Reluctant demolition

This all started with freshening up Ms. Bettencourt's dinged up and dirty dashboard and middle cabin. Then things got out of hand. I had not fully realized the fact that painting the interior of a boat requires removal of countless attachments --latches and brackets, fire extinguishers, bench hatch covers, removable bulkheads, doors and door frames, storage locker doors, switches, gauges, instruments and on and on.

Then there was the rot in the bottom of the little compartment under the dashboard. And now, as the photo at right illustrates, you can see right through that area.






Further pre-paint work led to the inescapable conclusion that no amount of pigment will help the plywood bulkhead separating the steering position and the head. It is badly de-laminated and looks terrible. Just ripping it out is not an option, since there is a major wiring chase and a lot of plumbing on the other side.

The not-so-simple fix for this will be application of a 3/16-inch veneer panel over the whole area. The new panel will dress up the old bulkhead and should strengthen the structure. But, to make it happen, a lot of other stuff will have to be moved, including the shore power distribution box.

Making a pattern, cutting, fitting and fastening that veneer panel will present some interesting challenges.

Meanwhile, the cockpit looks like the aftermath of a burglary.

And, of course. there is a patina of sanding dust fore and aft, all over everything.

Many boats are moving up and down the river.

Ms. Bettencourt has not been out of her slip since June 11.

We need to be on the water.


My friend Major and I talked this week about going down the river and over to Beaufort, SC, after this job is done.

I don't plan to rush the work, but my motivation level is increasing rapidly.

Halting progress spawns new plan

Finally, a workable strategy for the dashboard repaint project:

I have decided to settle about midway on a continuum between perfect and good enough -- let's call it "the best I can do."

Instead of removing all the old paint and underlying gelcoat and filling every tiny little crack, I am sanding the whole surface very aggressively. I have begun with 60-grit sandpaper and my plan is to work down to a very smooth 120-grit sanded surface. All the dings, holes and cracks are being filled, as I work toward the best paintable surface I can achieve.

Life's too short to obsess about perfection.

Chemicals fail...

...and the dashboard is still a mess. The chemical paint stripper I had hoped would ease the job of refinishing Ms. Bettencourt's dashboard doesn't work. The Georgia heat and humidity exceeds the product's application parameters. Temperatures here have been in the high 90s for days. The chemical gel stripper just makes a lot of evil fumes and a few paint blisters, then dries up and hardens. Even night-time applications fail.

There's another paint removal strategy I have hesitated to deploy: The heat gun.  Using the heat gun will require wearing a respirator and other protective gear, guaranteed to be very uncomfortable under burning sun and blanketing humidity.

Rain is expected next week. If things cool off, I'll take up the heat gun and a hand scraper and get back to work.

Meanwhile, thanks for looking in. If anyone has any better ideas for this job, I would sure like to hear them. Please use the comments box below.

Thinking about paint (out on the snapper banks)

I began to sand the old paint off Ms Bettencourt's dashboard this week as a first step toward filling a network of unsightly dirt-catching cracks in the fiberglass surface. This was to be the start of a total refinishing for the whole pilot house area.

After grinding paint off a little less than a square foot of the 40-year-old dashboard, the project was paused for re-thinking.

This paint is highly resistant to mechanical removal. It is harder than Chinese arithmetic. It might yield to a heat gun and a scraper but that will be a last resort, since I fear fumes from blistering coatings would be dangerous in an enclosed space.

The idea of a chemical paint remover is only slightly more acceptable, but that's the direction I plan to take next. There is a gel product that is said to be safe for use on fiberglass. I have ordered a quart for pick up in Savannah Monday.

And since I have to go to Savannah to get the stuff, I might as well go deep sea fishing.

That's why this post is such a short one.

There may be a dashboard stripping progress report next week.