Thursday, November 10, 2016

Preparing to Fiberglass the Bottom

The manual says to turn the shell upside-down and set the bezel on some foam blocks.  Since I have to move it around by myself I decided to put it on a furniture dolly instead. 
The rear of the camper is supported  by a sawhorse.  The homemade sawhorse I had was too short so I went down and bought one that has adjustable legs.  At its shortest setting, 32", it is just the right height.
The first step is to sand a roundover all around the perimeter of the bottom, because the fiberglass will roll over onto the sides about an inch or so.  There is a problem at each end of the butt block, though.  This is the rear end where I decided to cut off the tabs (the right one is already removed) and fill in the whole area:
Here it is filled in and curing.  This will give the cloth a place to "flow" smoothly down onto the transom.  I'm not sure what's going to happen at the sides of the butt block--I hope I can make the cloth conform, otherwise will have to cut some darts.
And here is the rear end sanded.  The front end got the same treatment.

There is more filling and sanding yet to do at the ends and all around the sides, then comes the fiberglass treatment. 



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