The last piece (the front end of the bottom) went on without any drama. I decided to use up some "slow" hardener on this, since I'm in no hurry for the next step and have plenty of time to let it cure.
I started out by dry fitting a full 4x8 sheet. I had my 4 year old grandson sit on the end near the center joint while my daughter bent the bow end down flush. Then came the unpleasant task of crawling underneath and marking all the fairing surfaces.
The only issue I noticed was that the boat is ever so slightly too wide. After careful positioning, we were still about 1/8" too narrow at the boat's widest point. Not much to do about that, except to fix is up with some epoxy fills and beveling when I fair the hull.
Pulled it off, cut off the majority of the excess wood, drilled a bunch of screw holes, and started mixing epoxy.
I started out with a triple batch that I left clear. I used that to pre-coat the mating surfaces on both the frame and the panel. I'm getting the hang of this now, so I realize that there is no rush here. In fact, better to give the epoxy some soaking-in time. So I stopped, grabbed a quick lunch, then got back to things.
Next, I mixed a double batch. This time, I added a TON of thickener. I wanted this stuff to be really heavy...like the consistency of cold Crisco. Once that was mixed, I applied it to the boat-side of the mating surfaces. Nice and heavy.
Then I recruited two helpers, and we carefully got the panel back in position. From there, it was just a matter of drilling/countersinking/screwing a bunch of stainless steel screws. I started from the back and worked my way forward, screwing along both chines and the keelson as I went. The last bit on the bow required a helper to bend the panel down to the transom. A few more screws, and PRESTO: It looks like a boat:
If the epoxy is cured by tomorrow, I'll go ahead and plane/sand off the excess and smooth over the corners. Otherwise, I'll wait a few extra days. The next big step is glassing the bottom, and I still need to order my fiberglass from Duckworks, so I'm in no hurry at this point. I plan on spending a fair amount of time glassing and fairing and such. I'm hoping to get this smooth and even enough for a nice, gloss finish. If that proves impossible, I'll compromise and paint it semi-gloss and call it good.
I also have to decide how much to glass. Lou Brochetti says just to glass to the waterline, but I'm thinking maybe I'll just do the whole thing. Time to decide, I suppose.
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