Cockpit Laz Storage

March 2003 -- This page is *really* about removing and cleaning up the foam backed liner that was glued to the quarterberth, and then tabbing in a new bulkhead. The vinyl is in a number of places around the boat, and after 22 years the foam is disintegrating. Thus the vinyl is falling off.
(The section to the left had a little help!)
It leaves behind quite a messy residue.

After removing the lid in the quarterberth and
pulling the holding tank, I removed the bulkhead between the engine compartment and the quarterberth. This section here will become additional storage in the cockpit --
something that's
sorely needed.

Looking at it from inside the boat, you can see how thick and gooey the remaining adhesive is. In places where the hull is smooth from the liner being tabbed in with mat, it can be scraped off fairly easily. The rough area where there's woven laminate, though, can't be scraped.

After three hours of work with a brass brush on a drill (below) I knew there had to be a better way.

The stuff is just too gooey and thick. It turned into warm glops of adhesive that flew around and re-adhered wherever they landed.

While I tested with solvents, they didn't seem to affect it. Frankly, that's okay, because the thought of using solvents on this much material makes my liver and kidneys hurt.

I considered just painting it with epoxy, since the material seemed almost porous.
'What the heck -- make it part of the boat.'
However, I was able to chip the epoxied goo off of the flat sections.
It seemed that if I got it
80 per cent cleaned off and painted with epoxy, it would be stable enough to last.

A good scrub with a
concentrated
Orange solution
removed most of the disintegrating foam
that's still stuck to the adhesive, and
also made the remaining adhesive a little less gooey.

But it made one
heck of a mess.

After a hard scrub with a hand brass brush, I wiped up
as much as possible and then
hosed the whole thing down.

The next weekend I spent the entire Saturday with a drill and brass brush, and took
the rest of the goo off.
Brass was easier
on the hull than steel!

Meanwhile, I'd made a cardboard mockup of the bulkhead that'll separate the new cockpit storage from the
new Navigation station.

(Yes! I'm finally getting around to it.)

I'm doing something different
with the bulkhead.
Rather than just leave a gap between the bulkhead and the hull, I stuck a piece of 1/2 inch neoprene foam between them. This helps as a spacer, and also might make
my tabbing stronger.

Note that even after all that work on the adhesive, there's still
quite a bit remaining.

To tab the bulkhead in,
I'm using Knytex tape, from Tap Plastics.
I like it.

It has a layer of mat sewn together with a layer of unidirectional woven fabric. You can get a nice thick tab in place with a single application, and when you roll over it with a little grooved roller the woven fabric helps keep the mat in place. The final result is very clean.

I laid fillets of epoxy thickened with fiberglass chop and colloidal silica along the edges of the neoprene, and rolled the tape over.

Then painted the entire hull with epoxy to seal in the little bits of remaining adhesive.

McMaster-Carr carries this
vinyl-coated steel molding that fits over
the edge of the exposed wood.

It's painted with
Interlux BilgeKote.

The extra room is going to make the locker just a little
less cluttered.