Next up for our resident carpenter (in other words, me) is the rear outboard engine nacelles or "canoes". These both have very elaborate wooden ribs and frames, made out of numerous strips of 2mm plywood, fir pieces for stiffening and 3mm plywood nailed on top. There are numerous notches and edges with compound curves. Yahoo! Neither one has a complete, intact set so there is going to be a lot of measuring, trial and error and, probably, guess work, lol.
Here is a pic of the port canoe, Many of the ribs are damaged, rotten and missing parts. The starboard one is in no better shape.
First order of business was removing what we can without further damage. All of the ribs are attached with various sized, slotted wood screws, most of them covered with several layers of black paint. This is a pic of the starboard rear rib which is in the best shape of all of them. The port one came off in several pieces. It is so soaked with oil you can literally crumble it between your fingers.
The next rib came off in several pieces as well. It seems that if they aren't oil-soaked, they are so dried out that they feel like paper.
The new skins for the rear ribs on both canoes. This was the easy part. Now I will need to re-build the form that it covers, re-creating the bevelled edge that goes all around the outside (nacelle skin side). The broken form from the port side is laid out on top in this pic.
Stay tuned! Cheers,
Don