Robin's Reports

HANGING WINDOWS

by Robin

Being on the brink of the Florida primaries and the past stories of hanging chads, I couldn't resist calling this post "Hanging Windows." It was a very productive Saturday on the boat. All 4 windows that make up the entire windshield were sanded, taped, primed and painted. Since I didn't have to school the boys, I had the priviledge of being painter for the day. (Not a priviledge at bath time though. Think scrubbing until you bleed.)

We turned our back shed into a paint shop becuase of the on/off-again showers. We hung the frames up by wire so I could work both sides at the same time. I did 1 coat of Zinc Chromate (deadly stuff), 2 tacky coats of black enamel and then 1 heavier, shiny coat. I believe I did a very good job.

Our goal is to put the windshield back onto the boat on Monday (MLK day) when Jack has off again. So, after that first part was done, we spent the last couple hrs of the day wet sanding & buffing out the paint on the cuddy cabin.

Last we left off , we had a giraffe paint job thanks to rain late in the drying process. Jack felt certain that we would be able to sand that down into a better finish. We also sanded out bugs and some blue specks leftover from the tarp.

Somebody got brilliant and put sandpaper in discs and attach them to an air compressor. Ahhh, this was much easier than hand-sanding. Jack started with 600 grit by hand which didn't last long. We quickly moved from 1000 grit to 1500 grit sand paper. The best way to describe is is the feeling of leather or maybe even shark's skin (depending on your grit). The higher the grit, the finer it sands.

The inside of the windshield turned out lovely. After the 1500 grit sandpaper, he went to a product called Perfect-IT by 3M which cuts a glass-like appearance into the area.

It is now ready for the windshield to be hung back onto it on Monday.

I was able to sand the cuddy top with 1000 grit before night fell. You could still see the giraffe print but it was smooth to the touch. A little more work Monday afternoon and it will look as nice as the dash area.

Once all this is done, we will put the bimini top & eisenglas windows back onto our baby and it can do more protecting of the cuddy & instrument panel than the tarp.

Happy Fishing

Robin