| Aphelion Refit |
June 25, 2007 Armed with a 2" Roloc sander, I went around the boat, first marking and then grinding out any small imperfections in the topsides, including larger cracks, areas of old fill that didn't look sound, and minor scrapes and dings. The overall condition of the gelcoat was quite good, though, like most older gelcoat, there was a fair share of fine crazing and minor cracking that would be completely impractical to attempt to remove, at least without peeling the entire gelcoat layer. |
|
|
Once I had all the blemishes ground out, I applied a first coat of Alexseal fine fairing putty. I elected to use this material for all the filling and fairing work in this case because the filled areas were shallow and minor, and there wasn't a need for any serious bulk filling first. The finer fairing compound ultimately provides a smoother result, so here I had no qualms using it for the entire job. I expected a need for one more coat in many areas, and there were a few areas, notably the stem and around the stem casting, where additional filling and fairing work would be required. |
|
|
While I waited for the fairing compound to cure, and in and around the other distractions of the day, I worked on the port covestripe with a putty knife and heat gun, and removed the ancient vinyl striping tape in small bits and pieces. The tape was in poor enough condition that it was rare that I could get longer pieces to pull away cleanly, so this job was an exercise in patience. Removing the tape left behind a heavy layer of adhesive that I'd have to remove with solvent later; a test area showed that acetone would do the job nicely, if not quickly. With business scheduled away from the shop for the next two days, I won't be working on the boat again until Thursday the 28th. See you then. |
|
|
|
|
|
