Iota Refit | Monday, January 28, 2008

I began on deck, with one final sanding--this time with a vibrating palm sander and 120 grit--to sand the fine filler that I applied on Friday, and to lightly go over all deck areas one more time.  Afterwards, I moved the staging down to a lower level so that I could begin work on the hull.

Next, I used a heat gun and putty knife to remove all the vinyl striping and lettering from the hull, and then used acetone to remove the adhesive residue as needed.  Then, I degreased/dewaxed the hull with the appropriate Alexseal solvent.


         

         


I spent the remainder of the day removing the old paint and sanding the starboard side of the hull.  I removed the bulk of the old coatings--at least three layers, 2 or more gray and one or more red--with 40 grit paper, then switched to 80 grit to remove most of the remaining, and to avoid oversanding with the coarse paper.  Fortunately, I found that the original gelcoat and hull were in good condition--so far, at least.  With several more rounds of sanding ahead, I didn't worry about small bits of old paint still on the gelcoat, since later steps would remove that as I continued to smooth the hull.

My sander packed it in towards the end of the day, but I was able to coax a very old spare out of retirement long enough to complete the coarse sanding.  However, this one also died, so I finished up the 80 grit sanding with my random orbit finishing sander--which worked, but very slowly.  I ordered a new sander for tomorrow, and after work tried to repair one of the others so that I could use it in the morning, since the new one wouldn't arrive till after lunch, most likely.


         

         


I found the ghost of an old name on the transom:  Cameo


 

<Previous | Next>