Check this out... Stan wanted to get a feel for the top coat, so he sprayed the console white yesterday. I'll get some pics in better light on Sunday. He did have a small run on the back of the console, but that will color sand right out. He is talking about spraying Imron clear over the white. Anyone know of any problems with yellowing?
I went out to visit the boat and do a little work on the scuppers and deck so that Stan can get that last little bit prepped, primed and then move onto making the inner liner of the boat white!
The scuppers didn't line up very well with the pockets in the deck and it looked like big surgery to make that happen. So I just decided to fill in most of the pocket and make it look more uniform. If I had to do it again, I would have completely filled in the pocket and moved the scupper up that 2" to level with the deck. Hind sight is usually 20/20. Oh well, this will still be great.
I made some small blocks of klegecell and fit them to place in the pockets. Once dry fit, I made up a batch of vinylester resin heavily thickened with cabosil and bedded the blocks in place. After that had begun to kick off, I glassed over them. There will be a little bit of sanding and shaping before primer, but it should finish out very well. I think we will see some white Imron in the liner of this boat by next week if the weather holds out for us.
Yes, if I am understanding you correct. The drains are fiberglass tubes that are glassed in place and out through the transom. I copied what regulator does with their deck drainage on the Reg 26.
I made them. I built a simple mold out of MDF. Its 1.5" x 4.25" and about 15" long.
Basically, I wrap the mold in thin (1-2 mil) plastic. That way I don't have to spend time waxing the thing and the part comes off alot easier. It doesn't have to be perfect anyhow. I use 1.5oz mat and 6 oz cloth to wrap the actual tube. There are about 5 wraps of the 6 oz cloth to make a wall thickness of about 1/8". I would have liked them to be a little beefier, and I still have some tabbing to do in the bilge when I get that boat back, so I'll probably wrap them a few more wraps at that time.
I have some cleaning up to do, but these are all set to go into the boat when that part of the project comes up. I am using the same system in my Mako 21.
They did not look like something you'd find in a catalog, but they also looked perfect for the task. That's pretty darn good. Using the plastic as a mold release does make it a lot easier to get 'em off the mold.
Yes, with the plastic you can basically side the MDF plug out and then the plastic peels right out after that. Using the plastic you have to use epoxy resin... polyester will eat that plastic up. If you were dead set on using polyester you could wrap the MDF plug in wax paper. That would work out fine.
I bring up the epoxy and polyester because some people prefer to work with one of the other. For this task, if I had to do it agian, I'd probably use polyester. Its alot cheaper. You can install it to the hull/liner with epoxy and take advantage of the strength that epoxy has to offer at those unions.
A belated update. Stan and the gang are working like hell right now to fix any pin holes, blems, porosity, low spots, and high spots that they didn't find on the initial priming stages. They should be ready to spray the inner liner sides and top cap white tomorrow or the next day... much depends on the weather.
After Thanksgiving they should be moving to the hull sides and that should go pretty quick. Around the first week of December we should be getting the non-skid on the deck and gunwales taken care of too.
Stan got the inner liner and cap sprayed white today. He said it took 5 coats to get the coverage that he wanted. It took 2 full gallons of Imron 508 to do the job. He said he's happy with it overall and after color sanding a few spots and then wetsanding and buffing it should be perfect.
Stan and the gang are going on vacation for a long weekend so the paint will get to set real well by the time he's back. When he gets back he's going to get on the hull sides. Probably a week of work to block sand, prime one last time, re-block, and then paint! Hopefully the boat will be coming off the trailer for the bottom work in the first week of December.
Obviously this is a major milestone today. Back in July, if you had told me this day would ever come... I would have told you that you were smokeing crack! Hats off to Stan, Nate, & Rooster for having the balls to take this paint job on! Also thanks to Mr. George for sending me these pictures so I don't have to go through the weekend wondering what the progress looks like!
Mako 261 Saga update
Linear Mode
