The hull - finishing touches

I managed to finish working on the stem and I replaced all the temporary fasteners except along the sheer since there will be some beveling going on there to fit the cabin top and deck and I don't want to destroy my tools on steel fasteners buried in the plating somewhere. For the rest: all the stainless fasteners (5x30mm on the chines, 5x35mm on the frames, 5x50mm in the stem and transom, 4.5x30mm along the stringers) are bedded with epoxy, countersunk and the holes filled with fairing compound. Tomorrow I'll sand the fairing compound down and see if any more is needed in preparation for glassing - I'll try to make the surface under the glass as fair as practical since the glass will have to be faired as well.

The trennels I used to replace the temporary fasteners in the stem are quite long as they are tying all the layers together and also bite into the deadwood. The key to success is making sure the glue fully fills the hole and encapsulates the dowel. I drilled 9mm holes for 8mm dowels and filled the holes "from the bottom up" about half way using a syringe and a piece of tube. The under sized dowel then squeezes the glue out along it's sides and voila, no air pockets (to speak of).

Don't have too many photos (working solo with epoxy, no time to shoot), here's the few I do have.

 

I tried to remove some of the stainless screws I used for keeping the turn of the bilge in place to better bed them with epoxy - turns out they were already pretty much glued, despite heating them up first with a soldering iron I still managed to twist off a head or two. I just left those in place, they will be plenty strong.

 ...and here's the hull in various stages of being treated with the fairing compound.

The sanding and final touches tomorrow or so if time allows.
cheers.