Building New Pilothouse Doors for a Bluewater Trawler

After a 5 month break, back to working on the pilothouse doors. Replacing boathouse floatation and floors took up most of the fall. Some maintenance on Sandpiper and projects around the house took up the rest of the time.

My wife reminded me at the beginning of the year that I needed to finish the doors so we can go boating this summer.

In September, I completed the glass fabric application to the doors and filled the weave with epoxy before I quit working on it.

I routed an oversize groove at the bottom of each door which will ride on the bottom track of the door opening. The groove is being coated in these pictures with a mixture of System Three Epoxy and West System 423 Graphite Powder. The graphite powder will create a low-friction surface for the doors to slide on the tracks. The 423 also increases scuff resistance and durability. I use the epoxy/graphite mixture often as a low-load, low-speed bearing surface.

After several coats of the epoxy/graphite cures, it will be polished smooth.

Thats pretty cool, never seen that application

Yours just slide on a track? Mine are on rollers.

KingBuffalo said:

Yours just slide on a track? Mine are on rollers.

Click to expand...

Mine rides on a teak track. No rollers.

The rollers on yours sound interesting. Pictures?

What year is the Bluewater?

The new Flush Pulls for the doors finally arrived today.

Making patterns to route the recesses in the doors.

Measure and transfer to 3/4" plywood.

Drill the holes and cut between the holes with a zig saw.

Clean up the pattern with a spindle sander.

Greetings,
Mr. s. Very nice!

Thanks RT!

Any reason you didn’t go with locking latches?

KingBuffalo said:

Any reason you didn’t go with locking latches?

Click to expand...

Sticking with what came on the boat. Has worked for us 20 years.

Routed the door handle recesses using the patterns created in Post # 36.

Applied epoxy to raw wood to prevent moisture intrusion.

Test fit - perfect!

Using a MDF pattern, routed the landing for the 3/8" plywood that will be mounted to the inside of the window opening to hold the glass in place. You can see the 3/8" plywood inner panels in the background of the pictures. Those were routed to shape with the patterns created earlier.

The finished routed recess - Pic 2

Trial fitting the 3/8" plywood on the inside of the window - Pic 3

Test fit new glass - Pic 4. The black rubber spacers represent the future thickness of the sealant/adhesive. They will insure that the sealant/adhesive will be uniform thickness.

The tempered window glass was ordered from a glass shop, who used
the pattern I supplied - Post #3

With the inner 3/8" plywood test fitted - pic 5

The difference in color of the plywood is because 3/8" was only available in Aquatek Plywood. The lighter color plywood on the rest of the door is Sande/Virola Plywood. Both are marine plywoods.

Very nice work! I appreciate your attention to detail.

Aft Deck Capt said:

Very nice work! I appreciate your attention to detail.

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Very satisfying.

ghost said:

Very satisfying.

Click to expand...

Yes, it is very satisfying to do projects like this.

Applied a coat of epoxy on the routed wood to prevent moisture intrusion. Pic 1

And a precoat of epoxy to the inner panel before glassing. Trial fitting to make sure epoxy did not alter fit. Pic 2

Built risers out of scraps for the inner panels to raise them off the table during glassing. Pic 3

Inner panels on risers with 5 oz glass cloth draped ready for epoxy. Pic 4

Applying epoxy to the cloth with a brush. Pic 5

The epoxy is spread with a spreader and rolled with a laminate roller to bring excess epoxy to the surface to be squeegeed away. Pic 6

The goal is to not have excess epoxy under the cloth. The purpose of the fiberglass cloth is not strength but as a way to insure uniform epoxy thickness, puncture resistance and a smooth hard surface for paint. Any excess epoxy under the cloth lifts the cloth and creates an uneven surtace requiring fairing and more sanding than necessary. Plus the possibility of sanding through the glass cloth at the high spots.

After the epoxy hardens, the cloth will be trimmed and the weave filled with epoxy.

Painted the exterior side of the doors prior to the installation of the window glass.

Decided to try spray painting the doors with the System Three WR LPU water based polyurethane paint for the first time. I usually roll and tip WR LPU but I wanted a sprayed on look on the doors. Purchased a Graco Airless Paint Sprayer and erected a temporary paint booth under a deck.

The airless sprayer did an excellent job producing a smooth finish without any orange peel. Experimented with various sprayer settings and thinning of the paint with water.

The sprayer produced very little overspray and no odor so did not have to wear a respirator.

Painted the inner panel around the glass opening prior to installing it to make masking and painting the inside of the door easier.

Installed window glass using 3M Auto Glass Urethane Windshield Adhesive. The adhesive was applied to the glass and the glass set in the routed recess. The glass sits on small rubber pads (Post 42 pic #4) to maintain an even sealant thickness and to center the glass in the recess.

For the inner panel, 3M Urethane Adhesive was applied around the perimeter of the glass and the inner panel glued to the door with epoxy around it's perimeter.

Temporary screws were used to hold the panel in place until the epoxy cured and the screws were removed.

The urethane skins over quickly so did not have time to take pictures of that process.

The glue line was faired and sanded.

The inner side is coated with additional epoxy before painting.

View of the painted exterior side of doors after glass installation.

Paint the inner side and I'm done!

Doors painted.

Getting prepared to install the recessed handles.

Attached cleats to handles so as to orient them at the correct depth. The recess for the handles were routed slightly deeper than necessary so the handles could be adjusted for depth.

Applied packing tape to the back of the handles so handles would not adhere, put four small mounds of fairing putty into the recess and pushed the handles in until the cleats contacted the surface.

Pulled the handles out after the putty cured.

Removed packing tape, filled the recesses with Gel Magic epoxy adhesive and pushed the handles in until they bottomed on the putty mounds created earlier.

Allowed the adhesive to cure overnight and done!

This is some very nice work. Great job!

Crusty Chief said:

This is some very nice work. Great job!

Click to expand...

Thanks,

Glad i'ts almost done.

Looks great. The WR-LPU is being replaced by something called "Pennant." Not sure if it's actually a reformulation or just branding. Have you used the water based epoxy primer?



Which Graco gun are you using? There's a couple different levels of guns with more or less control over pressure.

How well does the we-lpu hold up?

stinkpotter said:

Looks great. The WR-LPU is being replaced by something called "Pennant." Not sure if it's actually a reformulation or just branding. Have you used the water based epoxy primer?



Which Graco gun are you using? There's a couple different levels of guns with more or less control over pressure.

Click to expand...

S3 said it was a new formulation and not to mix the two together.

I used WR LPU on the first couple coats on one side, let it dry, sanded it and sprayed the last coat with the new Pennant paint. The colors are identical.

I bought the True Coat 360 DS - dual speed. I only use the high speed setting since the lower setting caused uneven application.

KingBuffalo said:

How well does the we-lpu hold up?

Click to expand...

The WR LPU holds up well. It is harder and shinier than one part oil based paint such as Brightside and Easypoxy.

It does not fade like the one part enamels.

The WR LPU and Pennant is slightly more difficult to apply than enamels because it dries very fast. Rolling and tipping has to be done fast to avoid brushstrokes.

It is easier to use than the solvent based polyurethanes like Perfection.

Spraying is the best way to apply it and clean up is easy with water.

Rebuilding Pilot House doors

My project is similar to Simons. Bluewater 40, pilothouse doors need replaced. My doors are not on slides, but are hinged. I was planning to use two sheets 1/2 marine ply and glue or epoxy together. However, since the door hinges go into the edge of the ply, I was thinking that I need to band it with a hardwood, probably 3/4' thick so the hinges had something beefier than the edge of the plywood. Thoughts on that? And if that sounds like a good idea, what type of wood is recommended? I'm building these in my So. Nevada workshop and transporting them to the boat (Oregon coast) so I also need the ability to slightly adjust fit and my thoughts are I could use a hand plane on the hardwood edge(s) if necessary but doesn't work so great if they are just plywood.

Open to suggestions.

Desert Trawler said:

My project is similar to Simons. Bluewater 40, pilothouse doors need replaced. My doors are not on slides, but are hinged. I was planning to use two sheets 1/2 marine ply and glue or epoxy together. However, since the door hinges go into the edge of the ply, I was thinking that I need to band it with a hardwood, probably 3/4' thick so the hinges had something beefier than the edge of the plywood. Thoughts on that? And if that sounds like a good idea, what type of wood is recommended? I'm building these in my So. Nevada workshop and transporting them to the boat (Oregon coast) so I also need the ability to slightly adjust fit and my thoughts are I could use a hand plane on the hardwood edge(s) if necessary but doesn't work so great if they are just plywood.

Open to suggestions.

Click to expand...

I considered adding wood around the edges too but a lot more work. I didn't have any need for fastners in the edges but if I did, I would route a mortise into the edge and fill it with wood or epoxy filler.

I used Sande/Virola marine plywood. It is a well made imported mahagony plywood with many plies that cost less than fir marine plywood. The plies are slice cut instead of rotary cut so hardly any warping of the plywood. Slice cut mahagony plywood has very fine grain running in one direction so the surface come out very smooth when painted. The Bluewaters superstructure is constructed with a mahogany plywood but of unknown quality

Fir marine plywood is rotary sliced and tend to warp. Its rotary cut surface has an uneven surface which require a lot of sanding between coats to have a smooth painted surface. I cover plywood with fiberglass and epoxy so surface grain is not an issue.

You may be limited in marine plywood availability where you are. I did have to take the doors to the boat several times during construction for trial fitting.

A sharp plane will plane plywood edges if held at an angle. I sometimes use a Stanley 21-296 Surform Plane for plywood edges.

A router with a straightedge guide and pattern bit would be my method to trim plywood edges.