July 11, 2013

Drove down to LA on Sunday so I could do a photo shoot for Piano Spheres, one of Carol's clients, on Monday. While I had hoped to make a lot of progress this week in finishing the trim for the doghouse overhead, the threat of rain cut that effort short.  I did manage to put the final coat of paint on the plywood locker doors, sand the overhead trim and  then get a coat of penetrating epoxy and two coats of Epifanes RapidCoat applied.  Looks pretty nice already.  With the varnishing aborted, I turned my attention to improving the crude plywood liner inside the hard dodger.After quite a bit of head-scratching, I decided it would be better to laminate a new surface rather than try to fill and paint the existing plywood.  The tricky part would be making a very precise pattern.  I decided to try poster board which could be cut into strips as well as curves and could be easily glued together.  A small test section was done as proof of concept.  Worked fine.  I found some nice 1/8 inch matte white plastic sheeting that should work nicely as the new surface.  Before the new surface could be applied, though, I needed to remove the caulk fillets around the perimeter of the plywood.  A test run with my multi-tool saw made a quick job of it.  Unfortunately, it also revealed a small area of rot, which I have started repairing.  Finally, I started removing the old decayed varnish from the teak trim strip on the back of the hard dodger.  It's all a lot of work, but I think it's going to look very nice when it's done.  With so much time spent in that space, it will be worth it.