Forward cabin sole

The first task this week was to gelcoat the forward cabin sole this was carried out in the same manner as the heads sole, two coats of gelcoat finished with a coat of flocoat, hopefully to give sufficient thickness to allow for sanding back and final polishing.

Sole after gelcoating

The colour match is not perfect but should be acceptable for the sole it would stick out a bit if used for a repair in the middle of a panel.

Colour match

I hope that when sanded and polished the new gelcoat will blend a little better with the old I am by no means a gelcoat expert so would not attempt a perfect colour match. It is possible tht the original has faded a bit in 45 years and originally  was a bit closer to the new. For the rest of the week I have been sanding the heads sole using various grades of wet and dry paper, this is a bit slow and laborious but makes a lot less mess than power sanding, I have already cleaned up a lot of dust from the original sanding and fairing. Also with power sanding it is all too easy to go through the gelcoat so I will stick with the hand sanding. I have found a couple of areas where the gelcoat was a bit thin and will need some over coating and sanding.