Laminating the roof
In previous episodes, Matt had some setbacks in making the top side of the Duracell roof, his ex-racing 60-footer that he is converting for cruising. The curvature of the part and its size led to an initial failure. So when it came time to laminate the top surface, he was a bit apprehensive.
Matt spends a day preparing for this, cutting out all the fiberglass cloths and vacuum accessories. He also called on several friends to spread the resin, set up the fabrics and debulk them, so that the operation wouldn't take too long and avoid a poorly controlled cure.
Once the operation is done, the relief is there. After a warm night in an improvised mini oven, the roof is perfectly stiff. Matt even offers to jump on it.
Recycled windshields
Last face of the roof, the front windshield is in 3 panels. For these parts, Matt uses, in the second episode of the day, the foam recovered from the first attempt to laminate the top of the roof. Voids in the sandwich had made the large panel unusable. He cut it to the size of the new parts he had previously made a template. Once stiffened by a first skin on the face that still has foam, he rips off the old, poorly laminated skin on each one. After sanding to remove the roughness, the pieces can receive new glass fibers. They are then laminated to each other and to the Duracell bridge.
