Nauticat 52 Refit

[minaret]

Aft deck prep grind goes to the bottom of the hull/deck joint flange, as the new deck will come right out to the edge and the glass will wrap onto the flange to tie into the deck.

[minaret]

The foam will butt up to this reveal and get glassed onto it, hence the taper is ground into the reveal. Here it has just been ground with 5" mini grinder and 1" Roloc setup on a right angle pneumatic, running 24 grit Imperial.

[minaret]

Basic selection of grinders.

[minaret]

After the core is glassed the reveal will be lower than the pad and will have to be hand faired with custom blocks. Therefore it gets boarded fair with a 40 E grit air file BEFORE glassing, to minimize fairing after glassing. This is a rare short bed air file.

[minaret]

Super fast results.

[minaret]

This is a close up of 24 grit prep grind before the air file.

[minaret]

This is after. Dramatically more fair with a perfect taper ground in.

[minaret]

Comes out real nice. Extra attention at this stage really pays off later when fairing. It's easy to use power tools and very coarse grits in prep before glassing, but if you do so afterwards you will have problems.

[minaret]

More deck pics to follow. Meanwhile, any forumites recognize this tool?

[minaret]

Ooh, very nice tool.

[minaret]

Always wanted one.

[minaret]

Beats the hell out of doing it the old way.

[minaret]

Wish me luck, I'm goin back in for more grindage!

[Exile]

Why all the additional layup to the decks? Were they compromised from removing all the teak? I assume they're cored. Just making them beefier?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Exile

Why all the additional layup to the decks? Were they compromised from removing all the teak? I assume they're cored. Just making them beefier?

Aah, Exile hasn't read from the beginning! These are solid glass decks, no core. But the teak was inset in the fiberglass. So I removed the teak and replaced it with hi density foam glassed over and non skidded. Less heat, better insulation, stronger deck, less maintenance, etc. etc. Glad you're interested Exile!