Interior woodwork for fiberglass hull

Greetings,

This is a project that will need to wait re: T-27 but, what are some techniques that have been used to put wood paneling/strips to the interior of a fiberglass hull?

Have Casey's book and he shows 1"x1" pieces attached atwhart to hull every 24" with strips nailed into them. My idea is attaching the strips directly to hull with quick setting epoxy and temporary adjustable pushrods (like shower curtain rods) to hold in place until they set. It would be a tedious way of doing it but think it the best because of all the curves.

Wood interiors make a boat much more pleasing to be in and local kilned dried wood can be had for a small interior like mine for about hundred dollars and milling into strips for another hundred.

I know different species have varying bending and gluing characteristics but think something in the light colored & light weight woods such as maple, butternut, poplar, basswood, sycamore, or sassafras would work since they would be encapsulated limiting movement and no chance of rotting. The light woods seem to agree with epoxy gluing much better than heavier woods like oak, hickory, teak, etc...

Peace.

 

Are you refering to " ceiling " on the inside of the hull ?

If so you can't glue them onto the inside hull skin , without going mad and if you did mange to find a way to glue them on they wouldnt work.

You need air space between the ceiling and the hull.

The best way is to glue frames., just like frames on a wooden boat.....vertical pieces of perhaps 18 mm ply , perhaps 18mm wide..with kerfs cut in so that it s flexible...onto the hull skin at perhaps 300 mm centers...with thickened epoxy and a fillet. Paint same clour as hull.

Once all these frames have been bonded you may screw and glue your ceiling planks into these fake ply frames.


Pre finish the wood planks before installation.


Remove fasteners after bond cure, plug holes. Fasteners look goofy.


imagen

 

Yes, hull sides & ceiling at deckhouse. Why do you say you cant do without air space?

Been a few years since I read it but think you explain almost exactly to what Casey describes.

What I was thinking was making 1.5" to 2.5" strips an integral part of hull by rough sanding then apply epoxy along entire back while installing. Two reasons for this are:

1. Want to keep all the hdrm possible at deckhouse especially but even at sitting areas it gets tight.
2. Noticed a leak at deck drain and thought it would be more difficult to locate in case one develops behind the slats and causes damage although I would probably have holes at the bottom but this leaves places for bugs.

Btw, like the old boatdesign format where it had a tab for people to choose last -7 days - when deciding about recent posts to read.

 

What Casey describes is a traditional ceiling, which does require a gap between the hull and the ceiling pieces, to ventilate the strips and more importantly the bilge. On a 'glass hull, with encapsulated strips, this isn't necessary.

The ceiling in this case is purely a decorative treatment, which will also have some insulative properties, so you can glue them directly to the hull, with few worries. The ceiling pieces will need good encapsulation and they can be bonded in thickened epoxy, directly to a well scuffed hull shell or liner.

There are some draw backs (as usual), the primary one is that of repair and maintenance with a bonded ceiling. Weight is another consideration, though a thin ceiling strip of a light species can mitigate this to a large degree. As to pressing the ceiling in with closet rods, well this will work, though the process might be tedious. I'd use a different though similar approach. A fairly thick hunk of foam, braced in place with a prop, which could be simply a 1x2 cut to length as needed, pushing against several strips at once would expedite their placement. Naturally, you'd want to cover the foam with plastic sheeting or packaging tape, so it wouldn't stick to the ceiling strips being glued in.

If it was me, I'd rip the edge off a 2x4 of white spruce or cedar, say 1/4" thick, making economical use of the material. A good looking ceiling will have the edges of each strip "dressed" with a round, double bead over or Roman ogee shape.

 

Sure..air spqce. You dont want your clothing to contact the clammy inside surface of the hull

And dont butt plank to plank...it looks terrible and is very hard to maintain ..leave a gap between planks.

Some installations that want to be blind fastened and removable use clips to hold each plank in place.

One great feature when leaving a gap between strakes .....is their ability to harvest coins. When you are broke...outa food and water, surrounded by sharks, you can remove the bottom strake and harvest valuable coins that have been deposited over the year. These coins make the difference between life and death

 

I want to do something, perhaps not wood but the air gap issue worries me. Right now when we fish in the summer, we come back through some cool water and get condensate like crazy on the inside of the fiberglass hull. I want to put a barrier there and not sure what to do. What about putting the strips in, then putting spray up glue and foam, the bubble wrap type foam inbetween them. Then on the exterior having some acoustical sound down or something, the overhead style. Granted it might tear a little but its behind a bunk, beats wet sheets.

Anyone have any advice on that one? Thanks.