Installing Ice Box Interior Panels - Part 2 - Defying Gravity

It is difficult for me to describe how mentally I go about generating solutions. Sometimes just sitting and staring at the problem helps.  Other times I need to walk away and focus on other tasks.  I ask others.  I search the internet.  I wander through bins of scrap parts.  I push sandpaper around on the latest project. There is always sanding to be done.  Eventually, if I keep the mental wheels turning a solution materializes.  

Finding a method of installing the ceiling portion of the ice box took some time. I struggled with overcoming gravity... clamping or temporarily securing the ceiling panels for long enough to allow the epoxy to set. The foam insulation did not provide any point for mechanical fasteners.  The smooth, arc of the floor panel prevented propping up the panels.  The true ah-ha, light bulb moment, came when the idea hit me to use prefabricated FRP angle for the outside corner where the vertical surface of the ice box opening meets the ceiling.   Whew, I know that last sentence was difficult to visualize.  Let me provide a few images.

Stock image of prefab FRP angles

Structural FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) is available in sheets, tubes, channels, angles, and many, many other shapes.   I purchased two 60” long sections of 1/8” thick 90 degree angle with 1” wide legs from McMaster-Carr.

Once cut to fit, I coated the inside faces of the angle with thickened epoxy.  The 1/8” FRP ceiling panels fit under the horizontal leg of the angle.  The vertical face of the angle fit against the vertical panel in the access opening to the ice box. 

clamping the FRP angles in place also secured the ceiling panels.

The outside face of the angle provided a clean surface for clamping the assembly in position.

The counter top view of clamping the angles and ceiling in place.

Using the prefab angle has the added benefit of creating a clean outside corner on the interior of the ice box.  This saves me from having to apply a strip of fiberglass cloth and multiple rounds of fairing on the outside corner.

I plan to paint the interior of the ice box prior to installing the aft wall so next up is fillets and fairing.

More images and notes from this on-going project as available in the Ice Box Rebuild Photo Album.