Applying plywood sides

[Myslow]

Just about ready to apply the first sheet of plywood to the side of my boat. Sheet is 24ft by 4 . Do I hang it first in the center and work outward both ways to fasten???Start from the bow??? Start from the stern??

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[Dave Wright]

If you have lots of curvature up forward and relatively straight aft, tack it down up forward on the stem first and it will be easy to bend into position as you work aft.

If your boat shape is different from that, then tack the appropriate end down that let's you use the length of the side for leverage as per above.

Dave Wright

[JimD]

Like Dave says. I try to use clamps. Leaves fewer holes in the boat when it turns out you have to shift the board an inch or two one way or another.

[WayGray]

Are you going to tack the sheet in place and then trim it to fit, or does it have to fit exactly the first time? Do you have a precise pattern? It would certainly help. You've got an excellent question; this could be critical. Can you do practice runs before fastening it permanently? Is there a section of straight edge that you can use as a reference? How about setting up some precise reference points (lines, screws, etc.) to use in positioning it? The best answer is to get it very exact, but how to do that? If you start in the middle then any accumulated error as you work toward the ends will be minimized. Juggling a long panel to place it could be difficult without helpers. Are you using adhesive? The answer can change depending on the shape of the panel and amount of curvature you are dealing with. I struggled with this problem on my boat, placing 19'x1' panels. I started at one end and, being off just a little, resulted in a 1/4' joint instead of 1/16' when I reached the other end of a panel. Fixed by gouge.

[Alan Peck]

Here is what I did. Found it worked quite well.

The closer the plywood sides are to the final size, the easier they are to handle and to bend.

However, I was not sure enough of my abilities to try to get the shape of the sides perfect. So, I made patterns out of door skins and then cut the plywood about an inch oversize. This made the bending and handling much easier. It also made the trimming much easier as there was not that much to trim.

For the trimming, I used various tools, such as a block plane, power sander, Japanese saw and even a rotozip tool. Just whatever worked best for each area.

I also used lots and lots of clamps. Sometimes you have to be inventive and use 2x4's and similar as braces. In the areas that were hardest to bend I draped towels over the plywood and poured boiling water on the towel. I repeated this several times and then bent the plywood only as much as it seemed to want without too much stress. I then let it sit in that position overnight and repeated the process the next day. As I remember the hardest section to bend took three such applications.