Summer ended shortly for me :( Resto begins.

I think frosting the cut out area of the tint will definitely help it pop - lit and unlit. As an alternative to engraving, I've used a sandblaster to frost glass with pretty good results & imagine it'd work good on plex as well.

Mask the area with several layers of masking tape, cut out the area to be frosted with an exacto knife, blast with a cheap hand held and playsand. Can't dwell on the edges too long cause it will eventually eat through the tape, but a few light passes are all that's needed to get a nice uniform frosted effect with sharp edges. The engraving looks great, but blasting's bound to be a lot less tedious.

sybrmike, thats a great idea! I have also seen some sticker companies make a frosted or etched glass looking sticker that can be cut to whatever you desire. I thought that this might be a good idea as well. It would definitely make it less of a tedious job.

Update.....
I spent Saturday up at my buddies shop where my engine is at. We took the engine off the trailer and put her back on the trusty stand. I installed all the accessories back onto the motor minus the alternator which I am still sourcing a new one. So here's what she looks like.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0322.jpg
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0324.jpg
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0323.jpg

I went by the shop that is doing the stringers and floor and took a quick snap of his progress.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0320.jpg

Hopefully it will be back in my hands soon. and I can get to installing the top cap and all the new goodies into the boat.

Will he be pulling everything out, or is he scabbing in the new stringers as it sits in the photo?

he is removing everything. he is doing the outside stringers first and then the main stringers.

Looks like everything is coming along nicely. That engine is purty!

Ok, so recently I have been working on the dash inserts. Im sure some of you have seen my posts in the "Recovering my Dash Panel..." thread. But, since this is my thread for my build I will post them here as well.
Thanks :)
This is the left side of the dash
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0345.jpg
This is the right side of the dash
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0344.jpg

I like that red background and back gauges. It's a nice contrast.

another little update....got the skins made for the backrests in the bow. man, my buddy did an excellent job on these. now to just put them on the wood and foam.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...gejpeg_2_4.jpg

Well guys, I am still waiting on my boat to be finished by the guy doing the stringers and floor. However, I stopped by his place this past weekend and had a look at the boat. He's got all the stringers bedded in and all but one glassed in. He seems to think he will have it done by the end of this week. Hopefully he is correct. In the meantime, he gave me a few pictures of the work he had done and the progress he had made. So I though I would share the photos with ya'll.
Here is a picture of the floor coming up
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0411.jpg

A look at the port side main stringer beforee glasswork
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0413.jpg

And the starboard side
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0415.jpg

We decided to add a lip for the floor to attach to that wasnt directly on the stringer
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0414.jpg

A few more
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0412.jpg

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0416.jpg

Looking good. When he says done this weekend, does that just mean with the stringer portion, or everything?

Im assuming done with everything. He was talking about laying the deck in on Sunday and then spraying the gelcoat later in the week. However he has been saying the same thing for the past month, so we will see. He is almost 2 months behind schedule, but I would rather it be done right and take longer than half assed and done quickly. We will see though. I forgot to mention that we are putting some foam back in the boat. We will fill the cavity between the outer stringers and hull with foam for floatation reasons.

Good looking progress, even if it is behind schedule (but aren't they always...). I know to foam or not to foam is a debatable & personal decision, but you might want to reconsider the partial foam job. If the purpose of the foam is for floatation, you need enough to float the boat - otherwise you'll only slightly slow down how fast she reaches the bottom if it ever came to that. I ran some calcs when digging the foam out of mine & it was marginal if even the full amount of factory foam job would float it, so it wasn't worth it to me to put it back in.

Personally, I hate foam trapped in sealed compartments on a wood stringer boat. Despite best efforts to seal and waterproof - water will make it down there, foam will get saturated, & rot will begin. Admittedly, that might take 5, 10, or 20+ years, but not worth it to me. Now, foam does have some good aspects - sound deadening properties & can add some additional structure (heck, I think it was the only thing holding mine together). But if you want it for floatation, just be sure to add enough to do you some good... Just my .02

To add to the foam discussion, I actually discussed this wtih Jim at Viper. He was designer for Supra and I feel he has a good basis for the knowledge of the designs. I asked about foam and he said it was purely for sound deadening and rigidity. Even with all compartments full it isn't enough to truly float the boat per coast guard standards. Whether fully foamed or no foam, he said the result would be the same. The stern would go down, boat would go vertical and it would all go under water, with it likely bobbing at the surface with just a foot or two of the bow sticking out of the water with an air bubble trapped in the bow holding it at the surface. Just some food for thought.

To each his own, but personally I'd never put foam back in a boat. I believe it's not even USCG required for a Saltare as it's over the length requirement. Foam under the floor means a wet boat that will never dry out. Eventually it'll become a problem.

Vests always within arms length if you're worried. Two uber bilge pumps would be a good idea too... Along with a valve on the raw water pickup if you haven't added one already.

I should get the boat back this weekend!!! Yay! Finally! I will run the wires and put in the motor as soon as I can. My question is, when I am installing the new motor into the fresh stringers is there a good process? I am thinking that I will just set the motor in the boat with the mounts attached to the engine and tranny and then get it roughly into place where I can mount the drive shaft to the back of the tranny. Then will pilot holes into the stringers and then 5200 the bolt threads and the hole.
Any idea what the gap should be between the driveshaft to the tailshaft of the tranny? I have a set of feeler gauges and I was thinking somewhere around .010 of a gap minimum.

I did mine just like that. I went ahead and put my exhaust flex pipes on the hanging motor (those things dont bend so it would be hard to put on later) then crawl under the boat and slide the prop shaft back and fourth and you will find wear marks on the shaft where it sat last time, line-up the wear marks with the shaft holder (only about 1" should stick out or show. Now drop engine in with mounts on and slide on the exhaust (spary parts with wd-40 so they will slide on better) before lowering all the way, then slide the engine and trans back till it comes in contact with the shaft. Now mark your holes with a sharpie and pull engine back out (I forgot to do this and had to pull out engine another time. quit laughing, it was a lot of work, lol) and drill a smaller hole size (i only went in 1" for a starter hole) that the bolt itself. Drop engine back in. Then drive the bolts back in 98% of the way, pull back out and fill hole 25% with 5200 and drive the bolt back in Do-not-over-tighten and start to strip the hole out. Better to be tight and not much pressure than to be loose from stripping the threads. Now!! There are long bolts for the engine and short ones for the trans be sure and watch out for that. Yes, I put all of my long engine bolts in the trans holes, lol. So 1-more trip to home depot for more engine bolts. BUT! All of my bolts are 5" bolts now, shes not wiggling loose later. lol. Boats make you feel so stupid sometimes. lol. Its all funny now. With the shaft, the exhaust and the shaft coupler all lined-up it makes it real easy to tell where it goes, so dont worry like I did for a week..like you are right now. lol Call me if you need any help man. take pics for your photo album later. Good luck!

Thanks Jet. Man, stress? LOL! I have been stressing over all the little things that are going to add up! The big parts are easy, its all the little tedious sh!t thats gonna kill me.

.003 is the allowed tolerance for shaft coupling to coupling adjust motor from there

I picked up the boat today from the guy who did the stringers and floor. He may have taken awhile to get it done but I am happy with the work that was done. It seems to be built like a brick wall now! Definitely much much better than factory original. So here are a few pics I snapped once I got her back home.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...ejpeg_2_22.jpg
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...magejpeg_4.jpg
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...magejpeg_3.jpg

Looking great Will. You've got a lot of work in front of you now. Keep us updated with pictures.

Thanks Rob, Yeah, I am dreading having to get everything back together. Its those little things that end up adding up! :(

The lil things are killing me right now. I took the engine out in 1-hr, i put the engine in in 2-hrs, Trying to figure some lil things out? A half a day, and then if you change your mind its another 1/2 day. This is messing up my launch day for sure.

Ok, so I have not gotten much accomplished on my baot since picking it up in April from having the strigners and floor redone. I have been busy selling my hosue, moving and searching for a new house. Most everything is packed deep into a storage unit. However, this weekend I got a small amount of work done. It took me all day to do the simplest of tasks. I was able to install and 5200 the swimdeck brackets on. As well as a new thru-hull fitting for the larger bilge pump I am installing.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0446.jpg

I also repaired the broken off prop guard. Replaced the flat stock metal with exhaust tubing. Maybe this way I wont rip it off going up steep embankments...lol
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0450.jpg

And here is the new thru hull. It was still wet so I havent removed the excess 5200.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0451.jpg

Maybe I will actually gett some bigger work done on the baot sometime soon.

Man! Moving and trying to redo your boat. I thought mine was tuff. Work lloks good man. That 5200 is hard to work with, It sticks to everything. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jet

Man! Moving and trying to redo your boat. I thought mine was tuff. Work lloks good man. That 5200 is hard to work with, It sticks to everything. lol

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I know, right!!! I found 5200 between my toes when I got home and took a shower... wierd. how in the hell it got into my shoe, under my sock and on my toes I will never understand. I did find that Acetone takes it off really well. :)

Between selling my home, moving out of it, work, and living with my in-laws until I find a new home, I have had little to no time to work on the boat. However, this weekend I took some time to get up to the boat and get some work done.
When I bought the Saltare its speedo's didnt work because the pitot was broken. So I bought some new ones from a Mastercraft and installed them this weekend.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0460.jpg

While the 5200 dried on those I got to work on the engine. The motor has been rebuilt and so was sitting on the engine stand still. So I got the forklift out and lifted the engine off the stand and got the tranny bolted up and everything wired and ready to go back in.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...610_115850.jpg

Of course, my luck, the skies got dark and the clouds opened up as I was getting the engine into its cradle. So I got it in place, almost fully lined up and had to call it quits. Put the cover on her and I hope maybe next weekend I can pay her some more much needed attention.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0462.jpg

Keep at it Will. Looking good.

Same here man. I worked on my motorcycle trailer all day sat and sold it sat night and then sun i was chasing amps and stereo equipment down so nothing done in 2-wks now. : ((

taking a break is a good thing sometimes.

once you turn the corner from demolition to restoration things happen more quickly. and, summer hasn't really even started. we haven't hit 100 yet.

Well, I havent gotten much done on the boat lately due to moving homes. However, I was able to finally get back to working on the boat the other day. I spent the entire day sanding the swim platform and then cleaning the teak, brightening the teak, and oiling the teak. then I installed it on the boat. Shew! It only took the entire day.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...platform-1.jpg

Looks nice Will. Keep wittling away at it!

wow. started reading the forum at 1:20 A.M. now its 1:41 A.M. and finally caught up. Man what a project! Wow. how you handle that stress and how all you people manage to do this huge task is amazing. I really hope I wont have to do this in the next 10 years. Sadly 2nd gen Maratiniques are prone to stringer rot and we have a 3rd gen (last year of production) and they probably have the same problem. We are the 3rd owners of it and the plug fell out once and the water came up to the harmonic balancer and flung water every where! luckily we heard it so we knew it was full of water. And the boat only had 600 hours on it we bought it in fall 2010. But out Supra. Man that has been full of water a couple times but we are the 2nd owners since 1994. And EVERYTHING is covered in thick layers of glass. I dont think it will need attention for a long time. :)


Also. that teak is looking really nice! Good Work!

Wow! So it has been awhile since I actually was given time to work on the Saltare. The wife has been keeping me busy with the "Honey-do" list. Cna somebody remind me why I got married, lol, j/k.
So wierdly, it got really warm here in NC this weekend and I mad eroom in the garage to stuff this beast in for the weekend so that I could work on her.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...F1A630E46F.jpg

I was able to get the gas tank in, the windows back on and part of the Perfect Pass installed. Im really not fond of all the small things...guh, its gonna be a long winter!
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...F1AE877293.jpg

Now here come smy dilemma. I bought one of those higher output alternators like what TitanTn (I think) put on his ride, but I cant figure out how in the heck to wire it.
The new alternator has only one post on it....
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...F1BA21F57C.jpg

But my boat, has three wires
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...F1B4FFB40B.jpg

Question is....how do I wire this up?

That wasn't me Will. I haven't messed with my alternator yet, although I have messed with the starter a little.

I don't have a lot of experience with the one wire alternators, but my understanding is that you won't use any of the existing wiring when converting. You'll need to run a new, dedicated line to your battery or battery switch and put an in-line fuse in closer to the battery than the alternator. Your new alternator has a built in regulator versus the external one that your 3-wire was connected to, so all you need is the one wire to the battery that it's charging.

Correct. 1-wire to the battery.

(Most people, myself included, wire this straight to the battery by hooking it to the "battery" lead on the starter. So technically it is hooked directly to the starter but the effect is the same as having it hooked to the battery.) Use some 4gauge or larger wire.

Nice build you have going on. I am about to get started on my winter build even though it is not really winter here. This gives me a heads up for what I am getting into and have to deal with when I start taking out parts this weekend. I have a buddy that is doing my floor since he does that for a living and he is doing the floor and I am rebuilding his jetski motors.

I was wondering about how much material did you use fiberglass wise to do the entire floor? Once I pull the floor and take out the foam I was going to get a list from my friend but would like to hear from others how much material they ordered for their floor rebuild.

Titan, Thats why I put (I Think) in there. I know it was somebody with a Salt, but couldnt figure out who. Oh well, I bet it was Sybrmike...maybe. lol.
Anyway, thanks for the help guys! I think I will jsut do what wotan2525 suggested.

a_deleon, I couldnt tell you how much fiberglass was used. I had a professional do the stringers and floor for me. I can tell you that it was A WHOLE LOT!! Lol

Glad to see you're getting a start on her, Will. Spring will be here before you know it...

Yes, MAYBE it was me who put a 140A alternator on my Salt (and ran the single 4 ga wire back to the battery lead on the starter - like Wotan maybe does). I redid my entire harness with the electronic ignition conversion, but think you can just wrap the the regulator pigtails up out of the way.