Installing the Transom

Here is the transom from the outside, stitched to the quarter panel and galley floor.  It was not quite touching the camper floor so I added some temporary screws to hold it while it is being glued (no picture).

What follows is one of the worst jobs on the project: crawling into that little cave and filleting and taping/epoxying all four joints on the transom.

The hardest part was the top joint, just below the galley floor.  You can't tell from this angle but the tape has to bend back toward itself.  I was expecting to do a really horrible job because it is so hard to get at, but it came out looking pretty good.  Much of the transom itself is painted with epoxy because of all the spills.  That was to be expected.  Later the entire inside of the camper will be coated with epoxy.

And this shows the top, one side, and bottom joints all filleted and taped/epoxied.  These joints need to be strong, and I'm not worried.

Building and Installing Roof Ventilation Bezel

Because the top of the camper is curved, a bezel is added to create a flat area for mounting a ventilation fan.  This shows the bezel upside-down after assembling. 

The joints are filleted followed by the addition of fiberglass cloth and epoxy.

 And here is where I ran into problems.  The cutout hole is almost too big for the bezel!

From beneath, you can see that I did not cut it larger than the precut slots.  In fact you can see the parts of the slots that are left after I ran the saw down the middle of each of them.  My advice to future builders is to cut the opening a little too small--just inside the slots or even a little smaller.  It is much easier to widen the opening later to fit the bezel.  But that may not be necessary as the mounting for the ventilator will probably cover the edge up anyway.  The manual does not call for stitching wires, but holes were pre-drilled so I used them.  The bezel just barely covered the opening in some parts, but with the wires I was able to keep it in the right place while I glued and filleted.  Rather than apply thickened epoxy to the bezel first, I stitched it loosely, applied the epoxy, and then tightened the wires.  With the fillets and fiberglass cloth on both sides it should be plenty strong.  (I hope so because the bezel has to support the camper later when I turn it back upside-down for more work.)

Here's the bezel after I applied the thickened epoxy.  I cleaned it up pretty well after this, but didn't shoot a picture.

Oh wait, yes I did.  After it cured I removed the wires and worked on the outside.

And here it is filleted and fiberglassed. A hole will be cut in the flat top to accommodate a ventilation system.

Installing Part of the Galley Hatch Gutter

There will be a gutter that goes all the way around the galley hatch so that rainwater can drain out.  It starts as a flat piece and will have gaskets and so on added later to guide the water out.

Earlier I glued a gutter "riser" to the back of the galley.  The lower part of the gutter will be glued to that.  A slot for the riser was pre-cut, so about all I had to do was glue it in place.

The two pieces that will become the flat part of the gutter have had fiberglass cloth and epoxy applied because they will probably take a lot of abuse.

The top piece has been slotted into the bulkhead.  I am going to send this picture to CLC because the part does not fit very well.  There is a large gap between the gutter part and the galley wall.  I had hoped it would show up better, but the part does not even reach the end of the pre-cut slot.  I will have to put tape under the open area and fill it with thickened epoxy.

Actually you can see the gap at the end of the slot a little better here (with no flash), so I guess I'll send both to CLC.  The pieces have all been temporarily glued in place to hold them during filleting.

The second, lower piece has been added.  At the right is part of the lower piece that is sitting on top of the riser I added before.

I've started a fillet all around the gutter.  At the upper right corner you can just barely see where I filled in the gap, and to the right some of the blue masking tape I used to hold the fillet material in place.  The gap continues along most of both sides of the upper piece.

This shows more of the bottom piece.  Filleting that will turn out to be a huge mess.

A fillet has to go in under that lower piece--this was taken after I did what I could.  The piece was also a bit long, and though I thought I had shaved it down enough, it turned out it was still popping up a bit in places, hence the clamps.  I had the brilliant (so I thought) idea of putting plastic all over the galley floor and using it as a table for my tools and epoxy.  That worked well until I got to the bottom piece.  You have to practically stand on your head to see under there and the tool I had was too wide to work very well.  I was using the "pastry bag" method and it was nearly impossible to get the spout up where I needed it.  Then I was worried about getting my hair in the epoxy on the plastic--and my glasses kept falling off.  So I gave up after managing to get enough epoxy between the gutter piece and the riser to hold it in place.  When that cures enough I'll put in the fillet.  This time the plastic, etc. won't be in the way and I'll use a caulking tube to get the epoxy where I need it.  I'll have to find or fashion a smaller filleting tool.  There'll be more filleting to do anyway because I'll have to do the parts on the upper sides that are covered with masking tape for now. 

Sanding, Cutting out Doors and Hatches, and Fillets Gone Wild

 The top panels have been sanded with 120 grit.  Time to do the sides.

 Here I have flipped the shell onto its starboard side so I can sand the port side without standing on my head to get at the lower panel.

 Was glad I had this little scaffold out in the shed.  It was purchased years ago for painting outbuildings, but I used it quite a bit on the PocketShip and now it's coming in useful here.

 Port side is sanded, now I'm getting ready to sand the starboard side. Next, the hatches and doors are cut out of the shell.

 Here you can see the galley hatch and ventilation hatch have been cut out.

 

And the doors.

 The book says to stop now and get inside the shell to enjoy it, which I did, but not after a thorough vacuuming first.  It's going to be pretty nice, and roomier than I had thought.

 But look what I found when I removed the galley hatch!  I knew the fillet material was too thin when I started it and would droop down, but not this much.  I thickened it and finished the fillet, but could not see this side (which was below at the time) until today.

So out came the grinder.  I ground off most of the excess fillet material, then finished up with the sander.  Needless to say I'll be painting the inside of the galley.  BTW, there will be a fillet added to the joint later, so those voids you can see will be filled in and covered by the new fillet.

Another lesson learned:  Do not use a saber saw to cut out parts of the galley hatch.  I had forgotten how close the bulkhead was to the edge to be cut.  This will be easy to fill, but once again I'm glad I decided to paint inside.  There are some places where I cut out doors and hatches that don't look so good--either I couldn't see the line well enough when I was plunging the cut in, or in one case the saw just slipped a little bit.  The slots that were pre-routed to mark where you cut were a bit wider than the saw kerf, so obviously there will be some sanding to do.  I hope that is enough to even things out.  If there is much filling to do, though, I'll probably have to paint instead of bright finish on the outside also.  Just have to wait and see.

Some Thoughts on Sanding Fiberglass

I'll be sanding the entire shell now to get it as smooth as I can.  This operation could wait, but I think it's best to do it before the doors and hatches are cut out.  Quite a bit easier too.

The first thing I did was to sand down the edge where that third layer of fabric laps over the roof.  This will be the only place where 80-grit sandpaper is used.  Right now you can clearly see the edge of the fabric and the sanded area to the left looks dull, but if I temporarily wet it down with denatured alcohol . . .

 voila!, it looks quite a bit shinier and that edge has almost disappeared.  If I could have taken the shot quicker, before the alcohol started to dry, it would be even glossier--closer to what it will look like with high-gloss varnish, but you get the idea.  The round-over will be sanded by hand.  A machine sander will cut through to bare wood very quickly.  The manual recommends a sanding block, but I will be using a sanding sponge wrapped with sandpaper, so it bends around the round-over better.

Here, I am starting to sand the flat portion of the rear deck.  There are some lines I had noticed before which appear to be creases in the fabric, even though I was very careful with it.  There are also shiny spots.  These areas are un-sanded and will be a bit rougher.  Also, varnish will not stick nearly as well.

So the object is to try to achieve a uniform matte surface.  This feels very smooth at this point, sanded with 120 grit.  Eventually I will go over the whole thing again with 220 grit.

And here's that approximate same area wet down with alcohol to give a better idea what it will look like after varnishing.  (You can see some shadows of my finger and head near the bottom of the picture.  I was working fast to get the shot before the alcohol could dry very much.)

 

Applying the Epoxy Fill Coat

Here's a couple shots showing the shell with its second (fill) coat.  Not much to see--maybe a little shinier than after the first (wetting out) coat.  I used a roller for the whole thing--seemed quicker and easier than spreading it with the squeegee first, and I think I got it very even.  This coat is kind of a balancing act.  You want to get it thick enough to fill the weave, but not so thick to cause runs and sags.  I spent a lot of time going over each section again and again and looking for runs or sags, then went over the whole thing again.  I didn't find any, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.  At least I kept it to a minimum as much as I could.

In an earlier post I said I thought it might be overkill to add masking to the quarter panels, but as you can see it was not.  Those runs would probably not have caused a huge sanding job, but one I am glad to have easily avoided them anyway.

I thought it was a good idea to follow the manual's advice and use any leftover epoxy to go ahead and seal the inside of the transom.  Turns out there was exactly enough--how did they do that?
But here is where I part company with CLC.  They say to follow this step with sanding and then to add the final (gloss) coat, but according to MAS you can add the next coat as soon as it the previous coat achieves "surface tack."  There are several reasons I have decided to do it their way, although I'm sure the guys at CLC know what they are doing.  But here are my reasons:
1. If the fill coat was not thick enough in spots, you could sand into the fiberglass fabric, weakening it.
2. Applying the gloss coat before the fill coat loses tack ensures a good chemical bond.
3. It's just a lot easier.  Even though CLC never says to sand the final (gloss) coat I'm willing to bet you will have to.  So that's an additional sanding plus you've got to clean up all the sanding dust before you can apply the gloss coat.
4. This will provide two coats of epoxy over the fiberglass fabric before any sanding is done, greatly decreasing the chance of sanding into the fabric (repeating myself here for emphasis).

Glassing the Port Side

I checked around 3:00 and the starboard side was no longer tacky, meaning I don't have to worry about fluff from cutting the fiberglass fabric sticking to it.  So I went ahead with the port side.  (I like using the nautical terms, "port" and "starboard" because it doesn't matter which way you are facing, they are always the same. If you are facing forward and then turn around, the left side becomes the right side.)

I learned quite a bit from doing the starboard side and applied what I learned to the port side.  For example, I put pushpins in all along the edge, about 2 inches from the joint, to guide my cut.  The edge of the cloth doesn't have to be exactly 2 inches from the joint for its entire length, but here at the very top it can't be more than 2" because at the bottom . . .

it barely reaches to the edge.  It can be a tiny bit short, because later on that bottom edge gets rounded off.

 As you can see here there is a LOT of cloth to be cut off at the front (you should be able to make out the push pins marking the 2-inch line) . . .

and quite a bit at the back.

Here are the scissors I use to cut fiberglass cloth.  I ground off the pointed ends so they are less likely to get snagged in the cloth as I go along.  It helps quite a bit.

 And here is the 'glassed port side shown from the front . . .

and back.  As soon as the port side achieves tack I can go ahead and start the second coat of epoxy on the whole thing.