The Finished Product

Finally complete!  What I thought would be a 3 month project ended up being 5+ months.  Mostly because I'm simply incompetent and slow, but after 2-3 months working on this, I realized I had a lot more to do, and I wanted to have a good summer, so I backed off and enjoyed the process knowing it would take me until now to complete the kayak.  Kind of like raising children.  Equal amounts of patience and a good sense of humor will get the job done.

The finish involved putting 2 coats of varnish on the hull and 3 coats on the deck.  Lightly sanding with a 320 grit sanding sponge in-between the coats was all that was really required over most of the surfaces.  I had to get slightly more aggressive (220 grit) after the 1st coat to clean up some drips/runs, following up with the 320 grit sponge.  But after that I learned to do a better job with my brush to eliminate the drips/runs.  First 2 coats I used a foam brush, but with the last coat on the deck I used a regular brush specific for varnish.  Worked well.  Once the varnish hardened I was able to install the hatch latches and deck rigging.  Here is what the final product looks like.

I could not be happier!  I'll close out this blog with a couple things.  First, once I get out on the water I'll update the blog with one last picture showing the launch.  I need to get a few accessories first.  A wet suit, skirt, paddle float, bilge pump, etc.  Soon.

But I have to give a big shout-out to Pygmy boats and their customer support staff for all of the assistance, from the pre-purchase time to just a couple days ago.  What great people they are.  Specifically, Jim, Laura and Candice.  Jim guided me through the discovery of this kayak and helped me tremendously with decision making and advise.  Laura and Candice were primarily at the other end of a phone call giving me expert technical advise over the many questions I had during the construction.  A few of those were with Jim as well.  But I'm sure I had around 50 phone calls into these guys with questions throughout the process.  Could not have done this without them.  Thanks.

Beginning the Finish

This is getting very close to being finished now.  Maybe in time for a Thanksgiving paddle.  I've gotten the end pours completed and holes for the hand toggles drilled.  All of the deck rigging hardware has been located, drilled and ready for installation.  The seat is complete with hip braces installed and adjustment for the seat back in place.  Also located and installed the Velcro on the inside to hold the seat cushion in place.  And I've applied the first coat of varnish to the hull and hatch covers.  Here are some more pictures.

This shows the kayak standing on end inside a bucket of water.  The bucket of water is to keep the end of the kayak a little cool to keep it from heating up too much once the epoxy is poured into the end.  I only poured about 2 1/2 ounces into each end.  Seemed to work okay.

First coat of varnish on the hull.

Pretty sweet.

If you look real close you can see the drilled hole through the end pour of the bow for the hand toggle.

First coat of varnish to the deck.

I'll sand the first coat on the hull for another coat, and then the same for the deck the following day. Planning on 3 coats on all exterior surfaces.  

Bulkheads & Hatches

It's officially time for me to now cut a couple big holes in the kayak for the hatches.  First step is to mark the openings for the bow and stern hatches.  Pretty simple task.  Simply measure from the cockpit forward and aft where you want the hatches to be located, then use the spacer strips provided in the kit to trace the opening.  I placed some masking tape on the deck where I was going to trace the opening.  I also had to take into consideration that I installed foot brace rails about 2-3 inches forward of where they were supposed to be,  That's because of my long legs (38" inseam).  Okay - Holes are marked.  Next step was to drill a few holes with a 1/16 in drill on the mark so that I can get my jig saw in the holes.  And then, start sawing.  I used my handheld jig saw and it worked perfectly.  Went very slow though.  Here's the end result.

The bow hatch

The stern hatch

Now that I have access to the inside of the boat from bow to stern, I am able to complete a job I put off until now.  That is, to finish filling in the beveled edges of the inside deck (shear seam) after I epoxied them onto the hull.  With the extra access I am able to reach fully forward and aft to fill in the beveled edges with thickened epoxy and lay fiberglass tape onto the filled edges.  

Now it's time to install the bulkheads.  The stern bulkhead went according to plan.  I had to do a little trimming from the bulkhead that was provided in the kit, but no problem.  Went in nice and snug. But the bow was a different story.  As previously noted, the foot brace rails were moved forward a couple inches and the hatch opening was also moved forward a couple inches from plan.  So that means the bulkhead will have to move forward a couple inches.  As you can see from the above picture, moving forward means a smaller diameter. At first, I just started trimming the edges down.  But after a couple of those attempts, the bulkhead started to look a little weird.  Not quite symmetrical .  So after a little thought, I decided to measure the outside of the kayak (chine to chine) where I wanted to place the bulkhead.  I took those measurements and drew a template on a large thick piece of cardboard.  I then shrank the size of the template 1/4 inch to allow for the thickness of the kayak panels.  I cut the cardboard and placed it in the kayak where I wanted the bulkhead, and it fit perfectly.  Well, perfect enough.  So I then took the template and laid it on the bulkhead material I had and drew it out. Then cut it to size.  Perfect fit!

The stern bulkhead (probably should sand down those drips, eh?)

The bow bulkhead  (and more sanding,,, someday)

Now, back to the hatches.  First installed a leash to the hatch covers.  Then installed spacers and hatch lip inside for the hatch cover to rest on.  Then installed foam bedding to make the hatches water tight from the outside.  

Finally, installed hatch strapping to secure the hatches snugly.  Also had to install half-round dowels to fit underneath the strapping.  Here's what that looks like now.

The stern hatch

The bow hatch

Almost done now.  I have to install the seat next.  That will require a couple hip braces epoxied and fiber-glassed inside the cockpit.  And then the seat and back support installed.  After that, deck rigging and hand toggles.  And then it will be the varnish finish.  Getting closer.....

Sanding, Sanding and Sanding + Cockpit Coaming Installation

I've spent the last couple weeks putting about 2 hours a day, every other day sanding the entire exterior of the kayak.  After the final fill coat of epoxy on the deck fiberglass, I decided that I needed to get this done now instead of later.  A lot of sanding.  Weather was good so took the kayak outside and got it done.  A lot of drips and runs, especially on the bow and stern.  Got the kayak nice and smooth so when it's time to varnish, minimum prep will be required.

Next, on to the coaming installation.

Here's the lower coaming on the right side of the cockpit.  Only have enough clamps to do one side at a time.  I did the same the next day on the left side.  While doing this, I fiberglassed the upper coaming getting it ready for installation.

I then installed the upper coaming.

And here's what that looks like.

Fiberglassing the Deck

A nice little trip to Port Townsend to visit Pygmy Boats during the Wooden Boat Festival.  In addition to picking up some more fiberglass, I got a few more rollers and a can of varnish.  What was really nice, was Pygmy had all of their boats out on the shore in the harbor, so Joyce (my wife) and I got to go for a paddle.  As you would expect, I paddled the Borealis XL.  Joyce paddled the Pinguino 145 4PD.  Apparently, I will be building that boat next.  We paddled a while in the harbor, and then took them out into the bay to see how they handled in the wind and rolling seas.  Very nice.

But back to the building of my kayak.  Got enough fiberglass to do the complete deck.  Here's a picture of me applying the first coat epoxy to the deck fiberglass.

 

 

And here it is after the 1st fill coat the next day.

 



I'll put another fill coat of epoxy on it tomorrow and when that's done I'll begin installation of the coaming around the cockpit.  After that, the hatch and bulkhead installations.  Getting closer.



Footbrace Installation and Gluing the Deck onto the Hull

Last post noted I will be taking a little time off from the building project.  That time was to do a couple volunteer activities I really enjoyed.  The first was a week of working at a Senior PGA golf tournament.  The Boeing Classic.  I've done this for 5 years now.  My job is to be a walking scorer.  That means I walk with the pros and keep track of their scores.  Every shot is recorded.  Kind of fun to be closely involved with the golfers.  As I record each shot, I also record where the shot was taken from and what club is used.  All this goes into the stats.  And it is also real-time for the tournament scoreboards and The Golf Channel.

After that activity, I volunteered for the Jim Marsh Classic.  Jim Marsh is kind of a local basketball legend in the Seattle area.  He played briefly in Portland with the Trailblazers.  When that was over, he founded the AAU organization called Friends of Hoops that has sent a lot of local  kids, boys and girls, to D-1 colleges and the pros.  Jim has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.  So the tournament is run to support charity for the disease.  It's a 3 on 3 basketball tournament held in Seattle on the streets of Georgetown.  Pretty big event.  Sixteen courts are set up and basketball is played from morning to night.  My job there is called Court Monitor.  What that means is, get the teams organized to start the games, run the clock, run the scoreboard, clarify rules and generally keep the games running smoothly.

SO, done with that and back to the boat.  After fiberglassing the inside of the hull, it was time to install the footbraces.  First step is to locate the studs that the footbraces will be mounted on.  The kit comes with instructions detailing how to locate the studs. At the end of the instructions, it notes, but wait, if you are over 6 feet tall call us first.  What that meant was to ignore what the instructions say.  Essentially, move the braces further down the boat a few inches.  Here is what that looks like.

 

 

You will also notice in the above picture that I've sanded the inside of the shear in preparation for gluing the deck onto the hull.  That's the next step.

 

 

Gluing the deck onto the hull was pretty simple.  Surprising how well the shape of the deck and hull was maintained throughout the process.  It (the deck) sat fairly well aligned on the hull.  The process had me tape it down to keep the alignment correct.  I also added 6 stitches (3 on each side) to further secure the deck to the hull and maintain a good alignment with the sheer seam.  Then simply use epoxy to fill the sheer seam.  How I did this was prop the boat on its side to get one of the seams, and the next day, do the other.  I had to do this a couple times to insure I got the seams fully filled.  Here it is after I removed all the tape and stitches.

 

Have to admit, I'm pleased with the result so far.  The next step is to fillet and glass the inside of the sheer seam.  The instructions give me the option to put this step off until after I cut the holes for the hatches so I will have better access to fill the inside of the seams up the bow and down the stern.  So I'll wait for that, after I glass the outside of the deck.

But not so fast!  To glass the deck, first I applied a saturation coat of epoxy to the deck.  Then sand the sheer seam to give it a good rounded edge.  Then run masking tape below the shear seam locate where the fiberglass cloth edge will be cut after the initial coat of epoxy.  Then lay the cloth over the stern, cut it to the correct size, and use the remaining cloth to lay over the bow.

And this is where it went wrong (again!!)  When I laid the remaining cloth over the bow this is what I ended up with.

Not quite enough cloth to do the job.  You can see there is an adequate amount of cloth over the stern half of the boat.  But the bow cloth is too skinny.  I called Pygmy, and after they stopped laughing, we came to the conclusion that I must have made a mistake when I was cutting cloth during a previous step, probably while glassing the hull.  No worries, I can buy more.  Since I have planned to go to Port Townsend tomorrow, during the Wooden Boat Festival, I'll just get some then. 

 

It's Been a While, But Back at It

It's been a few weeks since I've updated the blog.  I've gotten quite a bit more accomplished, and I've been delayed a bit with a nasty summer cold, and being out of town for a week.  So here's where I'm at right now.

The last post noted I need to glue the outside deck seams.  And I've done that.  Here's a picture of the deck secured on the hull with the deck seams filled with epoxy.

You'll notice the deck still has all the wire stitched installed.  After the epoxy hardened, I was able to remove all the wire stitches.  Something to note here.  I believe I've installed and removed over 600 wire stitched so far in the construction process. 

After removing the wire stitches, I removed the deck and turned it over to fill the deck seams on the inside with more epoxy.  I also did a fillet of thickened epoxy at the front reinforcement plate to create a ramp for fiberglass to lay smoothly over this surface. 

Then I needed to lay strips of fiberglass tape in between the gaps of the reinforcement plate.  Then I applied fiberglass tape to the complete length of the inside of the deck along each seam. 

Once this all hardened, I applied more fiberglass over the underside of the recess plate for the full width of the deck.  Then one complete saturation coat plus a second coat of epoxy over the entire underside of the deck.  Altogether, these processes took about a week to complete because of the time to let the epoxy processes harden between each step.

Here's a picture of the deck underside with all of the above accomplished.

You'll also see the hull in the above photo.  To get the hull in the shape you see above I had to do the following processes.

First, I had to remove all of the temporary frames from the inside of the hull.  Five of them.  That involved melting the glue that was holding them in place with a soldering iron.  Then taking a hammer and knocking them out.  They were also partially secured with excess epoxy that had found its way to the frames from all of the previous work.  So when they were removed I needed to then sand the areas, and fill the seams with epoxy that didn't get filled earlier.  I then had to lay in some very thickened epoxy up and down the bow and stern stem seams.  And then reinforce the bow butt seams with a couple layers of fiberglass cloth.  And finally, saturate the entire inside of the hull with epoxy.  Altogether, this was about 3 more days of work.  And then I had to sand the inside smooth so that I could lay fiberglass cloth down for the complete inside of the hull.  That's basically what you see above.

Now it's time to glass the inside of the hull.  This process was the most difficult so far to complete.  Primarily because I was confused on what the construction manual was telling me to do.  That was two days ago, on Saturday.  So I needed to make a couple assumptions.  Something I don't like to do.  SO, I proceeded to do what the manual told me what to do (based on my assumptions) up to the point of actually apply epoxy to the fiberglass.  I waited until this morning so I could call Pygmy and confirm my assumption were correct.  I won't bore you with the details of my confusion.  But I will show you what the hull should look like with the fiberglass laid out prior to applying epoxy.

Here you'll see two separate pieces of fiberglass laid out from the middle going to the bow and the stern.  They are secured to the sides over a strip of masking tape for the length of the hull on both sides with strips of masking tape every 6 inches.  I sent this picture to Pygmy this morning, and they said I got it perfect. 

So, with the first difficulty out of the way, on to the next difficult part.  That was to saturate the cloth with epoxy while keeping it in place and insuring all the chines are epoxied and fiberglassed well with no air bubbles.  Not easy!  But in the end, I got it done.  This is what it looks like now.

I'll come back tomorrow and apply some more epoxy to the areas above the fiberglass that didn't get epoxied during the previous step.

And now for an embarrassing admission.  You may recall that I made a mistake early on when gluing the butt seams that had me do some rework.  Well that required using more epoxy.  And you might recall me noting how sloppy I was in the beginning when gluing (epoxying) the panel seams for the hull.  That sloppiness led to a whole lot of sanding and filing to remove the excess epoxy.  What I'm saying is, I've used more epoxy than the construction plan accommodates.  About 2/3's through saturating the inside of the hull fiberglass I ran out of epoxy.  Anyone with 1/2 a brain would have realized more epoxy would be required before beginning the saturation process.  But not me.  So when I ran out, I needed to make an emergency run to a local marine hardware store for more epoxy so I could complete the last step.  It was tense!  Thankfully, I live on the Puget Sound on an island that has one marine hardware store just a few miles from my house.  Mission accomplished.

I've got some more travel to do this week, so it will be a couple more weeks before I make anymore updates.

Building the Deck

OK.  Completed the construction of the hull, and learned a lot about wire stitching epoxy and fiberglass.  Also learned a lot about properly laying it out so that rework is at a minimum.  So with that done, I can start to construct the deck.  With all the lessons learned from the hull, I expect that this will be a little easier to understand and hopefully not as messy.

First step was to lay the 2 center bow deck panels (#6 panels L&R) (the center panels) onto the hull and loosely wire stitch them together.  Then set the sheer panels (#5 panels L&R) on the hull and drill and wire stitch them to the #6 panels.  Then lay the stern deck panels onto the hull and drill and wire stitch them.  Lots of drilling and stitching.  Also installed another panel called the recess plate.  And now it's really looking like the boat I expected it to look like.

 

 

Next steps are to glue the outer deck seams.  I'll get started on that tomorrow.  Once this process begins, it will be several days of further gluing (thickened epoxy) the outside and inside deck seams.  Still lots of work to do! 

 

I wanted to be complete by now to enjoy some of the summer on the Sound.  Looks like another month of work to me at the rate I'm moving.  But then again, the weather has been so good this summer, and is expected to last a couple more months, so maybe I'll get out there before the rains begin this fall.

Fiberglassing the Hull

I've finally gotten to the fiberglassing step for the hull.  Taken me a while to get here.  After the saturation coat had hardened, I laid out the fiberglass cloth over the hull, then cut it so about 2 inches extended over the left and right sheer.  I also had to make a few "special" cuts at the stern end of the boat so that I could layer it over and make it smooth.  The stern end is very steep so this was a necessary step.  Wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but in the end, it went fine. 

I then began coating the fiberglass cloth wit epoxy.  Here's a picture of how it looked after a couple hours of epoxying (half way done).

And here are a couple more pictures which show the fiberglass fully epoxied with the first coat (a couple more hours).

 

 

Once the epoxy hardened, I cut the excess fiberglass off that was hanging off the sides.

 

 

The next step of the process is to apply a fill coat of epoxy to the hull to further coat the fiberglass.  And then, after that, lay a strip of 2 inch wide fiberglass over the keel beam.  That's done immediately after the fill coat is applied so that it will adhere to the hull.  After that's done, go over this strip with more epoxy to fully saturate the fiberglass strip to the keel.  That's what you see below.

 

 

Have to say.  After the fiberglass was initially epoxied, and after the fill coat was applied, the hull was looking pretty good.  But after laying the strip of fiberglass over the keel and saturating it with epoxy, not so good.  Just looks sloppy now.  I can see a lot of sanding in the future.  Oh well.  I'll apply another fill coat to the hull tomorrow, and we'll see how it comes out in a few days.

And Another Week Goes By

Yes, another week has gone by.  And it seems like I've done a lot of work.  Here's what has been accomplished in the last week.

First, I had to remove all of the wire stitching.  According to the manual, just untwist and pull.  But since I'm slow in every step of this construction, and a little sloppy, all of the wires were well epoxied and the epoxy was well cured.  So that meant that I had to use a soldering iron to melt the epoxy at each fastener to be able to cut the wire and pull it out.  Very tedious work since we're talking approximately500 wires twisted and epoxied to the hull.  And then, sanding the hull smooth to remove all of that excess epoxy.  This work took me 4 days during the last week to complete.  Here's what it looked like after completed.

 

 

I did all of the sanding outside.  I started with a sanding block and sponge, but I eventually realized it was way too difficult to get it done that way.  So I used my orbital sander to knock down the excess epoxy at the seams.  Worked well.  Had to be careful not to let it get away from me and mess up the wood veneer.  There are a couple areas where I wasn't too successful with that.  Oh well. 

 

Once I completed that task, I then added thickened epoxy to the stem seams.  Another day.  Then I had to file that down and make the stem seams smooth and round.  And then, I was ready to begin the fiberglass process.  First step for fiberglassing the hull is to apply a saturation coat of epoxy to the entire hull.  Just finished that step.

 

 

 

Starting to look better.  I'll come back tomorrow and begin laying out the fiberglass.

 



Temporary Frames and Gluing, Gluing, Gluing

Phew!  Got quite a bit done in the last week.  But it sure seems like I'm going at this a bit slower than anticipated..

Last post, I had completed wiring in all of the hull panels and wired in the temporary center frame.  So I've since installed the remaining temporary frames (2 bow and 2 stern).  And I've glued the inside keel seam.

 

 

The above picture shows the center temp frame, bow mid and end temp frames and glued inside keel seam.  Next step was to install spacers onto the bow and stern frames.  Then turn the hull over and get ready to glue the outside seams.  That's what you see below.

 

 

And then,,,,  glue all of the outside seams.  Simple, eh?  Well, this took some time.  First the keel seam, plus the center section of the boat between 1 & 2 panels and 2 & 3 panels.  That's all that could be done for the first pass at gluing.  That's because beyond these sections the boat is too vertical.  I had to do this first, let it dry overnight, and then glue the vertical sections that remained the next couple days.  First one side and then the other.  So all together, I think this took me 3 or 4 days to complete.  That's what you see below.

 

 

What a mess!  From what it looks like now, I think I'll be several days sanding the excess off and cleaning up the panels.  But first I have to remove the twisted wire fasteners.  That should be fun since they are also epoxied along the seams.  But I'm assured by Pygmy Boats that the wire will come out of the epoxy rather easy.  We'll see.  And I also have to put some epoxy on the inside of the boat at the stems.  And finally, I have to add some more, very thickened epoxy to the outside of the bow and stern stems.  Then I can begin to sand the outside of the hull smooth.  Sounds like another week of work to me.

Hull Panels Stitched Together

It's taken me almost two more weeks, but I've finally completed drilling all of the hull panels and have them stitched together.  This has been a time consuming effort for me.  Altogether, nearly 500 wire stitches completed.  Here are some picture showing the progression.

Above shows the #1 L&R keel seam hull panels stitched together, with the center temporary frame loosely attached.

Here, I have the #2 L&R panels stitched to the #1 panels.

And this one shows the #3 L&R panels stitched to the #2 panels.  Starting to look like a boat!

And finally, the #4 L&R panels attached.

I've also stitched together the bow and stern end sections.  I think I was supposed to be doing this with each panel installation, but didn't figure that out until I had all the panels for the hull attached.  Wasn't that clear to me in the instructions.

I've also securely wired the center temporary frame to the hull.  Next step will be to install (wire stitch) the bow and stern temporary frames and then go over all the "inward" stitches to tighten them.  And then begin the gluing the inside of the keel seam.

Bevel Sheer Edges Complete

Above, you'll see the result of the beveled sheer edges.  Top picture is the bow end of panels #4 and #5 L&R.  Bottom picture is the middle butt seam for the same panels, just the left side.  Pretty good job, if I say so myself.  Altogether, with the 4 panels being 17 feet, it was 68 feet of beveling with a rasp file and 60 grit sand paper.  Took me about 7 hours of work to complete this task.  I was probably being a little too careful here to make sure I didn't screw this up, which is why it took so long.

Next step is to drill the holes that I will be using to stitch the panels together.  Looks like a fairly delicate and time consuming process.  I have house guests arriving soon so might be a few days before this task is complete.

Two Weeks Later....

Finally,,,,,,,,  I've completed fiberglassing and epoxying all of the butt seams.  This took much longer than expected.  Altogether, it was 48 seams to align and glue.  And I could only do 6 at a time (a day)with the limited amount of work bench space.  So, simple math reveals that I should have completed this task in a little over a week.  And that might have happened if I had not screwed up!

Screwing up means two things.  First, somewhere in the middle of this process (I think I had completed all of the left side panels) when I was doing the first 3 right side panels, I incorrectly mixed the epoxy and hardener.  I think I did 4 parts epoxy and only 1 part hardener (instead of the correct 2 to 1 ratio).  Don't know what I was thinking.  So, by the next day, the epoxy did not harden.  Also, before I applied the epoxy I decided to use Ziploc bags instead of the Mylar sheets provided with the kit.  The Mylar sheets were already used with the left side panels, and looked a little grubby.  And the manual noted that Ziploc bags could be used in their place if needed.  Well, that's almost true.  The manual says to use the Ziploc bags on the underside.  A point I failed to understand.  So I used them on both sides.  BIG mistake!!!  What I ended up with was halfway hardened epoxy that was "wavy" instead of flat and smooth.  All of it had to be removed.

First call was to Pygmy.  Help!!  Fortunately, I got Laura.  She had me get lacquer thinner and Scotch Bright pads.  It was the only thing that will work to remove the epoxy and fiberglass.  I had to clean both sides of the panels.  That was a complete day lost.  She also sent me a care package of new Mylar strips.  Another day lost waiting for the mail to come.  And I took 3 days off over the next week for bike rides.  A couple of which that were very enjoyable.  One day around Lopez Island (35 miles).  Another day doing a roundtrip on the Centennial Trail between Stanwood and Snohomish (50+ miles).

But once I got back on track, I got the task completed.  All panels, left and right, inside and outside, aligned and epoxied.

The next step in the process is the reinforcement of the bow deck panels (#5 and #6).  Simply put, this means gluing (mixed epoxy and wood flour) a piece of plywood at four locations.  This is what it looks like.



And the next day after the glued panels have hardened

So that's what I've been doing the last two weeks.  The inside panels above are #6 L&R.

Next step will be to bevel the "sheer" edges of the above panels at a 45 degree bevel.  That would be the outside edges of the two outside panels (#5 L&R) above.  And the inside edges of #4 L&R (not shown above).

This, I hope to get completed tomorrow.  I'll let you know.

Day 2

Today was not all that involved.  I had to clean up the 6 locations that I applied fiberglass and epoxy yesterday.  Then turn over the 3 panels and repeat the fiberglass process on the outside of panels #1, #2 and #3.

Cleaning up the panels involved removing the bricks and wood blocks, and peeling off the mylar strips from the fiberglassed seams.  It looked really good.  The fiberglass was essentially invisible.  I then cut the extra overlapping fiberglass off of the panels.  I also had to file the edges of the panels with a fine rasp file to remove the excess epoxy.

Next step was to turn the 3 panels over and repeat the fiberglassing process at the 6 seams.  No big deal.

The above picture shows that process complete.

The next several days will be the same process on the remaining panels.  So I'll hold of posting any more information until they are all complete.