This boat came with a wooden swim platform. I need one that will be strong enough to carry a 60gal bait tank because I don't want to take up space in the cockpit. Later down the road, I will build a custom gas tank that would go closer to the bow area to even things out as far as weight goes.
Here is the base of the mold for my swim platform, again the mold is made of melamine. The white plastic 4 inch strip you in on top is from a sheet of 1/16 vinyl sold at home depot, I used this because it has a smooth surface like the melamine and I can bend it really nice.
The 4 step fold-down ladder was considered in the design of the swim platform because at the end I want this ladder to be hidden when not in use.
This is the finished mold, radius added (sculpey), and tape used in the joints of the various pieces of melamine used.
A dry fit of the core material, in this case a used a heavier 3/4 dinivycell.
This part was done with a different approach, the gelcoat was put first, like production boats/parts are made, after the gelcoat was left to semi-cure, the first couple of layers of fiberglass the cabosil goes in, then the dinivycell, and all the gaps are filled again with more cabosil, then the dinivycell is throughly wetted out with resin before the next layer of fiberglass goes in.
This is how it looked the following morning, in this case, the layup was thick, and the overall thickness of the part considering the 3/4 inch divinycell was about 1 1/8 inches so the part was in the mold for two days before taken out.
When the part was ready to be taken out of the mold it was not an easy task, that area for the ladder was really holding on...
Here is how swim platform looked coming of the mold. I didn't like how the gelcoat turned out, wasn't smooth enough, so the next parts that I do in mold are going to be all fiberglass and leave the gelcoat as the last layer once everything is faired.
After making a lot of calculations, volume, weight, etc, the dimensions of the bait tank were determined. A 63 gal bait tank was going to be constructed. For this the idea was to make a thin sheet of fiberglass and then.... well you'll see the pictures and get the idea...
Two pices of melamine were screwed together to make the base mold for the bait tank wall.
Only two layers of 1708 were laid up here, I wanted to keep the sheet thin so I could bend it, I would later put down more layers of fiberglass.
After the sheet of fiberglass was peeled of the "mold",hehe (that's no mold), the sides and this little rig helped hold things in place while the open end was fiberglassed on both sides in/out. If you don't do the outside, the sheet will not hold well the form as the fiberglass springs it back open.
This other contraption was used to hold the tank in the required form while everything else was fiberglassed in and the whole tank re-strengthen to this new form.
This tank was going to be fiberglassed to the swim platform, so it didn't need a base, just the top part, the base would be the swim platform. A "strip-band" of fiberglass was placed around the lip so that when the top of the tank was fiberglassed in everything ended up being flush. What you are looking in the first picture, faces down in the second picture.
A Couple of layers go in, notice how I don't keep putting more layers in the center as this is going to be cut out. You can also see from this picture that the fiberglass that is around the walls on the very bottom widens out to that "strip-band" on the previous picture. This covers up the thickness of the already built tank wall.
A couple more layers of fiberglass go in, first a mat, then two 1708 with the mat part facing out so that will provide the finish.
The tank as it just came off the previous "mold".
The mold to make the part that goes in the tank's-opening.
The little mold sanded and ready to go, getting all the layers of fiberglass ready not only for the tank's-opening but also a 3/16 inch sheet was made to make the fill compartment and drain compartment in one end of the tank.
The cured parts
Putting everything in place just to check if all the planing was correct... The boss looks at it and says "thumbs up"
The tank's-opening part being filled with two part foam.
The tank's-opening part begin tabbed into place, cabosil with chopped mat fiberglass was used to fill gaps.
The tank is now fiberglassed to the swim platform from the inside and a layer of 5200 was put on the outside because it would look better and it would also be faster than fiberglassing and fairing, filling, fairing...
The gelcoat is being applied here.
This is how the finished swim-platform-bait-tank looks like.
Josh out...
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UPDATE: Found picture
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Here is a picture of the tank drawn on the swim platform before being installed. This gives you a very clear idea of what was done, I tried explaining this with words in this post but I think the picture helps a lot. The furthest hole (top) is the fill hole. Then a wall that separates the fill / empty chambers. Then the two big holes are for draining water, full, 1/2 full. The hole in the bottom is the empty tank hole.
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