The usual early start today, I got in and finished the roof inside glassing. I moved the frames to reveal the unglassed sections below them. I also found quite a large (about 200mm round) patch of glass that had not stuck to the roof below, it had lifted. I would have to grind this out and patch it. I decided to kill 3 birds with one tape. The plans say to put an extra layer of glass in areas where the turns are tighter, I had a number of bubbles in the glass that extremely fortuitously ran in a fairly straight line in line with the patch that did not adhere properly and the patch itself could all be covered in one tape across the roof and I also corrected some laziness from yesterday.
I had not bothered (thinking I wouldn’t need to) to bring another frame for the front turn of the roof out from under the boat and into the upturned roof. I decided to do that today because my conscience got the better of me over night and a good thing too. When I placed the frame in the roof I could not get it in because the roof was setting small. My panic was quickly replaced with relief when I realised that even with glass on both sides (even though the inside is not yet fully set) the roof is still quite flexible. I am sure that it will stiffen as the glass sets but it will still have some give in it in order to make it meet the wrap around sides. Once I had placed some blocks under the front of the roof the gap between the frame and the inside of the roof was reduced to less than 10mm and can be reduced further by pushing or lifting the roof in strategic ways so I am not concerned that the roof is setting wrongly. But just to be absolutely sure I wedged it in place and the extra tape to patch the bubbles etc will set and help to retain it in the shape where it meets the frame.
I ground out the patch of lifted glass and the bubbles and keyed the glass either side of the unglassed strips and blew the dust off and cleaned the top out. I back filled the holes and used the glue to fill the gap to smooth out the glass edges either side. I let this tack off a moment while I cut the glass for the rest of the job, 2 tapes 1 x 300mm, 1 x 400mm and a large piece at the back of the roof that I had not done yesterday. I lay the glass in place and wet it out using the same method of using a squeegee to spread the resin around and to ensure that I did not over saturate the cloth and to remove the air bubbles. I rechecked the props that were holding the roof in shape against the frames and left the roof to set for a couple of days until the resin fully cures.
I spent an hour and will spend a few more tomorrow or Tuesday making white melamine chipboard panels for a hatch display. There will be a small boat show at Darling Harbor (Sydney) next weekend and I am showing my hatches for the first time. Jo has made me a fantastic flyer to hand out to anyone interested with a pricelist. Which also means that I wont get any more work done on the roof for a while (at the show all next weekend and in Melbourne Wednesday and Thursday). I still have to glass another layer of core into the cockpit overhang, fit the sunroofs, make the saloon roof liner, then turn it over and give the roof a rough fair. I wont fully fair because the roof can still flex and wont be fully set in shape until it is attached to the boat and the wrap arounds attached. There is no point fairing something that can change shape as it is more than likely the work will be for naught and you will have to do it again.