We cut our top and bottom spars and glued them and held them til it dried with nails driven in at an angle. (Spoiler alert- it didn't work.)
While the glue was drying we tackled some more electrical work. We soldered and connected the other reading light and prepped the fan wiring and the dome light wiring. The second reading light is broken so we had to order a replacement light so we can't put the roof on until we get it.
We purchased the 2 1/3 cubic foot tongue box from Harbor Freight and it's perfect for our needs. We drilled holes in it for the existing bolt and extra holes for the U-bolts from underneath. Dan built a wooden platform for the tongue box to sit on and I sealed it with our low VOC wood sealer.
After the hatch frame was "dry", we pulled it out and the nails didn't hold the glue so it snapped apart. We decided to reinforce it by cutting two more ribs and gluing them together. That way we would have two , 1/2" ribs glued together on the outside and two, 1/2" ribs on the inside. The upper and lower cross beams of the hatch are 1 1/2" thick so in order to fit the interior ribs in, we had to cut them down that length on either side.
We had to head to the FC Dallas game and it was super hot so we took plenty of breaks. Got around 4 hours of work in.
Time spent Day 23: 4 hours
Total hours spent: 87 hours
Day 24 was spent entirely on hatch work. We installed the vertical and horizontal pieces on the outside and then measured and cut the center two beams. We predrilled all our holes and used 2" screws on the vertical ribs and 1 1/2" screws on the horizontal beams.
We used a square to make sure the hatch wasn't going to be all wonky shaped and shown here is all the pieces installed except the center two beams.
We did a dry fit and lost our 1/4" gap. :(
We removed the right side cross beams and shaved them down 1/4" or so.
Before installing them back in we decided to do a dry fit of the hurricane hinge from Vintage Technologies.
We had to cut down the underside that attaches to the galley hatch so it sits inside of the sidewalls.
Since we didn't notch our sidewalls down, we have an offset hinge that allows the hatch door to sit up 3/8" so we can install the trim and galley hatch seals have room for the door to close and latch.
IT OPENS AND WE HAVE OUR 1/4" GAP!!
You can see here where I cut a notch out of the hinge. The part inside that is in focus used to be flush with the entire end but it wouldn't fit inside the sidewalls so I took a hacksaw saw and chopped out a rectangular piece. (Not recommended. Terrible sound.)
We messed around some with some little things for awhile before we called it quits for the weekend. Happy with what we got accomplished and looking forward to getting this bad boy finished up soon!!
Time spent Day 24: 7 hours
Total project hours: 94 hours
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