Vintage Inboard Cruisers to Centre Console Conversion

[gazza2006au]

Decided i am going to leave the splash well in the boat guys i don't want to produce a lot more work for my self i need to keep the build relatively simple so i keep focused on getting her finished, i am going to glue my plywood together outside of the boat than put on 2 layers of cloth once its cured i'll sand the sides and glue her into the boat than i will glue and tab her in seems the most reasonable way and way less effort than trying to lay all that glass while the plywood is inside the boat

i am feeding off of the advice u guys are giving i can only research so many ways of doing one thing and even than i only see 10% so when u guys mention new idea's to me it opens up a new window, keep the advice rolling it

giddyup that is one fantastic build mate u done a really u beaut job love the transom addition, i plan on going with a bolt on pod just because glassing on a pod has me worried as it wont be engineered it will just be a throw together and hope for the best

[gazza2006au]

Finding it hard to find time between the rain and crap weather and the good sunny days to laminate the ply together so i moved the transom into the shed

in the shed will allow me to laminate the layers and glass the top or inside of the transom this update is basically just to log my pictures

also picked up a nice all carbon fiber drone so if i can teach my self to fly i should have some really neat videos once the boat is done and splashed

anyone know what the lowest temp can be to glass the plywood? i might do it tomorrow evening but its getting down to 1c here and it will be out in the garden shed

also picked up some 1200mls mixing cups with 5:1 ratio so we are in business, going to the hardware house soon for those screws and i have everything

[ranmar850]

It will go off very slowly at those kinds of temps overnight, if all. Sure, you can push it with the hardener a bit, but, when I have had to deal with low temps and wet conditions ( in a shed), I've actually left a fan heater running overnight, fire risk, but I had to get it done and no other way. You may be better off doing it the next day instead, to at least get daytime temps, but the need to make a living gets in the way?

[gazza2006au]

ranmar thanks for the post mate, do u think the resin will go off if i glass it about 2-3pm? i can run a small heater untill around 11pm but i cannot leave it on all night don't trust my dogs with the power cord running out to the shed while i'm sleeping all though i may do it i might see if i can pick up a used oil heater

[Crooked]

Looks like you have to opposite issue to what I have, in FNQ I am always in a battle with the heat and humidity. I use super slow hardener to give me some work time. I don’t use epoxy on ply when the humidity is high as the water content in the wood is high therefore less epoxy penetration and you can have issues with cure. Probably not an issue for you though.

Also I would be careful where you laminate ie. make sure the surface is flat, I did mine on a cement slab and used a straight edge to find the flattest spot first. I guess you could always plane it flat if you ended up with a sag but creates more work. The heater is a good idea and you might want to run this for an hour or more before you do the work.

[gazza2006au]

Looks like you have to opposite issue to what I have, in FNQ I am always in a battle with the heat and humidity. I use super slow hardener to give me some work time. I don’t use epoxy on ply when the humidity is high as the water content in the wood is high therefore less epoxy penetration and you can have issues with cure. Probably not an issue for you though.

Also I would be careful where you laminate ie. make sure the surface is flat, I did mine on a cement slab and used a straight edge to find the flattest spot first. I guess you could always plane it flat if you ended up with a sag but creates more work. The heater is a good idea and you might want to run this for an hour or more before you do the work.

I didn't even think of the bowing bugger, i have it propped up on 2 milk crates i also can't run a heater for long because my plainer cord was sticking out of the shed door 2 weeks ago and the dog bit the cord in half

i got some 50mm galvanised screws i am hopping these release from the epoxy resin

[Noelm]

Use stainless screws and just leave them in there? not an expert, but if you glassing around 2PM, you should have little trouble with it going off.

[ranmar850]

yeah, you should be OK if you start it earlier, i would think. Once the process starts, it may slow down when the temps drop but is still happening. Leaving the heater in the area for the evening --we don't want to cook it, just keep the ambient up to aound 20 deg, should ensure it hardens enough to be handled in the morning, I would think.
I'm no expert either, but have turned out a number of iceboxes up to a tonne in capacity, and they are all still in service, far as I know. Just about to start on a fibreglass-bodied fridge for the boat.

[gazza2006au]

Thanks guys for the help, got an early start today at 8am the sun was shinning on the area i have the transom so i decided to move it out into the sun glad i did i don't think i would have been able to glass it in the shed with no room to move

i cut off the first layer of cloth and glassed it on than cut off the second layer and repeated than went to get the third layer and the guy at the shop shafted me 1 meter on the cloth not happy about that, asked for 6.5m rolled out 2x 2.15m left over with only a small bit now i guess i will use it for the tabbing

transom is sitting in the sun i will trim it later today before the resin fully sets that way i only need a stanley knife

i used somewhere around 1.2-1.4L of resin, the 3 layers of plywood bond took 200mls each and the cloth took 1L for 2 layers of 450gram

[gazza2006au]

Transom is done just trimmed it but a few little shaggy bits left where i should have wet out the cloth 10mm over the edge of the plywood so the cured cloth can be cut but some spots i only wet to the edge of the ply so it became a problem cutting it with the blade

any how shes done

we have 1 more sunny day than rain from what i seen on the weather channel i don't feel confident enough to glue the transom in, glue and tab it all in on one day so i may put it off untill next week when we get a few sunny days in a row

kind of a little worried about the talc sag to not sure if i should invest in something lighter as suggested earlier in the thread by other members, i kind of dont want to start gluing than go OH F*** and i have to redo the whole thing because the glue sags, that bag of talc would weigh close to a bag of sand if not more

[Chimo]

Just in case you missed it on the other thread http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...r+Appreciation

[gazza2006au]

Weather man said it was going to be sunny today and tomorrow, This afternoon it started raining lucky i had moved the transom into the shed 1 hour before it rained, the resin has gone off and was last hard but a tiny bit flexible so i am hopping it worked in this cold weather currently 14c here right now

Went thru 2 pages looks like a Beautiful hull that Attitude boat can take 2.5m of sloppy swell most people would have given the day a miss lol

[gazza2006au]

I'll be doing more work today guys, i need to sand down some more of the tabbing area and i need to sand the rest of the remaining glue on the transom skin, looks like i am on my own tho 2 hands when i really need 4 kind of job so i am really going to struggle lifting those 3 layers of plywood 5 foot over my head to slide down into the boat just moving the transom ply around in the shed is almost slicing my hands open its that heavy remember its furniture grade plywood not just random hardware stuff

any how i am just having a bitch lol the show must go on

more pics once the transom is glued into place

edit: forgot to mention those galvanised screws zipped out as hard as they went in and the scrap cloth i have inside that i cut off the plywood transom has gone 98% stiff so good enough to say the resin went hard but i think its going to take another day or two to go rock hard

[gazza2006au]

Two screws top right corner stripped i donno if i can remove them anyhow the transom is in i done the best i could those 3 layers were heavy to lift and i got lucky i had someone come help lift it i slid it forward in the cut out section than i glued the whole transom skin than slid the plywood back and glued into place what a bloody job

i was running around frantically looking for my Ryobi cordless after my AEG went flat, i am absolutely covered in resin all over my hair all over my hands and arms all over my clothes, the resin was the dirtiest job ever and it was sticky like baby poo on carpet

i put around 25 screws all over the transom i have someglue oozing out of the existing holes and around the cut out section i am glad this job is done

i will wait 2 days than remove the plywood fingers crossed its all done ok

[gazza2006au]

I screwed up guys as i was screwing the left side of the transom one of the first screws has pushed the plywood forward and left a void in the circled areas

what should i do?

i am thinking cut the skin on the left side pull the plywood back than glass the whole area but what are everyone else's thoughts?