Choice of Tower??

Salty, just curious as to how you removed the stripes, did you have to use an adhesive remover or heat source? Also, what steps/products did you use to polish the hull?

Thanks,
cw

it's gonna take a little trial and error. the glue for the stickers seems to react to different colors differently. some of my stripes were really hard to get off and other peeled right back. depending on the color of your hull, you may have different results.

either way, it took adhesive remover, heat gun or hair dryer, and some nerve wracking scraping. this is the basic process:

-soak about a foot of the stripe with the adhesive remover, generously cause it dries pretty quick.
-get a corner of the stripe peeled back so you can grab it...with your finger (hurts eventually), plastic scraper (they bend pretty easily), a nickel (worked good but small to hold), or whatever you have to work with.
-heat the stripe about 3-4 inches ahead of the edge you peeled back. you want to heat the stripe as you pull at the same time. work your way down. the stripe will probably break and you'll have to start a new edge.

work a small section, the adhesive remover evaporates quickly and the heat gun only works a small section at a time. don't burn the gel coat by getting the gun too close, keep it moving. you can use a hair dryer but you'll probably end up blasting your fingers alot. harbor freight has cheap heat guns.

even when the stickers come off, you'll have glue to get off the hull. the adhesive remover and heat help here too. a stainless steel kitchen scrubber, like for cleaning pots/pans worked really good here. it rubs the adhesive into the glue and breaks it up quick. didn't leave a single scratch. i know, it sounds kind of drastic but it worked.

then, the scary part. there are clear stickers under the blue rollers on the back. they are a royal pain in the ass to get off. i had to bust out a razor blade and CAREFULLY get an edge peeled to pull on. these took a while. i did scratch my hull a couple of times but not too deep to buff.

those are my last words of caution....none of this really requires any muscle so take it easy. have a stool that you can sit on, you'll be there for a while.

i'll post seperately for the compounding...

3m heavy duty marine compound seems to work great on my hull. i bought a polisher at harbor freight...this link might still work... http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46507

the bonnets make the difference on this job. get wool bonnets that look like mops (i think they were wool, they def. looked like mops). they really bite through the haze and crap.

i then polished with some automotive stuff that's just a lesser grit really. i don't think the brand mattered.

then wax'd, used the same brand as the polish. wax doesn't last long so the real work is in the prep. i've tried waxing with 303 but can't really tell if it worked better. it was a hell of a lot easier to do though.

oh yeah, toilet bowl cleaner for the white hull. white and shiney now.

Salty,

Thanks for the info, that looks like a big project, may require a few days off from work (I need a good reason to use some vacation days). I'm hoping Christmas will bring a few new goodies for the boat, hopefully a year end bonus will bring a Monster Tower. A wake surfboard would really top things off, I'm itchin to give that a try. Do you think the Saltare will put off a big enough wake to surf behind without having any ballast?

I'm hoping to build an integrated ballast system, it will be a while before I can come up with the funds though. How much weight do you think the ski locker could hold?

I'll try to snap a few shots of the Saltare before I start removing the stripes, should be interesting to see how it turns out. Do you know if we can get the newer versions of the waves/rollers, I thought about going back with just the rollers for some graphics on the sides, no stripes though?

cw

i think you can get the new stlye rollers, i think that would look good.

the ski locker is just fiberglass without much support. i had a 250 in there and nothing happened but i had to put a ton of weight up front. the gas tank is under the ski locker, beware.

Yea, I was kinda worried about the gas tank, if I put any weight in the locker I would try to keep it to a minimum.

The year end bonus came through, I got the green light on a Monster Tower. I will probably order it today, hopefully I can get it here in the next week or so.

I'm going to try to install it myself, which brings me to a question. How do you remove the vinyl side pannels, I will probably need to get behind them to access the mounting bolts as well as to reinforce? I have a feeling once I get the side pannels off I will have to cut a small hole to access the area needed, any ideas on this? Would you reinforce with a section of wood overlain with fiberglass or would just using additional fiberglass be adequate?

thanks,
cw

cwsaltare88 - here's a great link for instructions on mounting a Monster Tower. The boat in the link is a 1990 Supra Sunsport. I'm not real familiar with the Saltare, but I think they are similar. Hopefully, the info will really help you out. Good luck, and post some pics when you're done.

http://monst15.securesites.net/pdf/B...stallation.pdf

some of screws that hold the teak side pieces up go all the way through the fiberglass wall and hold up the entire vinyl covered board. going from memory...the outer most screws on the top piece and the same for the bottom piece of teak.

i didn't read all of the instrux but it looks pretty good.

my boat had a 6 1/2" opening already on the passenger side, i think it came like that but i can't be sure. a roto-zip would make quick work of it. you could also add extra speakers if you want to cut through the vinyl also. the speakers and covers would hide the dirty work. i almost did that but got lazy and just covered the access holes back up.

good luck

Thanks guys, I printed a copy of the installation instructions, I definately think they will help. I picked up some resin and fiberglass matting to reinforce the mounting locations; the boat may not need it but I figure it won't hurt to have the extra support where the legs mount to the deck. This will be the first time I have worked with fiberglass but, I think I've got the idea.

I've had the teak pieces off but never the vinyl panels, maybe they just need a little helping hand. I thought there may be some through bolts that are covered by the vinyl interior that I would have to access through the back speaker holes, but I never tried just removing the panels after taking off the teak. I'll give it a shot, that would make it much easier. I figure I will have to cut some small holes to access the locations but, they should cover up with the vinyl panels. I found a jigsaw blade that cleanly cuts the fiberglass, I should be able to use it to cut the holes (I had to cut a hole to mount my stereo).

I think the side stripes will go once I get the tower installed, I don't know which project will take longer. I'll post some pics of my progress shortly, I'm hoping to work on it the next week. Thanks again, I appreciate all the help I can get.

cw

Hey! Good luck with the Monster Tower install. I love mine and I hope the instructions in the link provided above help! (I wrote it to try and be of some assistance to others.) I'll check back occassionally to see how you are coming along. The folks at Monster are great and don't be afraid to call them with any questions. They are also great at returning emails. Post some pics when you are done.