November 15, 2017
Picking up where I left off on the recoring work on the foredeck, I solvent-wiped the G10 core material, wet out the surfaces of the bottom skin and surrounding balsa core with neat epoxy, and then mixed another batch of thickened epoxy. I pushed the thickened epoxy around to the opening in the deck to cover the bottom skin liberally, as well as the sides of the balsa core, and then placed the G10 core material firmly into the bed of epoxy.
As the epoxy squeezed up around the sides of the G10 material, I then used a squeegee to smooth of the surface - it actually took another ounce of thickened epoxy to achieve this, but the top of the new core material was in plane with the tapered edge of the deck.
I then wet out the cloth that would form the new top skin. I placed the large piece covering the entire surface of the new coring as well as the tapered edges, and then one piece each to port and starboard to help form the raised nonskid surface. I initially thought it would require two thinner strips to port and starboard to build the raised nonskid deck. After placing an additional strip on the starboard side, I could tell that the surface was now proud of the deck, and using fairing compound would be significantly easier than sanding off a layer of glass.
I covered the area in plastic sheeting and weighted it for the curing process.
Shop dog helped me close for the evening.
Total Time Today: .75 hrs