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IMG 1682, MADLEE 1984 Hull #3518, down to gelcoat, smile and stub repair (including about 25 small blisters), fairing, topsides buff, 5 coats of epoxy sealer, 3 coats of bottom ablative, new boot stripes. Ready to splash and to get her mast back.
IMG 1606 High density filler fairing was built up over 23 oz, 6" wide biaxial 45deg fiberglass cloth. Attaching it to lead is tricky. Lead will oxidize nearly immediately after sanding. Cut your cloth to fit, mix a big batch of West Systems G-Flex (without filler) and then use your sander across the intersection of lead and fiberglass. IMMEDIATELY roll a coat of "neat" G-Flex over the fresh lead. You will lap your 6" cloth half on the lead and half on the fiberglass, so make sure the sanding of the lead and the coating of G-Flex is 4" (wide enough to give you a clean, 1" margin of epoxy covering below the area of cloth). I used plastic drywall pans and 10" wide plastic spreaders to apply the fairing. Remember it won't stick reliably to oxidized lead, so stay above and within your epoxy margin edge. If you do go below it, accidentally onto the lead, sand that section off again (using a DA sander hooked to a shop vac) and reapply some more G-Flex. Between workdays, follow good practices, wash off "blush" from cured epoxy with dish soap and warm water. Then sand the new epoxy surface to remove the glossy surface (which gives it "teeth" for the next layer of fairing).
007 Grind these linear cracks out with a 4" diamond blade on a hand grinder and re-fill with West Systems G-Flex mixed with "milled glass". Very dense and more structural than other epoxy system fillers. G-Flex adds the ability to deal with keel movement and vibrations that other, more rigid epoxy systems don't. I had on-hand some of those large-size West System syringes to shoot it into the deep void areas. You can use a Fein-type multi-tool to rough up and "sand" inside those. Shop-vac out the loose stuff, brush and splash in some acetone and you're ready for epoxy.
097 1/2" blue foam was excellent for making templates. Easy to slice and shave with a razor utility knife to exactly fit whatever piece I was making. Match the foam thickness to your filler material of choice. In the upper part of the photo, there's a piece of the heavy fiberglass roving that Catalina specifies in their bilge repair technical bulletin.
IMG 1673 Leftover Interlux e2000 epoxy sealer from the outer hull job makes a great primer for Bilgekote or it can be left alone if kept out of UV (like down in the bilge). And it adds waterproofing to your new fiberglass work. Definitely roll or brush some clearcoats of West System over the fiberglass to obtain smoothness before the e2000. You don't want crevices that will retain dirt and look bad over time. I added G-10 blocks on those four keelboats because I needed more flat surface for the stainless washers to clear the bilge sides.
IMG 1672 Looking forward and towards the mast compression post support area. I also used G-10 (3/4" for faster build-up) under the post because I was familiar with the material and shaping it to fit (use a 4" grinder w/ diamond wheel), it is virtually waterproof and an extremely dense epoxy composite, compatible with West Systems methods.
022 Note the last keelbolt is under the engine. Also see that I added some long bolts in the engine block mounting flanges to keep it higher than the 6 x 6's. All the clearance height you can gain is helpful for accessing the bilge work area. Cut a notch so the oil dipstick tube clears too. You gotta clean this area up and chisel out the plywood around this bolt too. A Fein-type Multi-tool is good in here also.
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