That Bloody Surfboard

Gave the surfboard its first coat of primer and put it in the Engineroom to dry, due to the inclement weather.

Once dry I turned it over to give the other side a spray and, bugger me, if I didn't spot yet another lumpy area that needed filling with bodyfiller. How I'd missed it is incomprehensible, but with so many indentations it's partially understandable.

However, I had bigger fish to fry from a bodywork perspective, as Hay had once more managed to back the motorhome into a pillar when trying to get it out of the drive to take it for its annual MoT on Friday.

The majority of the scrape came out with some rubbing compound and a buffer, but a plank from Hay's dad's patio roof had punctured the extreme right corner, being forced in by the rubbing strip on the join between the side and back panels. It left a nasty gouge that had breached the watertight integrity and needed sorting ASAP. Luckily there was no damage inside the van.

Filling that was a nightmare due to the temperature yesterday - the filler was like hard, grainy putty, rather than smoothly flowing, necessitating me having to simply blob it on and then apply some heat from a heat gun to get it to set. Aesthetics were not a priority, as I wanted it watertight before the rain and snow started (yes, we had a short-lived flurry of snow yesterday).

I had to go to ScrewFix to get some more sandpaper, but that was fraught with the usual problems - I ordered a roll of 120 grit sandpaper online and went to ScrewFix to collect it but, while waiting in the queue (comprised mainly of young, maskless builders), I surveyed the special offers on display and thought; "Ah, I'll have a couple of those tubes of clear silicone, and possibly some of that brush cleaner, and I do need a new tape measure, and those Varta batteries look good value, and..." By the time I exited the shop, rather than spending 6 quid on a roll of sandpaper, I was the best part of 30 quid down. 

The filler will take a lot of rubbing down today, but I learned that the filler spreading job is made easier by putting the filler tin in some hot water indoors before mixing it with the hardening agent, rather than trying to to it outside in the cold.

So today's job is rubbing down the rough blobbing and then smoothing the edges and small craters with warmed bodyfiller. It isn't worth painting it till the weather turns somewhat warmer this coming week, or else I'll just end up with paint runs all over the place, although I may attempt it, but facilitating the adhesion and drying by use of the heat gun to warm the fibreglass prior to spraying.