As the weather is getting colder and the shed is holding a lot more moisture it is getting a touch more difficult to plan the painting projects. Peter had to set up a second roof inside the shed to prevent any drips on his painting and jeopardize the outcome of the gloss. Once again there has been heaps of sanding, spot filling and more sanding! First up Peter sprayed the 'Pearl Grey' topcoat and after a few days of curing time, some areas of the hard top changed to 'Graphite Grey' to try and achieve a modern 'wrap around' look once the tinted window panels go in. Here are a few pictures of the finished topcoat on the dodger/hard top:

With the painting finished we had to wait for a few days for the paint to cure before moving on to the next phase of the project - fitting the window panels. While the lower part of the hard dodger is relatively flat, the top section of windows has a bit more of a curve which meant Peter had to slowly bend the panels into place before he could actually glue them in. 

And by now all the panels/windows are glued in and we both think it looks awesome! There is an expansion gap between each panel/window which is only really visible as you can see the temporary fasteners which keep the panels in place until the glue/sealant has fully cured. Those will be removed and a caulking seam will be all that's left to finish it off. In the meantime Peter is working on finishing the aft entrance & hatch and prepping the next areas of the aft cockpit for painting. Here are a few pics with all the panels installed and the protective plastic off but with the temporary fasteners still in place:

Yesterday Peter sprayed the primer on the new hard dodger and it looks pretty awesome! More fairing and sanding to go as usual and more work awaiting in the cockpit in general such as filling holes, sorting the new aft entrance hatch, two new hatches for the aft cabins, stainless posts for the dodger etc. Due to the sheer size of an area we are prepping and painting in stages and will also get the sugar scoop prepped and painted before we move further forward on the deck. Here is what it looks like after the primer coats:​

While it is certainly a touch higher than we would have liked, we did measure the topsides (to put it in perspective) and believe it will look just fine, especially with the boom running at the same height as the first step in the dodger. Considering the amount of shelter we are getting from the weather and sun without sacrificing too much clear vision from the helm - it's safe to say we are pretty wrapped with the outcome!

While we are giving the paint a few days to cure properly, Peter has moved on to making the stainless posts which will support the aft of the dodger roof. We will also have additional posts from the helm post to the dodger roof to give us something solid to hold on to with the thought in mind that we may want to put a panel with our instrument displays there as well. 

Peter is in his element being full-time on the boat now and with me back to full-time work, any 'spare' time I have I'm cleaning up bolts for the toe rails and for any hardware that we took off - and oh boy are there hundreds of bolts, washers and nuts or what? Not the most thrilling of jobs but quite a mellow one as Peter set up a bench grinder on the work bench inside the boat so quite easy and convenient really and saves a few $ that we would rather spend on other stuff!​ Here is a before and after - definitely nice to see them all shiny again :-)

I have also received the last few logos and bits from one of our sponsors so I will be updating the supporters page this weekend also, so keep your eyes peeled for updates on the website :-)