Sea Hood

I let the sea hood cure overnight, turned it over and built up the legs some more.

Then I brought it down to the boat to check for fit. To my horror, I discovered that it was a bit too short and tight in the back. Among other things, I didn't account for the fact that the deck slopes forward, and the hood needs to be higher in the back. A colossal blunder.

Repairs are underway.

I should have also built in some stiffeners, at least near the front door of the "garage" where there is some flex. I need to cure that, because the current plan is to cover this sea hood with strips of wood. Just glue the wood on and belt-sand it smooth.

I really should have taken ebb's advice to build a full scale mock-up. Might have saved me some heartache.

Good on ya, mate! As Geoff might say.

Take it to a shop after you fit it and have them epoxy-glue 5/16" teak strips on it.
Simple - just the top, with black rubber between. Paint the sides and front to match the deck.
Ultra - glue teak on the stand ups too. If shop has teak, you could splay the sides (slightly) at this juncture.
Extreme - if the front is curved have them wood the front as well. Use real black polysulfide for the seams. Gorgeous!
Advantage - not only cosmetic but added wood will stiffen the laminate enough to sit on without deflecting. And stand on without slipping.

If you are using epoxy adding the "front' rib is not a problem, just build a dam, cover with seran wrap and laminate. If you decide to wood it, the rib across could be cut from teak. You do need the crosspiece for strength and anti-drip.

Going with an Extreme Makeover ebb. Wood all around.

The front piece of wood will need to be bent. I don't feel like learning the mysteries of steambending for one piece of wood. A guy with an old wooden boat once told me how he bent wood by pouring boiling water over it while bending. Might give it a try. (Might end up with firewood).

Fixed the fiberglass part I think. I glassed in some foam along the inside curve to brace it.

Actually, the whole thing stiffened up after a few days of curing. I stood on it and its rock solid.

I'm going to attach the thing to the boat by driving screws up from underneath. Couldn't decide on a more clever method. I glassed in some 1/2" strips of scrap teak along the bottom of the legs. This way the screws will have something to bite into.

Next comes the unpleasant job of grinding off any sloppy fiberglass.

C'pete,
Looking good there!

Don't have to steam bend thin wood, glue will hold it. Will hold it on a mild curve. A radical curve where you have to bend and hold the curve with clamps, you would put fastenings in at least on the ends. I wouldn't. It is really not possible to plug screw holes in thin teak. Maybe 3/8s thick if you are really careful and have shallow plugs glued in. Remember the resanding/refinishing down the line!

If you have a difficult curve like the front, or the back top over the c'way, you can have the actual curve cut out of thicker stock. It would then have no springback and would never pull away because too much of the glue was squeezed out.

Might glue the harder pieces on first, like the front. And the sides of the flat top, let them set, and come back later to fit and fiddle with the rest - that way you have nonmoving edges to depend on. And you can custom the spaces or trim the pieces.

You can screw convenient blocks to your bare hood where ever you need them to help position the first pieces. You can cheat by predrilling small holes in the teak (do it dry first) for small nails that you pull out later of course. If you do it right you can include a small block of wood or cardboard under the nailhead to hold the teak down like a small clamp. You don't need to drill thru the hood. No holes in the teak by a similar method but using the grooves for the nail holes. You could create a hold down bar across a strip.

Even simpler is double sided carpet tape with the fiberglass core. The glue can be very aggressive, you need the fiberglass one to pull the tape off! Instead of little nails stick battens on with the tape to help positioning and to hold a piece until cure.

Might glue the strips on with 5200, cut off the squeeze out when set and fill the layout spaces with polysulfide caulk. You'll have to reef out the squeeze out in the spaces at just the right time. If you have a rabbet milled along one edge you wouldn't have that problem - you'ld be laying them tight like a yacht deck. But it would be difficult in thin stock and the rubber filler would also be thin and might pull out. The sulfide should be at least 1/4" deep.

Better to glue on plain strips with spacers - scrape groove clean when partially set. Skimp the 5200 to avoid squeeze out. If the little planks are cupped at all put the cupped (slightly hollow) side down. Some tricksters will make a slight hollow down the length of a strip to get more rubber to stay there if they have an easy tool to use. If you have open ends (no cross pieces in your design) on the sulfide make a dam with wax paper and a batten. Screw the batten to the hood and fill the small holes in later.

Rough up the glue side of the pieces to give the epoxy or 5200 good tooth. Especially with teak. Check the one-part polysulfide to see if you need to bloody prime first. Maybe don't have to these days.

IMCO, if covering the whole lamination with teak is too picky. A nicely laid out top of varnished or oiled teak with black stripes with nicely faired and smooth painted laminate sides with radiused corners could look fabulous as well. It would fit better too, for you, on the deck. Right?

Hope some of this is useful. Never know!

Thanks for the advice ebb.

Just covering the top would probably look good, if things don't work out otherwise.

I had originally figured on just butting the top pieces together. But, having some goop between the planks would probably hold them better.

Haven't decided whether to use 5200 or thickened epoxy. I dislike 5200 generally, but I wouldn't have to worry about working time.

I have a special supply of old-growth lumber I've been hoarding that should work well for this project.

C'Pete,
You're right about thickened epoxy. One measly tip more. :eek:
Because of the time constraint, you might take a two inch throwaway bristle brush and scrub the same cabosil thickened epoxy you are going to glue the strips on with to both surfaces. Scrub, kill the brush. Then spatula on the thicker layer. If the thickened stuff is loose, not stiff, you won't have to preprime the surfaces with plain twopart. With epoxy the priming step is real important. But is so much easier wetting the surfaces by scrubbing the thickened epoxy on first. No runs too, and less time.

If you use epoxy, you can't really tightly clamp the pieces to the hood, epoxy needs a glue line. But you can be pretty tight if you are cupping the underside of the strips with a grinder along their length. 1/16 to 1/8" in the center, 0" at the edges. This will assure enough glue. Can't forget to use a chisel to scrape the grooves mostly clean of squeezeout while it is still gummy but not sticky - if you're going to sulfide.

Instead of clamps, I'm using Nifty Wrapper sometimes. It's the very thin stretchy 6" plastic roll with a cardboard roll handle. Often with red plastic cap. When stretched it sticks to itself. You'ld wrap it around the whole hood, the more wraps the tighter it gets. Crude vacuum bagging. Cheap, epoxy no stick. :cool:

I had been wondering how I was going to clamp that up. Excellent.

Is this the product?

http://www.overcost.com/detail.asp?Product_id=NFTST51

I might get a 20" wide roll and shrink-wrap the boat :cool:

C'pete, mornin,

Should find this stuff at any hardware, many brands - I copied the name off the one I have. Looks a little like a WW1 hand grenade. Don't think there is a 'common' name for the stuff yet. Ask the clerk for shrink wrap or roll wrap. Might find it stocked with the paint tapes. Pin or block the wood so it can't slither around befor you try wrapping. Won't matter if you have stuff sticking up off the wood. like nails or little blocks. When you think you've wrapped it enough, you pull the film until it separates, that also 'locks' the film to itself.

We have those wide rolls on the estate here. Wrap everything: furniture, mattresses, paintings, boxes, records, art pieces, everything that goes into storage. Really works well. You can see what it is that's protected.

Tried it on 338's motorwell blister with wet frp. The wide stuff. With two of us it would have been easier. Got wrinkles (mostly epoxy squeeze out, xmatt didn't pucker), but got the layup (and lap joints) tight to the form as well.

The 6" works great when glueing that kitchen chair back together. Watch it, you can generate a lot of pressure! :cool:

Finally got back to this project.

For the lumber I'm using the coaming boards from Commander # 199. They were in pretty bad shape--cracks, repairs, and still had many coats of varnish on them.

I blasted off the varnish using an angle grinder with a 40 grit disc. Kinda fun not having to carefully strip wood.

Then I started cutting it up.

I'm not really sure what type of wood it is. "Philipine Mahogany" is a generic term that encompasses many varieties (meranti, red meranti, luan etc). Chris Craft used a type of Philipine mahogany called "tanguile" during the 60's.

I figure it will match the rest of the brightwork on the boat.

The wood was 3/4 inch thick. I cut it in half on a table saw. Part of the harvest

To cut the wood in half lengthwise I had to make one pass through the table saw, turn the piece over and make another pass.

I screwed up one piece badly. That piece I'm going to cut down and use for the trim on the front edge of the sliding hatch. The original piece (pictured in front) has a good crack in it

Time to try bending wood.

I put some 6" ventilation duct in a pot on the stove. Once the steam got rolling I took the rag off the top and suspended the wood in the steam pipe.

Gave each piece of wood about 20 minutes in the steam.

(This is my parents kitchen here. I'm supervising a remodel job over at their house. I use the worker's tools after they go home) :)

Quickly took the wood out of the pipe, bent and clamped it as quick as possible over the sliding hatch from Commander # 199. Then wrapped it with Nifty Wrap. I bent it about 25% more than needed to acount for spring back

Next day revealed only partial success. The wood sprang back about 50%.

I'll just have to let the 5200 hold the rest of the bend.

So ends my steambending career

I would have steamed it longer , that wood is old and dry and had been coated.
Give it 45 min to an hour . Leave it clamped up for 24 hrs.