Bock Refit #2

Maxiprop

I had a very long day today.  Left is a picture of the maxiprop back on Reboot.  It has been cleaned (except for the blades, that is tomorrows task), greased, and re-installed.  It folds and unfolds a great deal easier than before.  Note too the zinc at the end of the prop.  I have been going through shaft zincs the entire time I was in New Bern, this adds at least 200% more zinc surface area than before.

My "one hour" project for today was to remove the front hatch, put in new bedding compound and replace the hatch.  Along the way I wanted to repair the hinges for the hatch.  The pop rivets that hold it together have popped out.  Of course this project took all day and it isn't finished yet.  How hard can it be?  A few simple wood screws to remove, clean the old bedding compound off the hatch, put in a couple of pop rivets and it no longer rains on one while sitting in the forward head.  One of the screw heads was smashed.  Add 4 hours to drill out the screw.  Why it took so long I have no idea, I was using a brand new titanium drill and ample amounts of cutting oil.  But there it was.  Then the pop rivets would not hold.  Solution, tap the hole and use a screw.  Except the screw would not fit into the recessed hinge.  At the end of the day I had a moment of brilliance (they are frequent here on Reboot - for example XO just dumped his litter box over) use a cap screw.  The sample I had fits like a charm but is too long.  So tomorrow purchase cap screws and drill and tap the holes.

Reboot's Micron 66 Bottom Paint

The second coat of Micron 66 went on today.  With the exception of the bottom of the keel and the spots under the jack stands we are good to go.  I decided to wait until the next "availability" to replace the boot stripe.  I want to make sure that I am happy with the waterline before I spend money to add a 4" strip of color.

The final project for today was to repair the bow light. It has corroded out and the electrical connections were bad.  I cleaned up the one wire that was completely gone and soldered it directly to the flap.  At that point I discovered that I could put the LED light in backwards and it worked fine.  But green on Starboard and red on Port not so much.  After fooling around for a while I got it to work but it reinforced my displeasure with Dr. LED lights.  I discovered that one of the two bayonet tabs on the light bulb was missing.  I hope the future quality of LED lights improves, I have been most disappointed with them.

Tomorrow I hope to fix the hatch and start patching fiberglass.