Keep picking at it, it'll never heal

With the lids manufactured, we proceed to apply the nonskid pulverized polycarbonate powder. 

Then we blow the surplus off carefully with compressed air. While that kicks on the main decks we do the tedious edging work.

Pushing paint. This is the classic 1953 Willys Beryl Green of dory fame. (see: Proper Dory Colors)

I'm a huge fan of George Kirby's paint. Small, family owned, and the best covering, least sagging paint I've ever used. It's hard to see but I have my Kirby Paint tee shirt on.

We are emulating the original paint job. Peace River may be the only dory to have kept pretty much the same paint job for more than forty years. We've added a wee bit of curve to the lines, but I don't think the boat will mind.

With the decks nearly finished we decided to roll her over, patch a few of the minor dings on the bottom, and get the exterior ready for paint. Hmm, what's going on with this little flap of loose fiberglass? It peels up kind of easy. Ohhhhhhh shitttttt.

That's wet. That's not good. There's a wee bit of rot in there as well. Better see how easy this glass is to peel back. Hmm. Pretty easy. Hmm. Wasn't really planning on this. 

Well, that only took about an hour. The good news is that the bad news was really localized. That very first spot we dug into was one of the very few spots with rot. And none of the rot had made it all the way through the floor or up into the side panels. What's really amazing is that about 75% of the bottom  is the original 1972 Briggs floor,  boat nails and all. That's almost impossible with that many years of commercial service, but there it is.

So with all the rot spots and nail holes saturated with Board Defense rot assassinator, we hoist the old girl up to the ceiling, stoke up the fire and let the drying out begin. It's gonna be okay, girl.