"The Big Fitz" Dry Dock 7

Shaping the deck camber in the foam sides.

One thing I love about the foam is it is so easy to shape. Here I sand in the deck camber by first shaping it off the middle bulkhead. Note the sand paper is only touching the outer half of the hull, and slides off the middle bulkhead as a guide. I sand the foam down till I start touching the outer side bulkheads. I do this the full length of the hull.

I know the outer bulkheads are straight because I checked them before applying the foam. So it's safe to sand the foam flush to these bulkheads. I still will place the straight edge up to make sure.

Now you will note that the template sits high because when we sanded the sides we went of the middle bulkhead leaving the out most edge higher. We now need to sand in the arch of the deck camber into the foam sides.

I use a sharpy marker and my finger as a guide and draw a 1/16 line down the sides. this will be my giude to sand the foam down to.

Useing a long sanding block and 100 grit sandpaper I sand down the foam to this line.

Again I use the straight edge to makes sure its flat.

Then I take the template and see if my camber is correct.