Details, details, details ....

Yesterday was for dealing with details. I drove across town to get a handful of 316 grade stainless steel screws. You can buy “stainless” fasteners at the local home center. But it turns out these are inferior. They are not marine grade and will eventually rust. This is an important detail.

The screws I got from the marine store will be used to attach rail fittings to the top of the aft cabin and to the bottom, aft end, of the hard top frame. Eventually, these fittings will receive a 1-inch rail tubing structure that will hold up the back of the hard top.

Placing the aft cabin top fittings revealed a more challenging detail: The cabin top is curved, while the rail fittings' mounting surfaces are flat. It will be necessary to make some wedges so the rail fittings can mount in a horizontal orientation.
  

That little detail consumed the remainder of the day’s work. I made two wedge-shaped fairing blocks out of ¾” vinyl trim plank material. These were shaped with a belt sander, then stuck to the cabin top with thickened epoxy. Another important detail: It’s a good idea to grind the paint off the areas where the fairing blocks are to be placed, so that the epoxy adhesive can make a good bond to the fiberglass substrate.

Here you can see the fairing blocks in place, bedded in thickened epoxy. The filleted joints around the blocks will be sanded and painted. You can see how aggressively I sanded the areas upon which the fairing blocks are placed. The screws through the blocks will be removed after the adhesive cures.

And here's how the block on the starboard side looks, with a rail fitting sitting on top to show how the rail base will be formed:

For those interested in technical details, the resin I used yesterday was West System 105, catalyzed with West System 206 slow hardener. After giving this mixture about a 90-second stirring, I blended in wood flour until the mix reached the consistency of thick peanut butter. This pot of adhesive gave me more than 30 minutes working time at about 70F.

From the Lessons Learned Department: Should your cellphone ring while you are working with epoxy resin, do not answer. I answered mine yesterday, only to discover several hours later that the phone had picked up a glob of resin and would not flip open. Fixing this was tedious work.

My friend Major is coming over today to help cut and fit railing for the support structure. We hope to to assemble the support framework and do a trial fitting on the boat today.