Well Done ! That color will look Awesome on the water !
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Well Done ! That color will look Awesome on the water !
What type of paint did you use?
I used paint from Sherwin Williams. I cant remember the specific brand off hand, but its a top of the line paint from Sherwin. My buddy Joe that helped me paint use to work there and gets a smoking discount. Top quality stuff, whenever someone in our group paints something, we always go through Sherwin Williams. Jet skis, boats, cars, trucks, you name it. All with great results and they hold up well.
Looks good.
Looks great man. Now I'm contemplating painting! Thanks Luke!:mad: LOL
Slowly but surely things are coming together. I was able to get my blower vent finished and mounted, as well as some new plumbing for it. The old plastic vent was brittle, cracked and broken. No saving it, so my brother made a new one last week or so. I trimmed her up, and actually had to shorten it 2" to fit appropriately. The old blower tube (PVC) was just a straight piece, and butted up right next to the stringer. This was an issue with the new fiberglass vent that I made, as it would require some creative rebuilding since the transom is new and slightly different in shape. Either that or half a tube of silicone, so I just opted to put a little job in the PVC instead. It works out much better and looks pretty clean IMO. I used two 22 1/2 bends to accomplish this. Pretty straight forward
Drilling some holes in the new vent piece
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...h/IMG_1882.jpg
Test fitting for clearance
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...h/IMG_1883.jpg
Final install
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...h/IMG_1888.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...h/IMG_1890.jpg
One last photo. I also mounted all of the hardware, minus the swim deck. Everything is sealed with 3m 5200
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...h/IMG_1891.jpg
Glued some leftover Hydro Turf to the bottom of my gas tank as well.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...h/IMG_1897.jpg
I will be building my tower this weekend. Instead of using traditional round tubing like everyone else, I am going to use 2" square aluminum tube, 1/4" thick wall. I will then route the edges with a router for a soft corner and no sharp edges. I give credit to my brother who found a similar design online and suggested it to me. Not only is the square tube just easier to work with, it's just different and will look very nice. For me to build a tower is much cheaper than buying one of those universal fitting towers, and I will have a much sturdier tower in the end. I just don't trust the bolt-together, universal setups. I will paint the tower purple to match the boat when I paint the top deck, hopefully next weekend. I also plan on building a bimini top that will simply bolt up to the inside of the tower for when I want some shade. That may come at a later date, gonna see how the weekend goes and how far we get.
Well the weekend has come and gone, thanks to a lot of help from my brother we were able to get the tower built and almost completed. Ran out of wire for the spool gun so we had to stop for the weekend, but the whole tower is mocked up with the exception of the tow ball and a couple extra pieces for looks/support. I wanted a forward facing tower, and we did end up using the square tube. It turned out AWESOME, I cant wait to see it on the water.
We took turns routing the tubing on Friday night, and started chopping it up on Saturday. I am going to use a 2 5/16 stainless trailer hitch ball for my tow mount. The only thing we wished we would have changed is the very front piece of tubing on the tower. We should have had it rolled to match the curve of the rear hoop, but we didn't think of it. It's too much of a hassle to go back now and change it. I would have to buy a whole 24' more of tubing, route it, and have it rolled which will just cost way too much for one piece. To Fix the issue I suggested we add a"nose" on the front and add some diamond pate with a curve cut into it to replicate the rear curve. This will give the front just enough character to match the rest of the tower as well.
The top of the tower is nice and flat and square, which will double as a cargo rack if we have extra boards with us. This tower is SOLID, so no worries on having a rickety bolt together universal tower. I was afraid to spend $1200+ and have some wobbly tower on my boat. I just didn't see the value in it, or see how it could last. An additional bimini/cargo bimini is $600+ which is insane as well. I will build a bimini top at some point as well.
My brother starting the routing on the tube:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...6/IMG_1970.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...6/IMG_1971.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...6/IMG_1973.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...6/IMG_1975.jpg