Sanding, sanding, more sanding

I am typing this with arms of rubber. Actually, it's not that bad.

The patch I filled is sanded down and ready for another coat of filler. There's a few spots I need to add more filler to (a second thinner consistency) and then this is ready for gel coat. The filler is pretty thin which means I formed the fiberglass pretty close to where it needs, which is a good thing. In hindsight, I should have beveled the edges of the hole more, but this is a strong patch without any more flex than the rest of the hull.





Always, always, always, when sanding, it's a good idea to wear a mask. Keep that junk out of your sinuses and lungs.

About getting the boat to the lake:
I will be fitting a roof rack and attempt to design something to help load the hull up on top of my truck (4 wheel drive). This has been difficult because the gutters on my truck are not solid enough for roof racks. I considered a trailer, but I don't think you can design a trailer to carry such little weight without bouncing around all over the place. It would be better for the hull to have the suspension of the truck than have it's structure damaged with the bouncing.

While considering this, I had to consider that I'm no body builder and the hull is difficult to pick up. I thought if I had something which would let the hull roll up as I topped it, also taking half the weight of the hull off my upper body, I could probably load it without much hassle.
I came across a product called "Hullyrollers" which are for kayaks. The purpose is to help you load the hull on top of your roof. I don't really want to spend the money for them and while searching around, I came across this idea.
I could do that.

Now, this is an exciting thing to see. One of my goals for this boat is to update it. It was produced in 1974 and decorative stickers, made to look like wood, is a fad long passed. The cowling has these stickers as well as the rear of the boat. When I begin working on the deck, I'll remove the ones from the cowling. While the boat is upside down and I'm out of materials, I decided to update the back. The stickers are in sad, sad shape. Faded, peeling, it's not pretty. I also took the time to polish the metal attachment point for the rudder.

Before:



















After:


















My, my. Do I see a reflection in the metal?

Not bad, eh? I merely sanded the stickers off. This was only about 10 minutes of work with pretty coarse sandpaper. You can see the difference in color between the gel coat exposed to the sun vs gel coat hidden under those stickers (click the pictures to enlarge them). The finish has yellowed a little. I'm debating on whether or not it's enough to cover with new gel coat matched to the slightly yellowed finish. It's actually pretty minimal and probably not noticeable unless pointed out.

So, that's it for today. Tomorrow, I'll see what stains I can get out of the existing finish with a cleaner called Scrubbing Bubbles. It's a lemon scented bathroom cleaner. My boat will smell like a giant lemon.
This is to see exactly what condition the gel coat is in. Maybe I'll be lucky and it'll only require a polishing compound. However, I have a feeling the old finish will need to be wet sanded to bring back its lustrous shine.

"Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles" -Sir Thomas Browne

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