Glassing Done

I'm at the stage where you can work for days and nothing looks much different.  The glassing is done and sanded now so it's waterproof  (if it had doors).

The hatch is painted on the inside and the plastic hinge has been fastened to the hatch.  I'm making hatch struts from an old adjustable windsurf boom.  We'll see how that works soon.

Fiberglass and Epoxy sheathing

The time has come for the fiberglass layer over the roof and hatch.  This can be an unpleasant experience without some practice, but I've had more than enough practice coating boat hulls with the same material.  The cloth is laid onto the plywood dry and resin is rolled into it with a sponge roller.  After the resin partially cures, additional coats of resin are applied with a brush.  When that has fully cured, it has to be washed and then sanded.  Paint will follow later.

Rounding it off

Many hours of planing and sanding to get the large radius I wanted between the walls and roof.    No one else seems to do it this way, but then I've had that problem all my life.

I put on a pair of temporary hinges to see how the hatch behaved.  I have another pair of laminated beams to fit inside the inside edges of the galley.

Closing it in

The bulkheads are now in place.  They finally give you a real feel for the interior space that you have.

After a messy few hours shaping the foam insulation down, I glued on the outer panels of 4mm Meranti plywood.  The edges will be rounded to a 38mm (1 1/2") radius to allow the fiberglass applied to the roof to overlap the previously glassed side panel.   This results in a seamless joint that will eliminate the many fasteners, angle trim and silicone sealant normally used to seal the sides and top joint.

Closing it in

A tedious job but all of the insulation was finally glued into place.  It takes two layers to make the bend and even then it sometimes needs the help of saw cuts on the inside to make the bend.

The beginning of the big hatch back. 

Building inside out

The roof beams are notched into the perimeter beam and glued with epoxy.

The thin prefinished interior panels are glued and stapled from the inside.  Wiring for the lights and fan have been put in before the polystyrene insulation..

The interior showing the prefinished plywood panels.  Thin varnished battens will cover the joints.