A27- Head modification

[JT48348]

More photos. I used a panoramic setting since I didn't have a fish eye lens, so some pictures may be distorted

[JT48348]

Trying to give sense of scale in a tiny space

[JT48348]

The forward bulkhead replaces the fwd edge of the old dinette bench. The bulkhead mounts very close to the edge of the fed starboard port, which become a fixed port. It angles slightly fed somore room is created to allow the 20" wide swing door.

I plan to use 3/4" coosa board for the forward and side bulkhead, which will fall under the proposed mast step.

A marine refrigerator will go just around the corner, fed of the head.

[smacksman]

Looks palacial! Shower party on the cards?
Maybe a deck hatch or translucent deck ventilater to give extra light.
Deck lights always seem to give more light than side lights for the same size.

[JT48348]

The coosa and board arrive. Two sheets of 3/4" and three sheets of 1/2". The half inch cost is now down to $200/sheet you can't beat it.

Pulled out the foam patterns and started cutting.

I decided to add a layer of biaxial cloth to one side for stiffness. May do both. Wetted them out on the garage floor and squeegeed them smooth. Coosa board is a breeze to work with.

[JT48348]

Interesting fact about the forward head bulkhead: the original bulkhead is teak plywood. But it's wider than a 8x4' sheet. It's two pieces joined with dowels to creat one wide bulkhead

Even moving the bulkhead forward about 15" the bulkhead is still wider than a sheet. I added the small corner piece during fiberglassing.

[Beta Don]

Nice job!

Don

[JT48348]

Thanks. Fabric both sides and the panel is still lighter than plywood. Fantastic stuf.

Trimmed the fabric with scissors and then an angle grinder with a 30grit flapper wheel to take off the meat hooks. Easy

[JT48348]

Panels complete.

Did an experiment with the bare coosa panels for the bathroom cabinet, countertop, and shower step. Coated the side to be painted with thin coat epoxy resin. Some folks think coosa board absorbs a lot of paint. I don't see how that's possible since it only absorbs 5% moisture by specs. Resin was to fill the small imperfections. It worked excellent. Sanded down nice and I have no doubt it will take paint very nicely.

[JT48348]

Bulkheads in.

Lessons learned: My patterns were not as precise as I would have liked. I wish they had been tighter but the pink foam boards flexed; I ended up with places slightly small. In hindsight I wish I'd made them slightly too big since trimming coosa board is so easy.

The coosa board can be trimmed to fit perfectly with an angle grinder using a 80 grit flap wheel. It's so fast an easy to shave a bit off here or there. In the spaces my patterns were too big, I got them just right. But the places where the patterns are too small --- well guess I will be filling that in somehow.

[JT48348]

There's a couple places where my patterns were as much as 1/2-3/4" off especially around the cabin area above the elbow. But you can't tell in these photos.

Tip: I made markings on the ceiling and floor and it's a good thing because I had no idea where things went when I started reassembly of bulkheads. Also label everything consistently so you don't but something in backwards

[JT48348]

Very happy with the stiffness and rigidity of the coosa board bulkheads. Now that everything is tabbed in, it's tightened up the pan liner and as though the original bulkheads were never removed. Concerns about loosing the stiffness by cutting the original liner in the head are unfounded.

My sloppy fiberglass job will be sanded down. I originally figured I'd sand the bulkheads and just paint. But now I'm considering an overlayment of some sort. At the aft bulkhead I will use FRP panels from a big box store $22 for 8x4' sheets. It has a gloss pebble pattern. On the fwd bulkhead and the outside of the head I'm now thinking of 1/8 Sintra also known as Komatex in conjunction with my PVC wainscoating idea.

Sintra is PVC foam board, a fascinating product. It's water proof light weight takes paint and thermo molded if need be. It's commonly used for sign material. Like for sale signs at big box stores. It's basically a rigid plastic.

If you've never seen this product imagine 1/8 white poster board but instead of a soft foam core it's a hard plastic core solid. In 1/8" thickness it's a great surface. I recently acquired some samples off craigslist, so I will do some experiments and report its suitability for headliner material.

[Jay Knoll]

Joe

Sorry I didn't think to send something like this along earlier in your project but given your prior experience I thought that you were aware of this technique. Since you're thinking of putting another layer on the bulkhead perhaps you'll have better luck scribing in the edges

http://lumberjocks.com/GnarlyErik/blog/33417

Jay

[JT48348]

Thanks Jay. I was aware of that technique. I sort of used a modified version of that. But in truth I didn't think it through completely and rushed some parts of the pattern making. I recommend anyone trying this spend the time to perfect the tick-stick or scribing method. It will save some work like I had to go through. Lessons learned.

[JT48348]

Bulkheads in. I'm pleased with the results; rock solid. It took some extra steps to glean up my mistakes but the beauty of fiberglassing is you can fill in and cover ur mistakes.

Although the pics may not show it there's 3 layers of glass at the joints and no light between the joints now.

A lot my messy fiberglass job is due to the fabric used. I scored some 30-50 yards. (Yes that's yards) off craigslist and instead of using fabric tape I cut strips which left dangly threads and mayhem where there's no finished seam. I figure sanding will tear down the meat hooks and clean it up.