why not cut a curved piece for the bottom and bend the upright piece to match the transom? i think it would look better than all of the notches cut in the flat bottom piece, unless you are planning to fill the notches.
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why not cut a curved piece for the bottom and bend the upright piece to match the transom? i think it would look better than all of the notches cut in the flat bottom piece, unless you are planning to fill the notches.
That woudl have worked too but cutting both horizontal pieces to the curve would have been a pain. Coosa is great but not fun to cut. Obviously i will fill out the notches
Got th port side and transom panels epoxied in place, also reinstalled the top panel by the wing door. I rolled a first coat of pigmented epoxy.
Transom door will be at the stbd corner with steps. Ladder is going to come off, it s a very nice one, all welded. Going to put it in the for sale section
Not going to have a ot of time this week but planning on doing the starboard side the week after.
Coosa is a dream to cut compared to many other materials. Especially after skinning with fiberglass and epoxy resins. It's a great product but I'd not use it in that manner. It is a structural core material for use in laminated systems where solid fiberglass would not be weight or cost effective. Rolling on epoxy without fiberglass is not a process I see as long lasting.
Initially I was going to go the traditional route using Divinicell with glass on each side. Then I realized that coosa was stiff enough and strong enough when framed every 48”. Honestly anything is better than what hatteras used back then. What was that stuff anyway... it looks like 2 layers of Formica with a very thin almost veneer like wood in between.
I know epoxy alone doesn’t make the panels stiffer or stronger, it just seals them before finishing.
Excellent project, which begs a few questions. I thought Coosa was a coring material. Do you plan on glassing over the material, then Gel-coat, and paint? Without the metal uprights and mechanical fasteners, does this have the structure to support stresses, or will the cap give it the strength? Finally would you offer a tour to a fellow enthusiast who is just across Alligator Alley?
Sure, Message me if you come to this coast :)
If yiu look at the second picture, you can see cross section of the base. It s a 3" wide strip of 1" coosa with a second strip, 2 1/4" wide epoxied on top. This creates supports for the vertical panel to be bonded to the base. Then each 4' panel is framed by a 2 1/4" vertical strip bonded to the next panel. These are basically the replacements to the vertical stanchions and tube. The result is a very stiff structure even now without the rail
Are you going to re-use the metal trim that covers the opening around the cleats? If not I’d be interested if they are the same size openings I have. Are they SS?
Yes I going to reuse them they look real nice. Apparently at some point Hatteras stopped installing these.
Same size opening. Although I will have to drill and two new holes on the inside corner pieces as the coosa is thicker.
The port side mid ship cleat piece was almost lost but I had my diver recover the panel from the bottom so I could save it. It was buried in the muck with no growth after almost a year
Looking good!