Trip 81- Sunday Afternoon - May 31st

Today, Empty Pockets beat me. I, was out of solutions and not much sleep. Equals not much energy.

Paint stripper works well in cool weather and from the spray bottle that comes with it. Applied judiciously, and removed asap, it works well. But, let it pool, leave overnight, you will have some issues.

Lacquer Thinner is also good for this goo. But it requires alot of effort and in those spots that are impossible to get to, it will be hard to work there.

I had lunch and then decided to try some Acetone I had. Bingo, I got lucky. Comes right off. My clue was it dissolves the goo from a brush.

I also decided to decode where the drains for the rear compartments run into the bilge. It appeared the pan for the engine mount was about an inch off the floor. It was. And now I have decent drainage from all parts of the rear.

 

Sometimes a pocket camera is really useful. "Point" and "Create".

Looking from Port to Starboard across the bottom of the front of the engine compartment. The daylight we see, would be next to the fuel tank.

 

Looking to the rear from the end of the bilge. That tiny sliver, will let water thru. I intend to enlarge it with a rat-tail file.

 

I snuck a wire thru the above mentioned hole and here it is.

 

I carefully drilled a 1/8" pilot hole to determine depth. Indeed, I had about an inch til I hit the hull. Grabbed a suitable hole saw and bored a hole. No more standing water beneath the engine.

Catalina seems to use resin with some form of sand for a filler. I took the grinder and smoothed this pile off. Much better now.

 

Next, to clean the goo from the hull insides. These pictures are pretty close to reality of grunginess. And, it is grungy.

 

After I wiped the compartment down with Acetone. I used the half sheet type of paper toweling, torn in half. Then, in a small wide cup, I soaked the sheet in Acetone and wiped using one side, and then the other. I filled a bucket with about 2" of water to hold the used pieces.

And, here are a series of images from the front to the back of the rear Port berth.

The dark area is the patched thru-hull opening for the engine water.

I am going to roll Epoxy on the "roof". Yes, it is dirty, but it is also not saturated with resin from the factory. So, I will and the Epoxy will clean up the top and, no more loose glas fibers.

 

The top of the actual engine compartment. Yes, it is that black and yes, it is now that white.

 

Right under the prop shaft, is a flat area of epoxy. Some of the paint stripper settled there last night and then cascaded down. Went right thru the gelcoat, resin and into the fibreglas itself. I will let this dry, then paint it with epoxy and glas it in. Then, with white gelcoat, seal it.

 

My signature image.

Use your imagination.

 

Empty Pockets, waiting for the lettering.

Later ...