Gel coat

I spent quite a bit of time sanding the new gelcoat this week, eventually I got it down to a reasonable finish using various grades of wet and dry sandpaper finally finishing with cutting compound and a coat of wax polish. There are a couple of patches where I went through to the original gelcoat these are on the front of the moulding I am not sure whether it was the original moulding that was a bit uneven or I hadn't put a thick enough coat on most of these areas will be covered by a timber edge trim but I may need to go over some parts again, at the moment the jury is still out on the question of doing gelcoat again or using paint. Once the gelcoat was finished I fitted the bulkhead fitting at the back of the cooker so that the gas hose could be connected up I spent a bit of time finalising the position of the bulkhead fitting so that the hose does not chafe as the cooker swings in its gimbals.

Gas hose to cooker

Cooker back in place

Photograph below is from last week showing the gas locker installation with the bubble leak detector it just needs a gas cylinder so that I can cut the hose to length and fit the pressure regulator.

To finish off the week I spent some time working on the battery locker I made the bearers for the battery support plate and got the first coat of paint on them.

Battery support plate resting on its bearers

The battery locker requires some work to the tabbing around the base so I gave the whole locker a good scrub out with some industrial strength detergent to get rid of the grease and oil contamination, It looks as though the engine space bilge has been leaking into the battery locker at some time, it will have the weekend to thoroughly dry out so that I can get on with this job on Monday. As well as repairing the tabbing I also intend to make sure that the battery locker is sealed off from the engine space bilge.