Picking up where I had left off the day prior, and being armed with better tools for the tasks at hand, I set out to complete the bulk of the sanding work that every restoration job holds, and in this case it was the balance of the coachroof and side deck (to port) and the whole of the foredeck. First, I broke out my smaller locking pliers, snapped them onto the bolts below beck, one by one, and worked out the machine screws with an impact driver - I removed both the port and starboard deck-mounted chainplates as well as the foredeck cleat. Later, I would remove the port deadlight as I had done with the starboard side, it was easily extracted.
I continued on sanding the field with the Bosch 6" and 60-grit discs, followed by hand- sanding the transitions between the molded in nonskid surfaces and the painted surfaces. The hand-sanding slowed the progress down, but was required and I felt good to have this task out of the way. To date, the topsides are down to factory gelcoat and the deck is down to factory gelcoat. The removal of the toe rail and rub rail is up next...and the potential for new rails to be fabricated, but we will wait for the removal and inspection prior to making that decision.

Total Hrs: 5.5