First order of business – fix the holes in the boat. I had drilled them a couple of days before, and let them dry out, since it had to be dry to create a secure bond. Bright sunshine was predicted for the weekend – perfect.
Nooooo! Dodging Jack the Ripper, I made it to the boat.
The stuff I was going to repair the holes with was called Marine-Tex, and came in two pots. One was the actual stuff itself (it’s epoxy with fiberglass thickener) and the other was the hardener.
Mix them together and it’s set within the hour, so you have to work fast. I was worried about the dampness of the area, and my abilities at using the stuff so I decided to start on a project that if I DID muck it up, it wouldn’t have such a high consequence if it failed.
The ‘fasteners’ that hold the cabin ladder in place had come off completely, so this was a great place to try out my technique. Below you can see the before and after pics.
I eventually managed to get in the holes, however I managed to get it all over my hands, my trousers, my shirt, the steps, the random screw I used to jam the putty into the hole in desperation, my face, the counter, a cloth, the floor and the sink. Apart from that, it went ok! I left it to harden.
The next day, I arrived back with a heatgun, so I could dry out the holes.
Armed with this, I dried out the holes in the hole, before filling them with marine-tex. This time I managed not to coat everything in it, and got most of it in the hold and smoothed it off. From the outside this is what the repair looked like.
I’ll leave this a couple of days, then sand it down and bevel it to a slight saucer shape. I’ll then fill it with fiberglass mat and eproxy and shape it into the correct place, providing extra strength.
With that stage done – I decided to remove the head. I got bin bags, kitchen roll, tape and gloves ready.
I had assumed that the entire thing was self-contained but as soon as I unscrewed the bottom green goop started leaked out. Nooo! Not like this!!
I jammed kitchen roll all around the edge and managed to soak up most of it
After managing to soak up all the goo (which I think was detergent), I sealed off the two pipes with tape and kitchen roll.
Success!
Next step will be to remove the holding tank itself (blech) and the heaps of pipes.
More selfies, please.