The forecast temperature for today was 11º Celsius, quite a difference from the -10º Celsius we had a week ago, but the warm spell is just forecast to last two days and I determined to get some of the exterior epoxy work done. I took multiple tea breaks and got to work.
The first thing I did when I saw the forecast on Saturday was to buy this portable diesel heater which was delivered yesterday. The idea is to pump warm air into the cabin and thereby heat up the decking and coachroof from underneath. Hopefully this will allow the epoxy on the outside to cure in a reasonable time. The heater will be used for other purposes, but I bought it sooner than I expected for this job.
Then it was on with the epoxy. These are the new runner pieces with some spacers that were used to make sure that the slot itself is at least the correct size.
It took some time but this is the result. For this part of the repairs I used the fast hardener as the temperature is reduced, rather than the slow hardener I’ve been using to give me a longer pot life.
The new runners and the old were coated with neat epoxy and then a layer of thickened epoxy was spread on one side of the new runners. These were put into position with the spacers and clamped. The excess epoxy was scrapped off as much as possible.
The spacers were removed and a thin mixing stick with a square end was used to scrape any epoxy squeeze out from inside the slot. The new runner piece is bigger than required which will allow me to use a plane to trim back the wood to match the old runners. At least that is the idea.
I made enough epoxy to coat several other areas on the coachroof where bare wood was showing.
Peel ply tape covered the layer of epoxy so that I can easily remove the amine blush, a waxy layer that forms on the surface of this epoxy when curing.
Now I shall wait until the epoxy is cured before carrying on.
Time for a cup of tea.