Back to the heads

The first job this week was to sand the forward heads door it seems that the original finish had been removed at some time and replaced with varnish however my tin of satin varnish which had not been opened for several years had gone solid so that job was put on hold until the chandlers reopen.
I then moved on to the forward doorway, I had already screwed and glued a piece of plywood into the base of the door opening to reduce the size of the gap at the base of the door, space has been left for a section of the door frame. Once that was done I turned my attention to the sole moulding for some reason a piece had been cut away under the door I am unsure why but I decided to reinstate it.

View showing cut out in the sole moulding

I have been thinking of a way to infill the cut out for quite some time  one of those jobs that was always thought about and then relegated to the too hard list I finally decided that it was time to get on and do something with it. The sole moulding was not tabbed to the bulkhead as would be expected but had been secured with screws however I don't think that these were original, stainless steel posi type, and there is a bit of a gap between the upstand and the bulkhead, however the sole moulding is secured to the hull also it is secured to the aft bulkhead by screws. After some thought I decided to build up the forward bulkhead to meet the so;e moulding and then use the bulkhead as backing to the infill of the upstand. to start with I removed the original blue laminate as I guessed that resin would not adhere very well to it, I also removed a piece of the new white laminate on the right hand side of the door opening to square everything up the cordless multi tool was just the job for this. Once this was done  I gave the exposed ply a good sanding to remove the old adhesive.

Bulkhead ready for glassing

I then used a mixture of woven rovings and chopped strand mat to build up the bulkhead to the level of the back of the upstand, there was no particular reason for using this combination of glass mat it was just what I had in stock.

Bulkhead glassed up

That is sunshine coming in through the window in between the rain this afternoon. Next week the plan is to build up the upstand from the bulkhead I don't think that it will be an invisible repair so I think that I will gelcoat it and leave it as a bit of a feature. Strangely the moulding for the heads sink unit is tabbed to the bulkhead but on the forward face of the bulkhead the forward cabin internal moulding again is not tabbed to the bulkhead in fact on the port side there is quite a large gap I am not sure what has gone on here but it looks as though the boat was originally built this way.