| Iota Refit |
Saturday, February 9, 2008 The fairing compound had cured overnight, so I sanded the spots with 220 grit paper as required. With that done, I cleaned up the shop: blow down, air out, vacuum, wash down. Dust from the primer sanding had the consistency of fine talc and had coated everything; it was a relief to settle it with the water and air out the shop, however briefly. |
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I began to prepare the paint supplies for the finish primer coat on the deck, which I'd planned to be my next step, but discovered to my dismay that I'd mistakenly ordered dark gray primer for the decks instead of white. I promptly went online to order the correct color, but it wouldn't get here till Tuesday. I couldn't bear the thought of a wasted day Monday (and half-day Tuesday, as the truck tends to arrive around noontime), so after some thought and various considerations, I decided to proceed and spray the finish primer on the hull Monday; then I'd be ready to go on the deck primer by the time it arrived about mid-day on Tuesday. I had originally planned to ignore the hull for now and finish the deck work through the finish primer and topcoat stages before moving back to the primer and topcoats on the hull, but with the new schedule things might work out better in the long run, as I could get all the priming and sanding out of the way, perform one (rather than two) thorough and final shop cleaning, and then spray the topcoats shortly thereafter. To that end, I began to prepare for the hull instead of the deck. The morning's washdown, coupled with an open door and cold outdoor temperatures and combined with in-slab radiant floor heat, had briefly formed a fog inside the shop. Now I found that it had condensed on the hull in particular, and also the deck in general, so I opened up the interior strip doors to allow the air to better circulate and promote drying of the humid air. I vacuumed and wiped down the deck and hull, and left it be to air out naturally for a period of time before continuing. Later on, I taped off the deck and covered it with lightweight plastic, moved the staging to hull height, and completed a preliminary solvent wash on the hull to make the final cleaning easier just before painting. With that, the boat was ready for the finish primer. |
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