| Circe
| Tuesday, July 14, 2009 It was time to begin (or continue, depending how one looks at it) the interior demolition and preparations for future work in the interior and elsewhere. Before proceeding with demolition, however, I decided it'd be easier to begin stripping paint from certain areas of the interior while the old structures were in place--specifically the forward cabin, where stripping the overhead would be easier while the old berth structure remained, giving me support and a place to recline in relative comfort while removing years of paint buildup. After collecting the various tools and equipment required for the job, I removed all the old paint from the underside of the deck in the forward cabin, as well as the inside of the cabin trunk, overhead, hull, and the forward face of the main bulkhead. Before beginning, I removed the two small storage shelves, as they were in the way of good access to the underside of the decks; the shelves came out easily with just a bit of blunt persuasion, bringing most of their tabbing along with them. |
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Someone in the past had already "pre-distressed" many of the fiberglass surfaces during an uninformed session with an angle grinder, leaving plenty of crescent-shaped divots behind for all time. These, along with deeper voids in the original, roughly-constructed laminate, became highlighted as I sanded the surrounding areas. I sanded as smoothly as I could despite someone's past mess, but many of these depressions and voids were too deep to sand away. Later steps in the preparation would eventually take care of these areas to the extent required. |
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Because I wasn't sure how much (if any) of the old tabbing securing the v-berth structure to the hull would come away when I removed the structures later, I stopped the paint removal a few inches above the platform, so as not to waste time sanding material that might be ripped out shortly. Similarly, I left a band of unsanded area around the forward hatch opening, as I planned to cut this out and enlarge the opening for a new hatch as part of this refit. Other areas, in corners and other tight confines where my sander wouldn't reach, would eventually succumb to future efforts with additional tools. |
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After cleaning up, I spent the remainder of the day removing all the structure in the forward cabin: berth platform, supports, water tank, and the small section of flat cabin sole. The pieces came out with relative ease after I cut the tabbing at the hull with a grinder and cutoff wheel. I sawed the platform into manageable pieces so I could remove them. |
  
 
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Finally, I cut away most of the forward chain locker bulkhead, leaving a "web frame" at the edges; during the interior reconstruction later (much later) in the project, I'd replace this bulkhead with something new, using the remaining webs as the attachment point. For now the rest of it could go away, which would give better access to the chain locker for paint removal efforts there. |
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