Project Log: Sunday,
October 18, 2009
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Some of the overhead liner was
still in place after yesterday's blitz, so I turned to the
task of removing the final sections. First, I used a
hammer to knock free the remnants of tabbing from the two
head bulkheads; the tabbing came free from the deck
structure with minimal effort.
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Next, I made a series of cuts with the angle grinder
and cutoff wheel to saw the liner into sections, which I
then pried down and disposed of. I used my my last
good cutoff wheel, and had to resort to some thinner, less
effective ones to finish up the cuts, leading to some
frustration when, during removal of the last section over
the old V-berth, I discovered that the cut hadn't gone all
the way through and what remained wouldn't release.
After breaking two cutoff discs trying to finish the cut, I
resorted to the reciprocating saw and got it done.
With the type of pleasure borne only from seething
frustration, I heaved the last section into the cockpit. |
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What a mess beneath the liner. It was clear
that most of the gobbed-on adhesive material never even made
contact with the ill-fitting liner, sentencing me to many
hours of future grinding to bring the cabin trunk to some
level of acceptability for the new work ahead. Ho hum. |
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With the saw still in hand, I made a few additional
cuts in the interior to remove various remaining bits around
the old head compartment: the section of the mast
support bulkhead that still extended above the cabin sole
and the remains of the adjacent bulkheads and head platform.
This opened up the area further. |
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I also cut out a portion of the full-width
aft bulkhead that defined the aft extent of the cabin, to
remove charred material and open the access to the cockpit
lockers and engine room, where I had lots of work ahead.
For now, I left a "ring frame" of the old bulkhead in place
to ensure support to the aft end of the hull, which had been
weakened by the fire. |
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I tried ripping the old V-berth shelves out, but
they were tabbed to the hull and resisted prybar efforts.
I decided to wait till I had more cutoff wheels in stock,
when I could make short work of the shelves.
Before
cleaning up and calling it a day, I installed a 5" flap
wheel on my angle grinder and test-sanded a portion of the
inside of the cabin trunk (where it was charred and
blackened by the smoke from the fire) and the overhead, to
see how the beads of resinous adhesive that had been
installed ostensibly to secure the fiberglass liner would
sand. THe blackened laminate of the cabin trunk
cleaned up easily, and I was relieved that it'd be a
fairly straightforward task to clean those areas up, and
also that the blackened sections were not indicative of any
structural damage. |
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The overhead material--the thick, sinuous beads of
resin--also sanded with relative ease, though its thickness
would require quite a bit more time to remove. But at
least it was resinous and not some sort of flexible, tacky
adhesive, which would have gummed up the disc and made
removal a nightmare. I planned to begin some of the
next steps of interior preparation next week, but for now I
cleaned up the boat inside and out and called it a day. |
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Total Time Today: 2.75 hours |
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