Sabalo build- a couple of questions..

[ayjay]

FYI, I'm painting, so if I grind into deeper ply veneers on one side trying to fair it, no big deal. My bow also has a pretty good size fill on it, so it is not like this would weaken it, either.

I'm just looking for the solution that will do more good than harm.

[jem]

picture of the new situation?

[ayjay]

This is it. I did some measurements comparing both sides..the angles and such. It begins to subtly devaite to starboard about 8-12 inches back from the bow, and by the time you get to the bow, the difference is approaching 3/16 inch. It looks worse than it is. I've decided to grind one side, and build up the other a bit and even them that way. I've already filled the bow back about 4-5 inches with a pretty good size end pour, to give me a little room to work with. I'll add a layer of ply backing or glass backing on the inside of the starboard side when I grind it, to keep the hull thickness matched up. I figure if I build a 16th up on one side, and grind a bit more than a 16th down on the other, and make it close to symmetrical, it'll be good enough.

[jem]

This will sound radical but it's not: Slice open the seams on the crooked panels right at the bow stem area. Trim and adjust as needed. Re-glue that seam. Best way to ensue results.

[ayjay]

Well, I had already completed part of an end pour on this, so no going back. What I've done is to go ahead and do some filler on one side on the inside, and the other on the outside, and grind the outside of the panels to be symmetrical. The difference was just a couple of 16ths one way or the other on that top set of panels towards the very bow, so it has been relatively simple to correct that way. If I was just varnishing, the grind through the veneer on the one side would look a little ugly, but I'm fairing and painting, so it'll never be seen on the finished boat.

Thickened epoxy and a rotary disc sander can fix most mistakes

[ayjay]

Update: I used a bunch of bar clamps to bend the sides of the cockpit out to the inner edge of the side panels, and it worked. They're filleted in place and holding just fine.

I ended up applying some filler mix to the bow as needed on both sides (inside our out), and carefully ground them until both sides were symmetrical and of approximately even thickness. This appears to have worked out just fine, though I did come through the outter veneer on one side. It's going to be painted anyway, so no big deal. Right now, I'm just about done drilling and filling at hardware attachment points, and close to putting in the tankwell. After that, it is decks, glassing, fairing, painting, and hardware, and that should all go relatively quickly aside from dry time and sanding.