Removing gelcoat goo with acetone and wire brushes
57 Deck Filler
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Removing gelcoat goo with acetone and wire brushes |
Summary: The week started off by continuing to clean off the gelcoat goo that didn't harden from Friday, an ugly job that continued through Tuesday. Our friends on Vamp gave us a hand on Monday, which was very appreciated, but then the anchorage got rough and they left. Houa finished assembling the galley sink cabinet but it still needs trim and finish work. Amanda came back from Cambodia but she seems to have picked up some sort of low grade bug and couldn't help much. Most of the work was laying down more polyester filler and sanding it smooth. Putting the correct radius on the corners, like around the hatches or where the cabin meets the deck, takes a lot of time and patience, but it's difficult to tell these guys that the decks are already very flat and they only need a tiny amount of filler. Baw finished wet‑sanding the bimini to 240 grit and will now move up to the deck as he understands what we want. The bimini is looking very nice and is now ready to be sprayed with its final coats of gelcoat. Sue spent a lot of time sanding the toe‑rail and is almost finished with it. She also delivered our headsail to Rolly Tasker for cleaning and picked up our new $1,000 headstay as well as our old headliners (which still need work). When Jon wasn't running out to get supplies for the guys he was polishing our new prod, which was in terrible shape, or hunting for better quality electrons and building a heavy duty cord to reach them. Our stainless steel workers from Luck Engineering came and fitted our new grab‑rails along the sides of the main cabin and the reinforced backrest for the cockpit seat. They fit perfectly and look gorgeous, but their rails for the sugar‑scoop walls didn't have the pads in the correct places so they'll need to be reworked - a shame because they're all polished up and look beautiful. Mike from Wiwat came by on Saturday and noted that the workers are creating work for themselves so we feel better directing them more firmly.
 Houa's cabinet doors, with new teak on the outer edges |
Monday, December 3:
We never should have paid the workers last Saturday - it seems they all went on benders. Of
the 7 guys who were supposed to be working on Ocelot, only 3 showed up, and one left at lunchtime.
Only Houa and the new guy, Nut, were still working at the end of the day.
The name of the game today was still repairing the damage that was done late Friday when they put contaminated gelcoat down on the decks in 3 places. Jon bought a BIG container of acetone and several stiff wire brushes. Squirt a bit of acetone down, wait a few seconds, and scrub like crazy with the wire brush. Repeat until your arm falls off or you start seeing pink elephants from all the acetone fumes.
 Disassembled hatches, with an aluminum color paint sample |
We went through at least 12 liters (3 gallons) of acetone but we made a lot of progress. Only a few areas left with little spots of gelcoat goo.
The good news is that our neighbor, Bora Bora, launched last night, and their friends on Taha'a will launch tonight (we get high tides twice a day, noon and midnight, but the night time highs are over 1' or 40cm higher than the daytime highs, so that's when the big boats have to get launched). Once these boats leave, E‑U should have more time to watch over and direct his men.
Our friends on Vamp came and joined us for our picnic lunch on the beach under our shade tree. Kim has built several boats so we've been looking forward to their arrival, as they've offered to help us again (Kim helped us with our mast when he was here in mid‑August). After we gave them the boat tour, Kim and Jon discussed options for how to replace our rudder bearings. The lower bearings for our rudders have always been undersized, so we asked our machinists to build up the bottoms of our rudder shafts, giving them a 50mm (2") diameter bearing surface. They also supplied us with new cylindrical bearings, made out of Delrin, with an outside diameter of 70mm (2¾").
 Acetone & a wire brush work best to remove the bad gelcoat |
Our first job will be ripping out the old bearing and its bearing holder. We'll also have to remove much of the reinforcing fiberglass as we expand the hole to prepare for the larger bearing. Scary stuff for us boat building neophytes, but Kim isn't worried, which makes us feel MUCH better.
Carmel, from Vamp, helped Sue take apart many of our hatches. We've decided that they'll look much better if they're painted, and Wiwat knows a shop that does good powder‑coating. This is where powdered paint is made to adhere to the hatches electro‑statically, and then the hatches are baked in an oven to make the paint melt and adhere. They sandblast the parts first, which would remove all of the corrosion. It works well, but means that the rubber in the hinges, which holds the hatches up when they're open, needs to be removed (or it will melt). Mike, from Wiwat, even brought down an aluminum colored sample that looks good to us.
 Jon, Chai (team lead) & Song cleaning off bad gelcoat |
Houa finished shrinking the galley cabinet doors down to their new size, but they still need to be sanded and varnished.
Tuesday, December 4:
We had a reasonably full compliment of workers today. Baw still hasn't shown up - not sure
what's going on there. Pla, who was working so well for our neighbor that we wanted to hire
him after they splashed, has apparently been hijacked by someone else, but we're told we can have
him starting tomorrow. And E‑U gave us another worker - he's new but enthusiastic and he
speaks a bit of English (which is sorely lacking from E‑U's team).
 Amanda cutting out plastic hatch covers |
Jon's big win today was to find a source of better electrons. Power at the yard has always been a problem, but now it's gotten so bad that our battery charger flatly refuses to turn on, which means that the fridge slowly drains the batteries, as the solar panels can't keep up with it when they're under our tent. Poor Houa's had to replace several grinder and router motors that have burned out because of the low voltage, which typically runs about 160V (only 70% of nominal). The yard has a huge generator which they turn on several times a week, but they don't distribute the power too many places. But today Jon found an outlet that IS on the generator circuit, and it's just within reach of our 100' (30m) power cord.
So Jon moved our power cord to the new outlet. Suddenly the battery charger started whomping 25A into the batteries, and all the guys found that their tools worked much better. Since the cord had to go over some open ground, Jon buried it a few inches down so scooters and pedestrians won't disturb it. Jon also found a step‑up transformer that the yard installed for their well‑pumps. If necessary, we can tap into that circuit and get good power all day. We Shall See if it's necessary. Jon also spent some time trimming up the fiberglass back where the swim‑ladders mount.
 Cleaning up the area where the swim-ladders will mount |
Today was more cleaning up of the bad gelcoat from last Friday. It's a miserable job and some of the guys tried to slide out of it, finding other jobs to do around the boat. But we made it clear that this was job #1 so the team leader eventually got most of his guys working on it. It probably helped that Jon and Sue worked on it all morning as well. By the end of the day it looked like all of the bad gelcoat had been removed.
We also tried to convince the guys that the decks are already pretty flat, and that little (if any) filler is really necessary. The problem is that they don't like to sand fiberglass, as that creates itchy fiberglass dust in the air. But they seemed to get the point that we don't want the additional weight or expense of lots of filler on the deck. We Shall See...
 Lots of work happening today, both above & below Ocelot |
Sue spent much of the day planning out the order of jobs, and especially all the fiddly bits that need to be done before Wiwat's team comes to do the antiskid. She also spent a lot of time cleaning up stainless steel hardware like latches and hinges. Many of these need some repair but we want to clean them up before taking them to the local stainless worker.
When Amanda arrived at the yard she had a stack of plastic cardboard which she cut into covers for the many hatches. This is an attempt to minimize the amount of junk that drifts down below.
We went out to dinner tonight with Rachel and her parents from Vamp. Our family had Tom Kah Gai (chicken in a coconut cream soup, flavored with big chunks of ginger, lemon‑grass, exotic mushrooms, cilantro, chilies, etc), a deliciously spicy Penang Curry (with chicken), fried pork with garlic and a sweet‑chili sauce, rice, 2 bottles of water, a large Chang beer and a Sprite (Jon likes a shandy). Total cost: $15 for the 3 of us.
 Grinders work quickly but blow glass strands into the air |
Wednesday, December 5:
Despite the favorable weather forecast we seem to have had a lot of rain in the night. But the
day was dry and sunny. Today is the Thai King's Birthday, a holiday here, but all the workers
wanted the money so they all came to work.
It was another bee‑hive of activity on Ocelot today. E‑U showed up with his whole team of 6 workers and we were able to direct them to the important deck jobs that need to be done before the non‑skid is laid.
We had a new worker, Beng, attacking the fiberglass repair on the wall to the right of the companionway when we arrived. He spent the rest of the day on the sugar scoops and aft cockpit (which kept the glass particles away from everyone else).
 Ham spreading gelcoat filler next to the companionway |
We're having an interesting "battle" about the epoxy grinding. Jon suggested they use a dancing (orbital) sander which might be slower to rough up the glass, but it makes less of a mess and puts almost no fiberglass particles in the air. Beng preferred to use a grinder with a sandpaper disk which cuts the glass faster but can easily go through the fiberglass, and creates a real hazard of blowing glass particles. Other workers chimed in that NONE of them like sanding fiberglass. Result: Houa will bring new Tyvec suits for someone to wear tomorrow while grinding.
On deck we also had Ham, Chai, and Nut busy all day. Nut (the youngest) is a good, steady worker and he spent the hours with the big dancing sander smoothing out the gelcoat layers that were put on last week, but never sanded. Chai, the team leader under E‑U, worked on the shape of the curves down the two sides of the cabin top, laying down filler and then using PVC pipes to create the radius.
 Lek, Song, & Baw wet-sanding the bimini under Ocelot |
Jon found (or bought) big 4.5" and 6" (11cm and 15cm) PVC pipes and cut them to about 1' (30cm) lengths. Then the guys wrapped sandpaper around them and used them to shape the wall curves once the filler had hardened. These curves are a bit tricky, as the wall is higher at the aft end, then drops down as it moves forward, and the curve changes as well. More fun and games with Ocelot's complex curves! But at the end of the day we were still examining the results and discussing what to do. It all comes down to esthetics and what looks right.
Sue and Amanda spent some time trying to sand down the rough and ugly toe rail, but gave it up after a while due to the wet filler and all the dust from the grinding and sanding. This is a job best done when there is no one else around. Sue also spent more time hunting down old deck hardware and cleaning it up with a wire brush, sand paper, green scrubby, degreaser and lots of water and elbow grease. Actually, lots of finger‑tip grease. She also got the helm station sealed up with tacky tape and "future board" (corrugated plastic board) to keep out both the dust out and the Asian Tree Sparrows that have decided to nest inside Ocelot! With a lot of workers on board, much of the day is taken up going from one worker to another to see what they're doing, what they're doing right, and what they're maybe doing wrong. She takes pictures, asks questions, and tries to keep abreast of all the activity.
 Chai applying gelcoat filler only where needed |
Baw finally came back to work, wet‑sanding the bottom of the bimini with 240 grit sandpaper. Lek and Song helped, making a companionable trio. They definitely had the cushy job today, in the shade, "playing" in water, crawling all over the wet and slippery bimini. It's now looking great, but Baw says that there are a few low spots to be hit with more gelcoat tomorrow. We think we have a perfectionist at work here!
Jon ran herd on the workers all morning and gave a lot of thought (and list making) to the jobs still to be done on the topsides and bottom. He made several trips out on our trusty scooter (Dang! We haven't named it yet!) to the local hardware stores to get acetone, sandpaper, PVC pipe and things like that. After lunch he attacked the new aluminum prod with his polishing disks to get it ready for the hand sanding that proceeds the Nyalic coating. After 3 hours he had about a third of it rough‑sanded.
 Toe-rail, after Sue's work (left) and before (right) |
Houa finalized the alignment of the sink cabinet doors, and figured out how to make the new Thai hinges work. He had to create little backing blocks of teak because the old hinges (quite dead!) were in a style not available here in Thailand. He also got one of the pieces of teak trim all set up to go on top of the doors. It's so nice that Houa needs so little direction. He knows what's needed and just gets it done.
It's exciting to have so much going on, but it is surprisingly stressful. We often think we have communicated something, only to find out that either they didn't understand, or they ignored us. For example, we have said we want "nit noi" (very little) polyester filler put on the decks. We demonstrated how they can check for the levelness of each deck section, then choose to put filler just in the low spots. Yes, Yes. Heads nod, smiles. No problem, Madam. Next thing we know, not only is a whole area coated in white filler, but a few minutes later, it's re‑coated with another layer of filler, then maybe another. "Very little?" we ask. "Nit noi?" "Oh yes", they laugh. "Nit noi. No problem, sand, sand. Make beautiful." It seems they would rather build up, then sand down to make an area level, rather than filling in the low spots and fairing it in. More time, more materials, more labor cost. But we can live with this, as long as the surface onto which they put the filler is well sanded and roughed up, because we are putting polyester on top of epoxy in all the newly constructed areas and we need as good a mechanical bond as possible, as there will never be a chemical bond.
 Using a pipe form to guarantee a uniform radius filet |
Thursday, December 6:
A good day, with the weather hot and sunny, and lots getting done.
Day after the King's Birthday and there must have been some hangovers, as we were minus Chai and Ham and Song. But the rest of the team got a lot done. Our new guy Beng was hard at work on the fiberglass sanding on the sugar‑scoops first thing in the morning. It's a great time for that kind of work, as the breeze is light, and he can direct the big industrial fan to blow the particles away from the boat and any other early‑bird workers.
Sue was one of the early‑birds today, arriving before 8am. She got some good time in on the toe rail work before being inundated with dust from other workers. In fact, with fewer workers on deck she was able to stay on that project all day. She is now minus fingerprints and fingernails, despite using thick cotton gloves to protect her hands from the 60 grit sandpaper. The toe rail needs about 1 more dedicated day for cleaning and sanding before it's done. What we do next to protect it for the long term remains to be determined.
 Baw putting filets on the middle and side rails of the bimini top |
Up on deck with Sue, Lek worked on several areas. He used the dancing sander on the wall to the right of the companionway that had been glassed over where we found old delaminated fiberglass. He also worked diligently on the side‑deck coaming, the little wall that runs along the inside edge of each side‑deck and has a very specific curve.
Young Nut took Jon's suggestion to cut the big PVC pipe section into 2 pieces. Problem is, he cut is the wrong way. Oh well. Jon scootered out to the hardware store and got another short section, then did the longitudinal cutting himself. Nut used contact cement to stick 60 grit sandpaper to the pipe section and thereby had a big radius sanding form for that side‑deck coaming. After working on the starboard side, he moved over to port and worked with a small radius PVC section to create the smooth radius around the deck hatches that had had fillets of filler put on yesterday.
Down under Ocelot Baw and another Beng finished the wet sanding on the bottom of the bimini, so it is all sanded now up to 240 grit. Just right for the spraying of the new gelcoat when we get it. After lunch they flipped it over and wiped it down with acetone. Baw is a real master at "mudding" things, in this case polyester resin with 0.5% hardener and a mixture of 5 parts microballoons to 1 part Cabosil (or silica, as they call it here). Mud of pure microballoons is easy to sand, but has a tendency to run and sag. Adding the silica, which is tiny strands, keeps the microballoons from rolling over each other and keeps the mud from sagging. We were happy to see that Baw will not be spreading filler over the whole of the bimini, but just the rims plus a soft radius filet.
 The pandemonium of Ocelot's decks being worked on |
Jon continued to attack the scratches on the new prod with his grinding wheel. It has now had all its initial sanding and it's about 25% polished. It's looking all shiny now but it must have been part of a ship wreck or some other collision, because he's finding lots of dings and gouges on it. He won't be able to get the deep gouges out, so they will still show once we put on Nyalic. Painting is still an option. Stay tuned!
Friday, December 7:
Hot, dusty and hectic, but this is Thailand. Guys were sanding the boat, and there were lots
of them!
On this sunny Friday we had 8 men working on Ocelot, making what we hope is forward progress! It sure is challenging to keep track of everything that is going on, but we try!
The men were all over Ocelot's decks by 8:30am, sanding machines buzzing, and sandpaper grating. Our youngest team player, Nut, worked tirelessly to create even filets around all the small deck hatches. This job is hard on the hands, hard on the knees, and hard in general but he always has a smile when we catch his eye. Lek and Beng also worked in the white dust of the polyester filler, smoothing down the cabin top wall to the right of the companionway, and on top of the port side of the cabin top where the old handrail used to be.
 Nut shaping the filets around the hatches |
 Lek sanding to right of companionway (was bare) |
Back on the sugar‑scoops a new worker, Pooton, worked with the dancing sander to try and smooth out the threaded surface of the biaxial fiberglass cloth. The fiberglass strands themselves are reasonably flat, but the threads that hold the strands together usually stick up and need to be sanded off. He made good use of the industrial blower to keep the toxic dust off himself and all of us.
Sue and Amanda were able to borrow E‑U's nifty gray pickup truck for the morning to run errands. First was to take our (huge, heavy) mainsail to Rolly Taskers sail loft for cleaning. We saw it laid out on the loft floor before we left, and it was decidedly gray, probably from the coal dust of Chennai last year! We were able to pick up our new Dyform headstay that Tasker's rigging shop fixed up with a swage for us.
 Lek sanding the new port "eyebrow" |
 Beng sanding in front of the salon (wall was cut open) |
We also picked up our headliners, about 15 pieces, from a small local shop. What a shock to find out that Golf had lied to us about giving him a $200 deposit. Poor fellow had not received a dime, and had stored our panels for 9 months! Amanda may do the follow up on covering the panels with new vinyl, but we're still looking for vinyl that matches what we have. If we can't find any we'll have to replace ALL of it.
After lunch we were happy to see a couple guys from Luck Engineering, our stainless steel fabricators, pull into the yard. They brought and fitted our new stainless steel railings: one on each side of the cabin top, and the backrest for the aft cockpit seat, now with 2 new supports. All of these look beautiful and dropped easily into the holes we had drilled for them. More problematic were the railings for the sugar‑scoop walls. These were originally done on a day when Jon was sick in bed and he couldn't direct them properly.
 Luck techs fitting the new port grab-rail |
 Luck trying to fit port sugar-scoop rail - needs rework |
 New backrest for the aft cockpit seat with 2 extra supports |
Since we can't get inside that wall to tighten a nut and since the foam isn't strong enough to hold a screw, we made special reinforced patches of solid glass where the rails can screw down. But Luck's workers evidently didn't know that so their railings don't come down in the correct places. They'll have to be re‑fitted to match the reinforced patches. More work than they could do on this visit, so they'll be back. They took away the ladders to do the final welding and polishing. And they carted off the boom to do a few touch‑up welds on spots we had not seen until we polished it.
 Trying to fit our LOOONNG boom on Luck's truck |
Jon spent much of the morning cutting up sandpaper to fit the sanders, as the guys are going through it pretty quickly. In the US, sandpaper comes in 8½x11" sheets, and the sander manufacturers know that so they make their sanders appropriate sizes. Cut a sheet of sandpaper into 4 and each piece will fit most palm sanders. Cut it in 3 and each piece will fit most (larger) orbital sanders. But not here. Thailand seems to be a mix of metric and SAE and these sort of things don't fit quite as nicely. So the sandpaper has to be specially cut and some has to be thrown away.
Houa's work on the galley cabinet is drawing to a close, and he'll be putting in the silicone tomorrow to hold the sink in place. It looks very spiffy!
Under Ocelot Baw and Song sanded, shaped and smoothed the rounded filets inside the railings. Baw really is a master of the art of epoxy or polyester filler shaping. We need to get him up on deck to finalize the shapes put in by the less experienced workers.
 Curved corners get sanded with a form so they're all uniform |
Saturday, December 8:
Wow. It's Christmas season already. Amanda often comes to our apartment after work and
plays the guitar, with Christmas carols now being a favorite. Which has led to Amanda and Sue
making up a new song "I'm dreaming of a white sailboat, Just like the one I had before. Where the
topsides glisten and gleam, and where every part of it feels clean!"...
Saturday is the last day of the work week here. Being payday, we had the full contingent of workers, so there was lots of activity. Sue arrived early again, to greet the first wave of sanders. She spent time with E‑U discussing which places needed special sanding and shaping.
 Assembled sink cabinet - still needs varnish and teak trim |
We had no more polyester resin this morning, and none promised until after lunch, so it was a dusty, noisy day, but a lot of areas got some good attention, without the distraction of wet polyester filler. On deck we had Song, Beng, Bang, Nut and Lek, with Pooton back on the sugar‑scoops still working to take out the biaxial fiberglass threads that stand proud.
Sue and Amanda were able to borrow E‑U's truck again so they made the mad rounds from Coconuts to Boat Lagoon (hitting the chandleries) to Big C (for groceries and lunch) then back by 2pm. They stopped in at a very popular boat canvas worker, Mr. Peh's (aka Chamansin) which is near Super Cheap on the road from Phuket town to Boat Lagoon. Mr. Peh's wife was in, and was able to show Sue and Amanda some possible new vinyl patterns to try and match the old headliner vinyl. A tricky job at best, given the old headliners have turned yellow with years of life on Ocelot.
 E-U and Mike check how flat the port bow is - pretty flat! |
Baw did some final touching up on the bimini, then we put him onto the small fiberglass jobs that have fallen by the wayside. He prepped and filled about 7 small round indents left over from when the factory moved the through hull fittings. We asked him to fill the two odd holes in the new starboard tank locker, but other team members were sanding in that area all day, so perhaps he never got in there to do the epoxy work.
Houa finished up some very nice teak work in the galley, with new trim strips to surround the double sinks. He got the sinks bedded down with white silicone and will be putting on the trim on Monday. It's so exciting to actually see our galley coming to life again!
Being payday meant we opened a vein and let out more money. It also brought up questions of how it's all going and who is doing what. Mike Cherry came by from AME Marine, the folks who will be making and laying down the new non‑skid. We are trying to work out an actual schedule of what will happen when. Those of us NOT doing the actual sanding and polyester filler work figure the team can be finished in 2 weeks, or about 12 workdays. Best estimates from the local team seems to lean more towards 3 weeks. There are some tricky politics going on, as Mike comes to check on the work being done by our local team, and offering suggestions to make it quicker, more efficient, less expensive (for us) but apparently the guys sometimes feel that he's expressing complaints. Sue tried to step in to soothe some feelings, but it's tough understanding the different cultural perspectives involved.
We also got a bit of a surprise on our bill - we were charged for 3 half days of E‑U's time when he only spent perhaps an hour a day on Ocelot - 30 minutes first thing in the morning and again at the end of the afternoon. We'd commented to the yard manager that we'd like more of E‑U's time, as we can't easily control his guys. We don't mind paying for service, but only if that service happens, which it didn't. We were also charged $40 for rental of 2 sanders when we weren't told we'd have to rent them (they didn't appear on last weeks bill). Since they only cost $50 to buy new, we felt a bit abused. Welcome to the world of doing a refit in Thailand!
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