Sooo Ready to get Back in the Water...

[Suijin]

Let me count the ways I hate 5200...





I'm sort of stuck. There is not room to get a thick scraper along the underside of the ring, and I'm afraid if I just muscle it off it will pull up the gelcoat. I was hoping I could salvage some of the ports to sell them (every dollar counts) but alas, it looks like I'll need to bend the frame up as I go along to get a knife under there.

Mike, I'm pretty sure there is going to be an inch or two of rot in the core of the cabin side. I'll dig it out and fill with thickened epoxy along the bottom edge and up the sides. I could not find ports the exact same size as I have, so decided to just go slightly larger.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Suijin...

How about modifying a "crate pry bar"... Grind it thin and short enough to get under the bottom lip.... after it pulls away from the hull, put a block under the bar to "force upward"????

I'm not there man... 5200 is a bugger...

[Suijin]

OK I got the flange off. Just pried it off with muscle. Which revealed that I am only at the foot of Mt. Everest. The ENTIRE CAVITY around the port light between it and the cabin side is FILLED with 5200. The cabin side is 2" thick. So I need to find a way to slice through 2" of 5200 all the way around. I'm now appreciating why another guy just cut the port frame into pieces. Ugh. And I have to do this 9 times. O.O

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Suijin

OK I got the flange off. Just pried it off with muscle. Which revealed that I am only at the foot of Mt. Everest. The ENTIRE CAVITY around the port light between it and the cabin side is FILLED with 5200. The cabin side is 2" thick. So I need to find a way to slice through 2" of 5200 all the way around. I'm now appreciating why another guy just cut the port frame into pieces. Ugh. And I have to do this 9 times. O.O

HOLY Shizzit Batman.... This suuuuuucks.......

[HappyMdRSailor]

2 days later.... Hopefully you've completed removing #1.... But with that 2" band of 5200.... Probably unlikely....

[minaret]

Thin flexible putty knife sharpened to a razor edge, a mallet, and a whole lot of Anti-Bond.

Jamestown Distributors

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by minaret

Thin flexible putty knife sharpened to a razor edge, a mallet, and a whole lot of Anti-Bond.

Jamestown Distributors

Project is on hold at the moment with the weather and some travelling I have to do. I ran my situation by the old salt here at the yard, in particular asking about getting through the 5200 filling the 1.5" cavity between the cabin side and port light and he suggested a putty knife heated with a blowtorch to slice through the bulk of it. He said it would be gooey, but would at least break the seal.

The challenge after that is going to be the inside flange of the portlights. It's 1/4" cast aluminum, tight up against the formica with barely any room to get a putty knife behind it. They also suggested rigging blocks and clamps to lever the portlight out as you work from one end to the other on the inside.

To be continued...

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Suijin

Project is on hold at the moment with the weather and some travelling I have to do. I ran my situation by the old salt here at the yard, in particular asking about getting through the 5200 filling the 1.5" cavity between the cabin side and port light and he suggested a putty knife heated with a blowtorch to slice through the bulk of it. He said it would be gooey, but would at least break the seal.

The challenge after that is going to be the inside flange of the portlights. It's 1/4" cast aluminum, tight up against the formica with barely any room to get a putty knife behind it. They also suggested rigging blocks and clamps to lever the portlight out as you work from one end to the other on the inside.

To be continued...

Crap man....

Imma go light a candle for you.... Maybe one of our cajun sailors can stop by the "magic shops" down there for a little help....

[Suijin]

Well, I have four of the nine port lights out. I decided to get a bit of expert help, in part because it was clear that doing it myself was going to take forever. Mike, who works in the yard here, has about 30 years under his belt building custom 50'+ yachts as well as restoring older ones. He figured he had done "oh, maybe a hundred" ports over the years. It's taking the two of us about 2.5 hours per port to get them out and he says these are the hardest he's ever done.

We're using a whole bucketful of different tools from Snap-on striking scrapers/pry bars (killer tools) to a Fein saw, picks, sharpened putty knives, and a blow torch. There is no doubt, 5200 is The Heart of Darkness when it comes to port light removal.

So far we've only uncovered one 2" stretch of core rot, which is nice.

We made a decision to sacrifice the Formica on the interior cabin sides. The alternative was to remove the grab rail/tray that runs the length of both sides of the cabin, which while doable (screws and plugs) there was no guarantee that we could save the Formica unmarred anyway. And it was a wise choice as there has just been no way around it failing in the process. Fortunately they still make the exact same color. Simply going to cut out new panels and glue them down right over the old (leveled) stuff.

Too cold to work on it today. Back at it tomorrow.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Wow Suijin....

I feel for ya... Thanks for the update!

BTW... curious on your topcoat... did you spray or roll/tip?...
Came out great!

[Hudson Force]

When I first looked at the photo in post one, I was impressed with her appearance. I'm such a sucker for the Valiants that I did not realized this was the "before" picture!

When your slicing at the 5200 try a heated fillet knife. I like the longer thin stroke,- be careful!

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Suijin

Well, I have four of the nine port lights out. I decided to get a bit of expert help, in part because it was clear that doing it myself was going to take forever. Mike, who works in the yard here, has about 30 years under his belt building custom 50'+ yachts as well as restoring older ones. He figured he had done "oh, maybe a hundred" ports over the years. It's taking the two of us about 2.5 hours per port to get them out and he says these are the hardest he's ever done.

We're using a whole bucketful of different tools from Snap-on striking scrapers/pry bars (killer tools) to a Fein saw, picks, sharpened putty knives, and a blow torch. There is no doubt, 5200 is The Heart of Darkness when it comes to port light removal.

So far we've only uncovered one 2" stretch of core rot, which is nice.

We made a decision to sacrifice the Formica on the interior cabin sides. The alternative was to remove the grab rail/tray that runs the length of both sides of the cabin, which while doable (screws and plugs) there was no guarantee that we could save the Formica unmarred anyway. And it was a wise choice as there has just been no way around it failing in the process. Fortunately they still make the exact same color. Simply going to cut out new panels and glue them down right over the old (leveled) stuff.

Too cold to work on it today. Back at it tomorrow.

Pretty good list of tools, but I don't see any Anti Bond...

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by minaret

Pretty good list of tools, but I don't see any Anti Bond...

You mean like... Jaws... Auric Goldfinger.... and Dr. No???

[minaret]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

You mean like... Jaws... Auric Goldfinger.... and Dr. No???

I prefer Odd Job for removing 5200...

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by minaret

I prefer Odd Job for removing 5200...

Good one!

It was good fun looking these up....