Surprise--Surprise--Surprise

After a several really good days of work on the platform John is leaving for an emergency repair job.
That's ok as John is a very hard worker and his pace is pretty hard to keep up with. I welcome the short break. During his absence John has requested that I final grind all the welds and see if I can get some ideas  for the ladder pocket. 

This is a shot of  John grinding some under structure welds, the platform is flipped fore to aft and is resting on its back.    

Here's the platform back on the boat again, all the cosmetic grinding is done and I'm working on the ladder panel . I decided to put the ladder inside the platform dead center. The brown cardboard panel is the template  for the real thing. John's repair job has taken a little longer than figured in the beginning, so I finished the ladder project on my own. I ended up fabbing the ladder door , setting up the hinges and catches, and final fit on the ladder . It's sweet and I saved myself a couple of bucks in the process.

Now that I'm all caught up with the platform my attention has turned to the cabin interior and an upholstery company.  In my last post I stated that we hadn't  selected an upholstery company.
That in fact was not completely true, we had interviewed someone with intention of giving them the job but strangely enough on follow up they stood us up twice and then stopped returning our calls. 
But I have learned that in life everything happens for a reason and this would prove no different.
During a call to a vendor for some material we were looking at for the cabin I had mentioned about the awful service we were getting  from an upholstery shop. The salesman stopped me and said I think you are looking in the wrong area for help , You should talk to people in the aircraft industry.
He went on to say that these people are real professionals and are the "uber technicians"  of the industry.   Now the little wheels in my head are burning rubber, because WesStar Avaition is close to my shop.   I made a call to the nice people at WesStar and was invited to come out and tour the facility. I was met by the upholstery dept. manager Bill Miller who showed me what they do and the level of quality that they work at, I was very impressed by all of it.
But this too would fall apart as Mr. Miller explained that I would have to bring the boat to him.
As I was preparing to leave Mr. Miller and I stepped into his office briefly , he  got into his desk and pulled out a business card for a company called VIP Upholstery in Missouri, He further explained that Cheryl and Scott where people he knew personally and that they could do the work at my place.  A few hours later when I called VIP I was greeted by Cheryl and as luck would have it she had time to see us. To say that the 4 of us have hit it off is probably an under statement.
I feel that we have a partner in this part of the project that we just didn't have before. Turns out that Cheryl and Scott both worked in the aircraft industry before going out on there own and still do work for WesStar from time to time. VIP has a nice reference list of clients that includes a number of aviation companies and MTI Boats. I personally know Randy Siscm the president of MTI and know that his standards are very high and he makes no compromises of it, this says a lot. 

A new energy is felt in the project so we have decided that since we are waiting for John to return that we we will strip the interior. This proves to be the biggest surprise to date. 

Peeling and marking the existing materials was easy, it's whats under the vinyl that's a little unsettling. 
Doing my best to describe this stuff would go like this, Orangey- yellowy- foamy- sticky.

                                This is a ceiling to wall area with just the vinyl removed.

This a shot of the salon ceiling scraped with a blade to remove the foam, whats left behind is the glue from when the original vinyl was installed. This final layer of glue proved to be quite stubborn. 

My first try to remove the stuff was with a wire wheel and drill, I wasn't so much removing it as I was pushing it around. Then I tried some 3-M Adhesive Remover and a shop towel but I couldn't keep a wet edge going. I did hit paydirt when I put the 3-M Adhesive Remover in a spray bottle, misted it on the glue and scraped it with a razor blade scraper. The 3-M stuff turned the glue to snot and It only required a little effort to get the snot to roll off. It was still a huge mess, spray , scrape and catch the snot in box as it dripped off. I had to catch the snot in something as it would melt a hole in the floor wrap if  I let it hit the floor.           

Here's a shot of the slimy snot , dripping off the ceiling, but look how clean it leaves the ceiling.

Here's the same area after cleaning and ready for new vinyl, You could almost use it like it is because the interior parts of an Excalibur are very nicely gel coated as you can see.
There is one point that I have to make before I move on. Remember me saying I put the 3-M  stuff in a spray bottle and misted it on the glue. When I started doing that I was so pumped up that I had found something that would work that I didn't realize that I was breathing that stuff ( in a confined area) and wow wee I was buzzed up like a bad boy real quick, and then the worlds worst headache to follow. Note to self , put the respirator on and keep it on! 



Next up :  A Pirate sails Away