with the frame off. I still need to grind, but NO WOOD!!!!

Inboard stringers done.....

Today we installed the inboard (main) stringer. These were cut at a 24 degree dead rise from Compsys. Each stringer took 48oz of resin to wet out. The install was the same as yesterdays secondary stringers. Enjoy the pictures....

This is the jig that we made to space the stringers the correct distance from each other.

Once the stringer was wet we placed it into position and installed the jig. The white stuff you see in this photo is wax paper so the wood won't stick to the wet resin on the stringer. 

This is the jig in place with the wood on top to distribute the weight. I used a 5gal bucket full of water for a weight. This system worked wonders.

This is the first two stringers done. We did one at a time, leaving the jig on for about 30mins per side. 

Now onto the front two. These were a little more difficult due to the curve of the bow. I used the same jig but adjusted it to fit the curve.

This is Scott Lewit, owner of Compsys checking our work and progress. It says allot about a company when the owner is willing to come by and give advice on what the next step should be.

All done. It took us about 2 hours working time to do this job. It was an all day job but allot of the time is waiting for resin to dry. Each stringer took about 30mins to wet and set.