The latest Progress... I've been working in the cockpit. I had to make new seats which disappoints me because I wanted to keep as much of the original boat as I could , but upon further inspection, the old seats were split so bad that they could not be re-used. I guess I could have epoxied them to death, but it would have been an ugly repair. They were also just under 3/4" thickness, when the plans call for them to be 1.0 inches thick, so I made new ones out of the specified Philippine mahogany.
The cockpit decking has bee a fun bit of work. I managed to get the hatches to fit really nice so they pop in and out easily, but do not wiggle around. Here I used clear vertical grain Douglas fir instead of the cedar called out in the plans because it is a bit harder and will resist scratching a little more. I plan to give the decking an oi finish for ease of maintenance, the same with the seats. I am currently working on the ceiling pieces that protect the planking under the seats, I wasn't planning on using the old ones, but in this case I can fill the old screw holes a epoxy some of the wear spots and they should look like new.
It's been damned cold here, and the Colonel is getting mad at me for using the electric heat in the garage so much, but I've had to do some more painting in the cockpit so I could install the decking and seats permanently. Have to keep to the schedule you know!!!
