April 24th, 2005
On Saturday I sanded the transom yet again in preparation for laying down some epoxy thickened with microspheres. Scraped some tape seams on the wheelhouse, and did some fairing of the top of windshields with the idea of trying to keep/get the nice arc. Re-drilled the steering cable and wiring harness run that I had covered up with the wheelhouse bulkhead, drilled the holes for the steering cable and wiring harness at the transom/battery boxes, and cut and fit the side deck vertical pieces from the wheelhouse to the splashwell. Cut the bottom of the wheelhouse bulkhead (I'll remove that part when I need to access the fuel tank deck)...etc.
Mixed up some thickened epoxy and applied it to the slightly ugly tape seams on the transom. This business is enough to make a preacher cuss. I'd smear on a bunch of the epoxy, and then drag my large drywall knife around trying to fill in the low areas. Well just as I'd get it all nice and even looking I'd end up draggin around a piece of crud which would of course leave a trench. I did this over and over finally to the point where the epoxy thickened too much to mess with anymore. I'm going to have to fill again. I swear that my microballoons and microspheres are full of crud. Guess I'm going to have to sift these thickeners before using them again. Or maybe I'll order some premade fairing compound. Anything to keep from going insane.
Also did some final trimming and rounding off of the corners on the fuel tank deck. Then I epoxied the edges, and taped the one unfinished side of where the bulkhead meets the fuel tank deck. Then I flipped this piece over and added four 18" pieces of fir to act as deck stiffeners.