1982 AMF Sunfish PHOENIX 09 Jan 21 Deck Repair

 09 Jan 21:

Removed the clamps and we have a little excess epoxy to trim from the seam.

Trimmed the large blobs with a bi metal blade on the DeWALT oscillating multitool and finished up with 120 grit on a DeWALT 20V random orbital sander.

Chine is watertight now, needs some fairing compound and sanding.

Used TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy to fasten the deck piece to the backer plate and hull flange.

Clamps for the seam, they are vintage, used at Alcort and AMF 1960-1978 by our friend Howie. He sent them to us about 10 years ago along with tips on working the hull flange seam, example, the paint stir sticks along the edge of the deck are there to help distribute clamp pressure evenly. For the deck seam we put a strip of poly down to smooth out epoxy, placed a piece of salvaged fiberglass deck over that to spread out pressure of the sandbags.

Log of PHOENIX.

1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE 05 Dec 20 Deck Graft with THIXO

05 Dec 20:

Worked on Skipper's 1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE today, first we cleaned up THIXO squeezeout along the backer plate seam edge with a DeWALT 20V oscillating multitool, with the Porter Cable cordless shop/vac nearby to collect dust. Next we applied TotalBoat THIXO to the backer plate and then the new deck piece seam, oops not the deck edge seam. Wiped that off and applied THIXO to the inner deck seam of the new piece. Layed down strips of 2 mil poly sheet to keep fairing boards from sticking to the THIXO, then placed 10 pound sandbags on the boards to palace light pressure on the seam while the thickened epoxy dries. Put on the first coat of TotalBoat TotalFair, an epoxy based fairing compound that fills nooks and crannies and sands easily. OBTW Skipper made my mask, it is great to keep out dust while sanding and sawing, triple layered cloth with a nice leather tie. Does a better job than the N95 masks for this application.

https://youtu.be/XehjmqYPfK4

Skipper isnsisted on filming me removing the THIXO that I applied to the wrong edge. https://youtu.be/lccmwVvLJyY

THIXO stores well, just put the cap back on and get a few extra mixing tubes.

Ready to seal the deck/hull seam once the THIXO dries, and begin sanding the fairing compound.

Log of WAVE.