The old vents were cracked and needed to be replaced. The holes through the deck have water damage to the plywood core.
Today we are going to build some engine compartment vents. The new replacement vents were too high calorie for me so I decided to make some "low-fat" vents. I came up with this idea after sitting in the garage sniffing acetone and paint thinner.
Start with cutting the container in half and then deciding on the angle of your choice.
Here is the old vent. This one didn't crumble into pieces like the first one did. I priced these at West Marine for $15 each. I figure that I can make a set of these for less than $75 each if I do them myself.
These are the same 1" x 1/4" cedar that I used on the dinghy.
Here is the jig for the mounting flange and the shape of the vent.
Let's start here. I bought so much glass mat that I am going to use it up. May be overkill but I doing it anyway.
After the glass dries I will sand and shape and then glass the inside. These vents should stand up to the occasional foot step, unlike the old plastic ones.
Two layers of glass roving and two layers cloth on the top and we let it cure.
I took a break and when I came back I noticed that a squirrel had jumped into my epoxy resin cup and was stuck for the duration. Poor thing.
First layer of roving over cloth. Looks dangerous.
Low desity fairing filler mixed with epoxy for help in smoothing it out.
I may paint with Ezpoxy after the sand coats. 10/08
Jan 09, I finally get a sun day and decide to patch some holes where the engine well vents and antenna mount once resided. All thru deck holes are redrilled with 1/2" holes with the core dug out and filled with epoxy. The actual mounting holes for the new vents will be redrilled for screws and no core will be exposed to the screw holes. After looking at this picture, I am hoping this picture was before I wiped down the deck or I am going to have a mess to clean up.
The vents mounting holes were also drilled out to 1/2" and filled with eposy. This was the first attempt at filling and it will take at least another application.
