Second deck placement check... not the best, but standing on it bends it to the correct shape. Just have to remind yourself nothing is flat... We'll mark where the edges are and cut the majority of the lines with a skill saw before switching to the jig for the corners. (We're cutting out the walkway) before the final coat of paint.
On the right you can see the throttle placement. The driver seat is free to swivel without hitting the steering wheel, nor the throttle. Really only took us 2 hours to get the placement correct... We thought it would take longer. So all is good there! Most exciting!
Deck and bow support pieces are almost ready... Has anyone used 5200 on paint? Does it adhere well? Or should we sand the bottom of the second deck, where it mounts to the screws to get better adhesion? Right now leaning towards globs of 5200 on the scaffold underneath, deck on top, then screwd in from the top.
The port bow side of the deck also needs to get sanded... It's rubbing on the rib of the hull. Don't want more cracks -.-
Sheet of 5052 picked up by the father (saved us 2 hours of driving). We went with .080 instead of .062 because why not. The original measured .071. We'll get this sanded, acid washed, zinc chromate primer, rusty metal primer, than 2 top coats before install.
In the above picture, you can see we have the aluminum channel now facing stern. This is on the driver seat. If we were to have it facing bow, it would be on the gap between 2 pieces of wood, so that's not a good idea.
Unfortunately, the L bracket is weak in compression, meaning, it will fold if too much force is applied on it. Then, you have a bent piece of metal, no good. So we'll need to reinforce the L bracket to ensure it can't fold.
First hole drilled! You can see the counter-sunk first layer. We left 1 layer of plywood on the bottom because drilling the plywood all the way through causes the plywood to splinter. No good! We don't want to destroy this brand new deck that we're now drilling into but thats' ok because we're not nervous at all. Nope, not nervous, just drilling into a brand spanking new deck. No problems!
Drilling the first 2 seat box holes were fairly easy, but then the sternmost seat boxes got tricky. How much space do you need between the seats? What about the clearance of the rear seats and the dog house? Will it be easy to move between the rear seats and the dog house? How much leg room do people need?
We decided on 34" of leg room. It gives 12" between the rear seat and the dog house, and enough room for you to lay your feet out in front of you. Suddenly, the 18' boat felt 2' too short....
Sanding a circle for the fiberglass insert. Notice we have the shopvac hooked up to the sander with duct-tape. There was an absurd amount of dust still... Definitely wearing the respirator, chemical goggles, and double ear protection.
