Amphora - Working on the topsides


Mike Cleans the dust and stuff from the boatMike cleans the inside of his boat out to get ready for the next days work.  Next we will need to fair the screw holes in the top deck and other goodies.

Mike sands more filler.Mike is at it again.  Here he is sanding more body filler fairing it all in.  I got to give him credit. He just keeps going and going despite the high mid 90's temperatures we are having.

Covered all the under water seams with 3M 5200With all the screw holes filled and the delaminated veneer sanded out and faired back in with bondo, we went ahead and covered all the below water seams with 3M 5200. The 5200 was not called for in the plans, but the Stevenson's do recommend it in their weekender video.  So I figured it could not hurt anything and would definitely make the boat water tight.

The under water seams covered with 3M 5200Here is another shot of the seams. Getting all the way in the fore peek area was tough.  Just a word of caution, 5200 is messy!  Now for those wondering, I bought two 10 oz tubes from Jamestown Distributors.  I used all of one and a little of the second.  Truthfully, if you are neat with the stuff, you probably could get by with just one tube.  Once opend, it has a short life (12-24 hours) before it needs to be used.  It is kind of expensive so decide for yourself.  1 lump or 2!

I mentioned some veneer delamination in the section above.  This boat is made from luan plywood.  I know that it is not the best thing to make a boat from, but the price is right and you can only get a kid to work so much for a project. To make matter worse, Mike left the project for a long time and the boat set on the back deck for a long time before it was moved to my out building. So, we had these few places that the veneer was coming loose. The veneer seems just paper thin to me.  But the wood underneath was sound.  We just sanded the loose veneer off and skimmed it with body filler.  If you look at this picture you can see the spots on the fore peek.  BTW, that was the only place other than on one of the side skins inside the boat that it happened.I would still be willing to build with it.  :-)

The inner rails go in.With the under water seams covered with the 5200, we started on the inner rub rails next.  These bend on and glue quite easily.  Now they are supposed to be screwed on, but we attached them with small brads.  I am sure the glue will hold them just fine.

Another view of the inner rails.Here is another view of the inner rub rails.  I think it really does a lot to give the boat a finished look.

The Taft rail is on.Lastly, the top of the transom has been attached.  I keep calling it a taft rail but perhaps I am wrong.  Now a couple of things to point out.  In the plans the sides were supposed to come up above the deck further than what Mike's did.  We struggled with the sides for whatever reason.  Our solution was to get the outer top rub rail in position trying to give a fair sheer line, then cut the remaining bit to the top of the rail.  As a result, the top of the transom had to be adjusted accordingly.  We reduced the height so it would not look so odd sitting there.

Next, some more fairing and doing some cosmetics here and there.  After that, I think Mike can have a great time priming inside the fore peek and the rest of the boat. Now if he would just decide on a color scheme.  We are getting closer and he is itching to take it out.  I just hope his enthusiasm holds out till it is finished.  :-)