Ol' Girl gets a new Ol' Girl

[MarkFromSea]

You make it look soooo easy! Great Job!

[Steve Ericsson]

It isn't real difficult, just time consuming and tedious. I like your idea about the stern light Mark, but where the bow light are going would be almost in line with the windshield so not enough separation between the two by regs.

[Toni]

From Steve:
Just before we left to California for Thanksgiving, I finished glassing the floor.

Like before, I laid out the triax mat, cut it to fit and laid it down with resin.

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We had a good Thanksgiving and got back a couple days ago, took Monday since I wasn't feeling too good and got the Christmas tree and decorations down for my wife to get that started. Today I went over to see the boat to check on how the floor came out since it was dark when I finished and I hadn't seen it finished yet. I needed to get a couple of pics of the finished floor for this thread since I couldn't when it was done because it was dark already and I couldn't get good pics. I hadn't planned on doing much to the boat but plan out my next steps and get some pics.

It turned out great, all things considering. There is a joint down the middle that the belt sander will smooth out no problem, I'll run it over the entire floor to level it out for gel coat, maybe later this week.

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[Toni]

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I wasn't planning to do any work, but I wanted to see how it turned out and get my plan together for the week as to what I want to do. I started looking at the bow vents that I glassed in before, and thought well, it wouldn't be much or take too long to sand this down to see how the glasswork came out. So the belt sander and shop vac went back into use.

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[Toni]

A quick hit on the bow light holes that I had glassed over at the same time smoothed them right out ready for gel coat.

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So before I really knew it, the bow was completely sanded out.

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I started looking at some cracks in the bow cap where a previous owner must have hit a piling or something. I was hoping that they weren't too deep, maybe only through the gel coat. But, as I looked closer it was obvious that the cracks were through the glass as well, which means more sanding and glass work instead of just some gelcoat repair.

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To get these sanded out right, I would need to remove the rub rail. I had to work a bit to get the rub rail loose enough to get access to these cracks. The plastic is old and stiff, but a heat gun made it nice and supple and it came right off. The aluminum extrusion, however, proved to be very difficult to remove, the side piece I could only get off enough to grind/sand out the cracks. So, out came the sanders and I found out that the cracks went through the glass because the top cap is very thin at the corners. Just some light sanding to get through the cracks went all the way through.

[Toni]

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Since I was just here to check on things, I was already this far along so I decided to lay some glass while I'm here and already itchy from the sanding. I mixed some resin a bit hot to help it cure in the cold weather since I didn't have the popup easy bake oven set up. My halogen lights helped to heat the resin to get it to kick off, and heat gun helped the spots that didn't get warm enough

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In about an hour or so it was tacky enough to touch, so I pushed it back in the garage and called it a day.

Not bad for just stopping by to check on things. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get this part of the bow sanded out and finished and ready for gelcoat also. It's going to be very cold this week, not sure if I can spray gelcoat or not, we'll see how warm the Easy Bake Oven will get and if I can get enough room to spray the bow in there - stay tuned!!

[Toni]

So moving right along, after a couple of calls and a meeting this morning, I got back over to Trent's to do some more work on the boat. The first thing was to get the belt sander and shop vac and sand down the new glass on the front corner that I laid last night. I wanted to get it shaped and faired so that I could see if I needed to add more glass. The object when laying glass is to lay more than is needed by a little bit so that you can sand down to where you need to be and hopefully not past that point so you don't need to add much filler or new glass and do it all again - once is enough, hopefully. I got it down where I wanted with not too much effort, the belt sander is great at this sort of thing with a bit of hand sanding with the long board to finish it up.

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A few air bubbles ended up at the bottom lip, it's tough to get chop strand mat to bend in that sharp of a transition without any air bubbles plus there wasn't much behind this area but air to begin with, but they were minimal so I was happy with it - they'll get filled in shortly and be gone.

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The belt sander will continue to eat, so I go a little and stop and check my work to make sure I haven't gone too far. The object is to get it down to where it should be and not leave it high as the gel coat will add a bit of thickness back to it so I need to account for that. I really like the belt sander as it really does a good job of leveling if you know how to use one, it really can't be beat for this type of thing. I do have an air body file for body work, however I don't have the air source at Trent's to run it, so the belt sander is the tool of choice.

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I like it, nice and smooth. I did get some air bubbles because I mixed it a bit hot and put some heat to it to get it to kick off, but I expected this to happen as that is how it goes when you hurry the cure time. I knew they would be small and few, and planned on a coat of fairing compound to fill the deep scratches from the belt sander and fill any air bubbles.

[Toni]

After a quick wipe down with acetone, the fairing compound was mixed and laid down with a plastic spreader. I made sure to fill all air bubbles and any depressions from sanding so that it can be faired off smooth and be ready for gel coat in one session. With the wet look from the fairing compound, you can see the new glass added, it is more white than the original due to the original having a lot of red fibers in the glass. This made it easy for me to see what was new and what was old so I could be sure I've blended it well.

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The vent hole on the port side got a skim coat of fairing compound also to fill any air pockets and deep scratches and to wet out any exposed glass fibers from the belt sanding. You can really see the difference between the old and new glass in this shot. You can see that with a original thickness of about 1/4" or less I feathered out the patch between 3-4" all the way around the hole. If this were on the hull or the transom, I would've gone even further but since this isn't an area of real structural concern, it is far more than adequate.

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While I had some faring compound mixed, I filled the holes from the old transducer in the transom as well. These holes were from a 'ducer long since gone and when we first got the boat, Trent filled them with silicone to keep water out while we test ran it on the lake. Good for a temporary fix, but not good enough for a permanent fix. I drilled out the holes a bit over size and reamed them out good to get rid of any silicone left in the holes and get out any punky wood from the old screws to get to good wood. Then these holes were packed with fairing compound. Once dry, it will get sanded smooth and gel coated and the holes will be permanently gone. A heater buddy on low set under this area heated it up nicely and cured it in about an hour or so.

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While the fairing compound was setting up, I decided to cut the plywood pads to mount the seat boxes to the floor and some pucks to mount downrigger mounts to the floor. These will get bonded to the floor and glassed over and the seat boxes will be screwed down on top of them. This way no screws will penetrate the new floor at all. The screws will be half an inch long and there will be quite a few to mount each seat box so they will be secure. If ever the screws did leak and rot the wood, these pads will be all that will rot and they can be repaired or replaced without damaging the new floor at all, same with the downrigger mount pads.

[Toni]

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The downrigger mount pads will get a socket or something to secure a pole mount to the floor with a quick release pin, of which I have yet to design. The size of the pad was determined by the bottom of a mixing pail as it should be plenty big enough to mount whatever I come up with but not be too big. The edges of the seat pads and the downrigger pucks are all cut on a 45 degree angle to make it easier to lay the glass over them and to help them shed water.

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The back edges were sanded down so that they fit the radius of the wall to floor transition. They will all get bonded down with peanut butter here soon and glassed over. The downriggers will have to mount to the top of the gunnels and have a post to the floor to stabilize them as the gunnels are not very sturdy on this little boat and they are not very wide, either. I'm taking ideas from Trent's boat and some mounts on GregE's old Arima that I did some work on so I have a pretty good idea of what they will be like, just not the fine details quite yet - one step at a time - gotta' have a finished boat before I worry too much about the fitting out/rigging parts.

[MarkFromSea]

It isn't real difficult, just time consuming and tedious. I like your idea about the stern light Mark, but where the bow light are going would be almost in line with the windshield so not enough separation between the two by regs.

I just saw this... Thanks for commenting back.... I was unaware of such a reg. I've rcvd at least three of those inspections... CG Auxiliary and Sherriffs... RCVD all three satisfactory stickers. RCVD inspections at Chinook and Westport.

Mine is in line basically..... port and strbd are on either side of the window and the anchor light pole is on port window frame, the light itself is just above the canvas height wise.

BUT I do understand your decision to follow the reg.

[Idstud]

Coming along very nice Toni. Looks like you might be ready just in time for the Lake Stevens Kokanee derby.

[Toni]

Coming along very nice Toni. Looks like you might be ready just in time for the Lake Stevens Kokanee derby.

I hope sooner.
I don't think I will do the derby. Not a lot of parking.

[Mike Carey]

Toni wants it ready for Lake Chelan kokanee, right Toni?

[Toni]

Toni wants it ready for Lake Chelan kokanee, right Toni?

I was hoping for before that, too.

[Idstud]

I hope its sooner than that too so you can get the bugs worked out before the season really kicks off.

[Toni]

I hope its sooner than that too so you can get the bugs worked out before the season really kicks off.

Exactly! I have to learn to back a bigger boat up as well as to how to start and drive it.

[needs2hunt]

I hope its sooner than that too so you can get the bugs worked out before the season really kicks off.

Exactly! I have to learn to back a bigger boat up as well as to how to start and drive it.

Toni...

back a big/longer boat will be easier then a short one... it's more forgiving and little movements of steering wheel won't effect it as much...

I know with my boat... I actually tried a bunch of different ways to start it when cold,(i did this a home) until i found the quickest way to get her fired off... My biggest issue was not holding the choke after the motor fired off...

Does your motor have hydraulic tilt/trim??? play with the trim while out running around , each boat handles differently ...

go out and burn a tank of gas out of it so you get comfy...

[Steve Ericsson]

It'll get a few sea trials and I'll figure out the best sequences for her. Shouldn't be too difficult, the motor fired right up after sitting for awhile first turn of the key. The electric trim/tilt is all fixed and should be a huge asset for her.

[Mike Carey]

I hope its sooner than that too so you can get the bugs worked out before the season really kicks off.

Exactly! I have to learn to back a bigger boat up as well as to how to start and drive it.

details, details.

[Toni]

So today was the day to gelcoat the bow, couldn't have picked a better day!! :mrgreen: sick:

Yesterday, while the weather was perfect, I spent the day prepping - sanding, masking and taping to be ready to spray. With the white gelcoat we have, I picked up a couple tubes of tint to make the gelcoat match somewhat the original color, the original is a bone color and white would have stood out way too much.

He also put the stern light in but forgot to mention it. He is going to rewire the whole boat, eventually .

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Some yellow and just a dash of brown got me pretty close, not a perfect match by any means, but fairly close - tough to match 40 year old faded gelcoat!

To recap, this was the bow last update.

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And here it is as of early this evening.

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