Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Cockpit Coaming removal

I got it into my head to remove the cockpit coamings, and nothing is ever easy as it looks in the mind's eye:) Removing the mounting screws were easy enough most were wood screws but there were 3 machine screws with nuts on the back side. The two forward most and aft most were the machine screws.

Then the fun started! The screws were really redundant because there was enough tough adhesive that these puppies were not going anywhere. I started by using a putty knife and hammering it into the gap to break the glue. But putty knife blade wasn't long enough to get behind the winch stands or even to the bottom of the boards. So then after some back and forth on the Triton board I tried a hack saw blade, SS wire,  slight longer putty knife, and acetone. All worked but only very marginally. Then while explaining the problem to my wife she offered a bread knife! Humm... it looked long enough, thin enough and had a serrated edge, seemed perfect. I'm no longer allowed to liberate and re-purpose kitchen tools without express approval. So it was lucky we stopped eating gluten a couple years ago, which means no bread, so the knife wasn't needed any longer in the kitchen.

The knife worked great and the port coaming was off in about 20 minutes. The next step was cleaning the coaming surface. I use a mix of warm water, TSP, and Clorox. After an hour or so I rinse with fresh water.

Next came the starboard coaming and it was a different beast. It seemed to have a different adhesive. The knife stared to break and I eventually started using a hand saw blade that I could hammer into a crack that was opened by putting two putty knives together. But it just was not coming off:( Every little filament of glue was tough and the board wasn't moving after several hours.

So, in desperation really, I decided to try acetone again even though it didn't do anything on the port side. Well different adhesive, different result! I had the board off in 15 minutes!!!!

I really think when these go back in I'm using just a sealant and small beads at that. Now comes the cleaning,sanding and varnish!

Bread knife put to a higher use:)

Yeah Port side comes free!!!


This is going to take some work:(