Preparing the Rear Hatch

I have added a fillet to the hatch stiffener on the side that you can't get at before the hatch is cut out of the shell.  Also the inside of the hatch has been cleaned up a bit.  I'll be applying several coats of epoxy later.

NOTE: A very important point for builders.  As you can see in the above picture, there are holes that have been pre-cut (in the kit version) for mounting the hinges.  The holes are sheathed over with fiberglass on the outside.

The time to remove the fiberglass from the holes is now, especially the ones closest to the edge.  A drip catch will be installed near the edge of the hatch and it will cover those holes nearest the edge, making it very difficult to remove the fiberglass--you would only have about a 1/8" stroke with a file.  Another reason is that any squeeze-out from gluing the drip-catch would be trapped inside the holes and would be difficult if not impossible to remove after it hardens.  I attempted to cut as close to the edges of the original holes as possible without enlarging the holes to be sure of proper alignment of the hinges.

I bought a nice set of files for this project.  The small red-handled files in the upper-right are of several types: flat, pointed, round, etc.  They came in very handy for cleaning out the holes.

Here are all eight holes filed open.  I used the files with the pointed ends to punch through, then followed up with flat and rounded files. 

It's hard to see for all the clamps, but the drip-catch has now been glued to the hatch.  After gluing I turned the hatch over and cleaned out the hinge-holes, then took it inside the house to cure.