Body Filler

[jhenson]

I'm sure I have well over a hundred hours or so grinding off old paint and filling the rough texture of the interior bare fiberglass surfaces on my Triton (without interior liner). I've gone through about 4 gallons of body filler to smooth the texture on all the surfaces that will be visible after completion of the interior. The process has been very labor intensive to say the least with several applications needed in certain areas.

As I said in an earlier post, I have no doubt that the interior will never look as good as one with a liner, but I am encouraged by the basic improvement over the original finish which showed every imperfection like bulkhead tabbing, voids, ridges and the texture of the outer lamination. I think there will still be some slight wavyness on some of the surfaces when I finish. I guess I could fair this out with some addittional effort, but "I have miles to go before I sleep".

Whether body filler is adequate for the job, I guess time will tell. It would have taken lots of epoxy to do this job. I have tried to apply a very thin coating beneath the foredeck where the deck flexes readily (enough to just fill the texture of the cloth). I think if the filler is going to fail, it will be in this area first.

Here is a picture of the rear salon with most of the filling completed:



There is a before picture of the same area at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jrhenson2/id2.html

Its sort of difficult to see from the picture just how bad the painted surface was before.

Joe

[bcooke]

I have no doubt that the interior will never look as good as one with a liner

That isn't saying much really. The liners, at least in my boat, are rather uneven/crooked/deformed in several places that will keep it from ever looking very good. It is better than raw fiberglass granted. On the other hand raw fiberglass can be improved upon. A liner is, well... just a liner.

-Britton

[dasein668]

A liner is, well... just a liner.

Amen, brother!

[Tim]

Its sort of difficult to see from the picture just how bad the painted surface was before.

Anyone who's set foot on an old Triton knows exactly what it looked and felt like, though! Such images are burned indelibly into permanent memory. Anything you do will be a significant improvement, and well worth the toil and trouble.

[jhenson]

Anyone who's set foot on an old Triton knows exactly what it looked and felt like, though!

I' m sure you can't forget! It's sorta like the scene in the movie "Alien" when they descend into the alien space ship. Pretty scary.

Joe

[tartan30cirrus]

Nice work...keep at it. Do you have some loud tunes cranking...if you can hear it over the sander (what are you using for a sander anyway). Keep it up!

BTW, I REALLy like the eyebrows on the cabintop. Can't convince the Admiral (aka wife) to go for this look.

Cheers,
Clint

[Tim]

Geez, Joe, you've been holding out on us! I had no idea you'd started a website for your project. Thanks for the pictures and description!

I have often considered adding an eyebrow to Glissando. It's a project thaat keeps being shuffled to the back burner, but they really bring down the effective height of the high cabin trunk. I don't think I'd add one to the low, sleek forward portion, but on the doghouse, it looks great.

This is what we're talking about...

[jhenson]

Thanks for the kind words on my humble attempt at site building.

I have often considered adding an eyebrow to Glissando.

These are mahogany and badly damaged. I love them though. The plan is to replace them and run them contiquously around the doghouse and (including the lower section) like the Cheoy Lee 27 on the cover of "This Old Boat". I'm a sucker for wooden trim on these boats.

Joe