Building new hatches/ transom door

Hi guys. New to the forums.

Last Fall I acquired a 26' islander that was severely neglected. The price was right ($5000.00) so I bit!! This was a "as is where is" deal. Both motors needed midsections and lower unit cases due to electrolysis but only had 500 hrs. on them so that was a plus. I found a couple blown motors cheap so I swapped out the power heads and was good to go.

I do quite a bit of fiberglass work on the side mainly for myself and enjoy making "one off" parts for our cars and boats. I thought, since I haven't seen any threads on making parts, I would show how I am going to do mine.

The Grady had several blemishes in the hull so I repaired them and re gel coated from the rubrail down and added a dark blue stripe. I had some silver decals made to replace the old ones.





Unfortunately Grady did a poor job building the hatches for these boats. After the gel coat was sprayed in the molds, a colored putty was put around the edges to soften the radius so the fiberglass would lay in easier. This process saves time in production but the end user gets hosed if they get banged. This boat was used by a carpenter in S.E. Alaska building on private islands hauling materials in the boat. Needless to say, ALL the hatches were toast. The anchor rope bow hatch was missing so I am making a replacement from a template.

This is what I started with:












The transom door was filled with scraps of 2x6's as a core. You can see the whole bottom blew out when the wood swelled.






For the missing anchor hatch, the template was made initially from a piece of paper held over the opening and creased while rubbing my finger around the opening. This was transferred to cardboard and final trimming was done to get the proper clearance.

I have several sheets of fiberglass covered urethane foam used on commercial roofs for hail damage resistance. The foam is very dense and is great for making panels and molds. A putty knife peels the fiberglass skin off one side of the foam making it flexible in one direction. Cutting several slits in the foam allows it to bend easily around the radius. A hot glue gun holds it on the form board and silicone makes the radius between the top and sides. Several layers of silicone builds up the radius to what Grady used.







I'll post more as I get going.

Spent a few hours yesterday and got the two hatches, transom door and a drivers side panel laid up. I put 1/4" foam in the hatches and 2" foam in the transom door.

That's what keeps it fun. Don't make it a profession. You don't see too many old fiberglass guys and painters.

I trimmed the edges and pulled the parts then drilled and tapped the hinge holes. I ran out and test fit the pieces and they fit perfect.









I decided to build these new rather than spend the time repairing them.





From right to left is the layers of fabric I am using. Two layers of 1.5 oz chop mat, the 1/4" foam core, Stitch mat, chop mat and 6 oz cloth.



This drivers side panel was shot!! I put chop mat and cloth on each side of some 1/4" foam. Super strong replacement panel.





Last month I made the fenders for my $350.00 trailer.



I will lay up the last two hatches tomorrow and pull Monday.

Spent about an hour and got the last two hatches laid up. I will leave them in the mold overnight to make sure they don't warp.

I decided to re- core the rear deck floor panels while I had my fiberglass supplies out. They were soft and flexed when you walked on them. The main panel weighed around 150#. I struggled just getting it out of the boat and on the table.

I used my 4" angle grinder with a metal cut off wheel and sliced the fiberglass into three pieces.



Notice how crude the plywood core was installed?



With the center section removed, you can see that the the plywood core panels didn't bond well.





Before fiberglassing begun, the screw holes were plugged with latex tub and tile caulk and taped over.










After the balsa core was bedded in and the edges beveled, I pulled strips of woven roving to lay around the perimeter to reinforce it. The factory had this area too thin and some of the screw heads pulled thru. Not anymore!!! No screws or hatch openings should go thru a core.

The main stringers are fine.
I make sure any penetrations in the fiberglass skin don't go into the core material. I agree, epoxy with some filler works good as a backer behind screw holes.
I had some extra gelcoat laying around so I brushed it on the new glass mainly to get rid of it.
The hatches will get sprayed on both sides . Waiting on the clear additive before I post pictures of them finished.

I started to spray out the texture but it was so windy that day it wasn't working out. I reverted to another technique to get a nice texture.

I masked around the edge and rolled on a heavy coat of gel coat. As it starts to set up I lightly run the roller over the top to increase the stipple. Once happy, pull the tape and take care of the rest. Sorry, the pictures loaded in the wrong order. :hmm

With the arrival of the ORCA clear additive,.. I was able to gel the rest of the hatches. The weather was right at freezing and 40 mph winds for the week so I just rolled on four coats. I went with 30% clear in the mix. Now I have enough thickness to wet sand and polish the edges. I'll get some better pictures once polished.

Well, the weather warmed up a bit and winds died down so I hit the edges with some 80 grit to smooth out and sprayed them.
Were in our new house and my garage has stained concrete floors. My painting days are numbered as we are in a high end neighborhood. Haaaa, One neighbor, a doctor was walking his dog by as I was spraying and a nice fog was gently drifting across the sidewalk. :sorry
I played with the color some more and think I got closer. There is a touch of red in with the black and yellow.

Three coats looks like wet candy but muted my nice non skid.