Mirage 217 -Bringing it back
#51
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Photo-wise, it's not very exciting as visually things didn't change all that much. Completed sealing all the foam with resin at the top.
Progress has been pretty good though. made the battery boxes out of Coosa and glassed them (mostly) Marked out the stringers and bulkheads, bedded and fastened all the floor in place, everywhere.
In thought I am planning the above-floor bulkheads to both reduce weight a little, and strengthen the boat.
After installing the floor, I decided that, although strong, the floor above the fuel tank had a hollow sound, due to the airspace above the tank. So foam above the tank it is.
I sloped the floor, and installed a floor drain piped directly to the bilge, and foamed in the remaining floor section.
Hopefully by compartmentalizing and gel coating all the segments, it will contain any future water ingress, instead of spreading the water everywhere.
Pretty much completely used up my last foam kit.
In the meantime, I glassed in quite a few detail areas of the engine bay, and perimeter of the floor with mat and a layer of 1708. That's the hard part. Laying mat on the flat is a breeze compared to the details. Hopefully there this week
I noticed the subwoofers had the paper surround completely disintegrated. I never looked closely, but the front speakers had the same issue. I ordered a complete set, with LED backlighting. I ordered a small fire-extinguisher cabinet. Hoping that looks good and protects the extinguisher from ambient weathering and rust. The cockpit one left rust stains before.
Progress has been pretty good though. made the battery boxes out of Coosa and glassed them (mostly) Marked out the stringers and bulkheads, bedded and fastened all the floor in place, everywhere.
In thought I am planning the above-floor bulkheads to both reduce weight a little, and strengthen the boat.
After installing the floor, I decided that, although strong, the floor above the fuel tank had a hollow sound, due to the airspace above the tank. So foam above the tank it is.
I sloped the floor, and installed a floor drain piped directly to the bilge, and foamed in the remaining floor section.
Hopefully by compartmentalizing and gel coating all the segments, it will contain any future water ingress, instead of spreading the water everywhere.
Pretty much completely used up my last foam kit.
In the meantime, I glassed in quite a few detail areas of the engine bay, and perimeter of the floor with mat and a layer of 1708. That's the hard part. Laying mat on the flat is a breeze compared to the details. Hopefully there this week
I noticed the subwoofers had the paper surround completely disintegrated. I never looked closely, but the front speakers had the same issue. I ordered a complete set, with LED backlighting. I ordered a small fire-extinguisher cabinet. Hoping that looks good and protects the extinguisher from ambient weathering and rust. The cockpit one left rust stains before.
#52
![Default](/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Quick photo of the floor flatness prep in getting ready for 'glass
First layer of 1708 on the main floor section, gotta go buy a little more cloth now
![](https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1331x873/img_3539_dfd8b92cc3bd8223aabe6c08dbe149069af7b457.jpg)
First layer of 1708 on the main floor section, gotta go buy a little more cloth now
![](https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1331x873/img_3539_dfd8b92cc3bd8223aabe6c08dbe149069af7b457.jpg)
![](https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1306x986/img_3564_8f0131f37eb5b3bc632bcc25e51f09f8c2726d91.jpg)
Last edited by DougB; 06-27-2024 at 10:27 PM.
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87MirageIntruder (06-28-2024)
#53
![Default](/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Next layer of 1708 going on to the main floor. Today spending most of the day fairing everything, prepping the engine bay for more cloth and planning everything above the floor. I weighed doing some sections in carbon fibre just to be fancy, but then I'd have to use coosa in most places to get the black background colour. I opted for carboncore as it's a lot lighter and I don't need the mass of the coosa in most places.
![](https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1158x862/img_3605_ac879339e7f3c6478125cf03e12b2923f14e3d96.jpg)
![](https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1158x862/img_3605_ac879339e7f3c6478125cf03e12b2923f14e3d96.jpg)
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DougB (07-02-2024)
#55
![Default](/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
It was an interesting long weekend. I was really hoping to get a lot more completed, but the material that I'd used years ago to mould the fiberglass completely failed this time around. They must have changed the structure of the material. The face was fine, but the face this time around reacted with the gelcoat, that to make things worse, the core was much weaker, like layered paper.
I ended up chiselling everything off the gelcoat with a painter's scraper. It took hours and totally killed the momentum. I recovered a bit Monday night, but quite frustrating. The good thing is, that the pieces will be within the engine bay, and the substandard gel will only be an only an annoyance to me.
Changed plans for moulding, I have another material to mould my gloss gel from, so will see this week how it works.
Anyway, dropped the batteries in and planning to start the power hookup/wiring. At least it's progress. I decided to try and get this all done because I'm too old to be curled up in a ball in the engine bay, so will hold off the bulkhead glassing until I get most of the work done.
I'm also mounting any through-floor components on pedestals as I am pretty certain that a lot of moisture could have found it's way through the top, to the old foam before. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again
![](https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1187x899/img_3617_2e60fc10808ccff22687c974c08bb328ad1def2a.jpg)
![](https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1198x900/img_3618_1402c047f93e4875ad1b323b29617fdf7bd69143.jpg)
I ended up chiselling everything off the gelcoat with a painter's scraper. It took hours and totally killed the momentum. I recovered a bit Monday night, but quite frustrating. The good thing is, that the pieces will be within the engine bay, and the substandard gel will only be an only an annoyance to me.
Changed plans for moulding, I have another material to mould my gloss gel from, so will see this week how it works.
Anyway, dropped the batteries in and planning to start the power hookup/wiring. At least it's progress. I decided to try and get this all done because I'm too old to be curled up in a ball in the engine bay, so will hold off the bulkhead glassing until I get most of the work done.
I'm also mounting any through-floor components on pedestals as I am pretty certain that a lot of moisture could have found it's way through the top, to the old foam before. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again
![](https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1187x899/img_3617_2e60fc10808ccff22687c974c08bb328ad1def2a.jpg)
![](https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/1198x900/img_3618_1402c047f93e4875ad1b323b29617fdf7bd69143.jpg)
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87MirageIntruder (Yesterday)