Grinding is Finished

I completed the demolition phase of the rebuild today, grinding away all the poorly-adhered kevlar and epoxy on the bottom/outside of the hull. 

The two previous grinding sessions were done in the basement, and it created a lot of nasty fluffy kevlar/epoxy dust that could be smelled elsewhere in the house. Today was lovely out, so I brought the sawhorses and boat outdoors and did the grinding there. Much better. Brought the boat back inside for the photos.

Most of the patch is well-adhered to the bottom and remains in place, but a big section had to come off, exposing cracks, caulk and a section of welding.

Close-up of the section that was ground down to "bare" or solid material. Utility knife is for scale.

I also noticed some hairline cracks in the welded sections along the bilges (right by the point of the blade). These cracks will be opened up a bit with a knife and then filled with epoxy.

I ordered a yard of kevlar cloth and small kits (around 8 oz. each) of two different versions of West System G-Flex epoxy (one filled, one liquid). Having finished exposing all the flaws, I think I'll need more epoxy.