Re: Love, Necessity and Pride
GT1M, glad to see some more progress. Hope your arm isn't in any pain trying to move along on this project. You really nedd to baby that arm so it can heal quicker...
I have a question that you probably already stated before and I missed it or forget (I'm getting old you know...I think?), are you going to install marine carpet over the finished floors? I wonder because I'd like to see how you make the different compartments seals. On some boats they use a 90 degree angle where the compartment lid/covers also has a 90 degree edge that over laps the compartment edge to keep out water and such. I'm doing (or plan on doing) that same setup with my rebuild project for the rod compartments and will use carpet as well. I was just wondering how to attach the carpet and still make it all look great... What size wood to use and the wood size of the edges too...
Nah, the 'Ol Man upstairs built me tougher than rawhide, brother...Thanks to Him...I should be good to go with the wing...
Ya know, that's a good question and one I can't give a definite answer to, because I am leaning towards a different type of deck material...
So far, the leading candidate, from the samples I have requested, is Mari-Deck...
I have samples of various marine grade carpets, a couple of gel coats, Nautolex, Dura-Bak and Mari-deck, so far...
I am not too fond of carpet since it does tend to absorb and/or hold water...
Dura-Bak is very similar to bed liner material used in trucks, etc...and it can be a bit rough, plus tends to have the typical good adhesion problems of these types of coatings...
Gel coat and bilge coat are on my list of possibilities, but mainly for the inner areas of the storage lockers and bilge, etc...
I may also use one or the other as a final seal coat on the deck, but it won't be the final finish...
Nautolex and Mari-Deck, I am liking because they are a cross between vinyl decking and carpet...
It is a solid material like a vinyl product, but has the slight give/cushion that carpet affords...
Since this is a bass boat, a lot of times you are going to be on your knees grabbing hold of that big 'ol bucket mouth and the Mari-Deck seems like the better choice...at this time, anyway, until, if and when something better catches my eye...
As far as finishing off the edges...I really don't have that figured out, yet...I may end up wrapping over the edge and gluing/stapling, or might glue to the edge and trim it with something to keep the edges clean...
Once I figure that out, I will know what kind of gap I will need to leave between the hatches and the deck...:noidea:
Another point as to the cut and fit of the hatches...I am attempting to design this boat to allow water to run freely to the bilge.
What that means is I am not really going to concern myself with a ton of gaskets or seals and custom designed edging around all the hatches...
I do have a couple of fairly waterproof compartments I plan to build for stuff like papers, electronics, carry on stuff like cell phones, etc...
Most everything else in the storage compartments will be stuff, that if it gets wet, it won't be hurt by it, or if it is stuff that shouldn't get wet, I plan to have it raised up, off of the sub deck...
As a matter of fact, I am designing it in such a way that if any water, from the sky or the sea, gets on the deck, it will almost immediately find its way back to the bilge, where if I am out on the boat and the bilge begins filling, it will automatically come on and dump it, or I can turn it on manually, or if it is sitting at home, bow up and with the drain plug out, it will just flow out, if, of course, I may have forgotten to put the cover on...
Hope that helps...
Happy Sunday!
