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Project Log:  Sunday, February 23, 2014

I sanded the fresh varnish on the bulwarks and rubrail, and cleaned up to prepare for the next coat, whenever I got to it.

    

I lightly sanded the primed running boards, then painted the underpinnings black.  Then, I painted the port side red and starboard side green, first of at least two coats of paint on the inside surfaces of these units.

    

A fiberglass backing plate for the forward mooring bitt that I'd made and painted long, long ago had been affected by some overspray during another project in the shop, so I lightly sanded the surface and applied more of the semi-gloss white paint that I'd used before.


After water-washing, I lightly sanded the epoxy-coated battery boxes, just to scuff the surface for paint, and prepared openings to provide access for the battery cables later.

    

Next, I turned to the head.   In order to build the platform for the marine toilet itself, I first had to figure out the shower pan, which acted as the sole in the space.  It'd been a long time since I removed it, and at first remembered nothing about its original installation.   Looking over the space and the pan, I noticed several holes on the inboard edge of the pan, which corresponded with holes in the existing bulkhead, so I temporarily refastened the molded pan in its now-obviously original location, which positioned the pan correctly in the space, with a slight angle towards the outboard, after side where the shower sump drain was located.

         

The molded unit required additional support beneath its edge flanges, so I marked the bulkheads along the top edges of the platform in its current position.  The flanges at each edge were about 1/4" thick, so I'd adjust the tops of the cleats downward accordingly during installation.

I thought a support cleat at the inboard edge (that's the side at the bottom of the photos of the space) would be good too, rather than relying just on four screws to hold up the pan.  Here, there wasn't a molded flange, so I'd need a wider cleat located 2" down from the top edge, the depth of the molded pan itself.

From scrap teak and mahogany, I prepared support cleats of the proper size for each location. To properly position the fore and after cleats, I used a scrap of 1/4" plywood to position the cleats at the proper height to support the edge flanges.  For now, I dry-fit the cleats with screws.

         

    

Next, I reinstalled the cleats with epoxy adhesive, using the screws to hold the cleats while the epoxy cured.

         


Looking at some pictures of other boats online, I remembered that there was a teak grate that fit inside the molded pan, which I went and found in my storage area.  The grate was in good condition, once I lightly sanded the bare teak to renew its surface.  Meanwhile, I used some rubbing compound on the molded, gelcoated pan to clean up the surface.  With the teak grate that would cover the surface, I saw no need to go to extensive efforts to restore the pan beyond that which normal cleaning products would achieve.  I did remove an old wooden cleat of unknown purpose, along with a molded, upturned flange at the outboard edge, both of which would serve no use in my planned installation.

    

    

Before installation, I'd install a new drain fitting in the sump, and paint the underside of the platform along with the spaces in the boat.  Once the shower pan was installed, I could move on with the head platform itself, through hulls, and other aspects required to finish off the space.
 

Total Time Today:  4.75 hours

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