Winter Slog

This week the boat has a three foot iced over snow berm all around it. I spent Saturday chipping ice out of the driveway after spending an hour trying to get the truck out of the driveway over the 3 inches of solid ice. Dog days of winter.


I started glueing up the engine instrument panel frame.



I want to re-mount my spicerack/secondary electrical panel on the aft end of the cabin but I don't want to see the screw heads on the outside. I spent way too much time fairing the cabin sides and prepping them for a smooth paint finish to have a couple of random screw heads poking through.

The solution was suggested to me by a friend of mine. Build a back panel for the spice rack, Glue it in and screw the rack to the back panel. There is quite a bit of surface area to the panel and not much weight on the rack so I think this will work. Clamping the panel to the cabin while the epoxy sets is going to be the tricky part. I will put flush counter sunk machine screws under the panel and protruding into the cabin. The spice rack will mount onto those screws. Today, I cut out that panel from some left over 1/4" okoume plywood. I think I will varnish the visible surface before I glue it in. Or maybe just paint it white. I don't know yet.



The rod end for the transmission shifter cable came in. Someone listed the dimensions incorrectly. I thought it was odd that an aviation supplier would have the right sized clevis end. In my 15 years of fixing airplanes I have never seen a fitting that large. The fitting I received is not nearly big enough. Here is a picture of the 1.)original, 2.)recently ordered fitting, and 3.) fitting that came with the cable.



To make matters that bit more frustrating. I looked at the rod end and ordered the clevis in a 5/16" fine thread. Turns out the thread is metric so it won't screw onto the cable. The original clevis I received was only listed in the catalog as 'clevis for series 60 cable'. Now I know series 60 threads aren't fractional. Learn something every day. That one only cost me $15.

I am thinking the solution is to file down the fitting that came with the cable just a bit so that it fits inside the original beefy bronze fitting. After jamming it in I can just fill the void with thickened epoxy and call it good. It will look odd but it should work okay.



Next week I have a maxed out social calender. I might have time to snoop in a buddy's boat shop and find something I need. Otherwise, the project will continue to creep along at this abysmally slow pace.

An old boss used to tell me that somedays, "all you can do is to push the ball forward. Try to make progress somewhere". Another friend has told me that the secret to being successful is to, "keep working, and it will get done." I am pushing the ball forward and working. That's about all I can say these days.