Working on this boat has been such an awesome experience. Watching our kids grow and begin to really help out on each and every project as been so great! Jase is now stepping in and so far his favorites are the drill and vacuum!
The next project that we decided to tackle is the cold storage. The original plan was to remove the top/navigation table and slip the cold box out and work on it outside of the boat. However as we took the top off, we quickly became aware that this box was not going to fit out the door! New plan, remove front facing and restore the box inside the boat.
Before we replaced the cold box we needed to scrape off the old, flaking paint as well as sand and fair the back wall and put a fresh coat of paint on everything. Jack and Jeremiah took on the scraping and Natalie and Anya did the paining.
The first step after freeing the box was to remove all the old foam insulation. After that we sanded down the outside to remove all the old adhesive. Then we were ready to tackle the inside.
For the interior of the box, we first sanded down in multiple stages until we were left with good clean gelcoat. The it was wiped down with acetone and given a fresh coat of paint. Now it looks brand new!
For the exterior we took 2" R5 Styrofoam and adhered that directly to the box then covered that with 1"Styrofoam with Mylar backing. The we covered all the seams with aluminum tape. Prior to installing the cold box we ran the heat ducting. This created a change in our measurements so we had so sand down that back section and re-tape the back seams.
Getting the box back in its spot was more than a challenge. It took many attempts including even climbing inside the box and trying to jump and the the body weight drop it into place. A perfect fit! Now we just need to install the cold plates and compressor as well as the counter and front.