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Last thing. As far as painting is concerned your gelcoat looks to be in pretty good condition. Wouldnt a good cut, polish and wax bring her back to brand new without the extra costs of decals, paint which wont come out like gelcoat and a heap of headaches if you do try and gelcoat her?
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Jason, thanks very much! It has been a fun project. You should have no worries in restoring your boat, its easy and there is plenty of information on here. It just takes time.Originally Posted by suprasaltareaud
Flipz - lookin good. I have to reinforce my top deck for a tower, so Ill be doing something similar as well.
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How are you planning on securing top to bottom without rivets?
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Yeah...my gelcoat isn't bad at all and the wrap is still in good shape. So I might ride it out for a couple years. I have to do some minor repair on the aft deck ski locker, but I can get a good gelcoat match. There are a lot of things I want to do, but don't have the time to do it since the warm weather is already here.
The trevira that I lined the inside of the hull knuckle provides a good backing that receives screws similar to wood.
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This is a close up of the aquaplast that I used for the engine mount. I will be using this for cleats for the removable floor and the center walk through just forward of the engine.
I put in 6 limber tubes for stringer drainage...just in case. I taped up one side (to keep the resin out of it), used thickened resin to "peanut butter" them in, and all I need to do is cut them flush after it sets.
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That looks awesome. I should have done the same thing with the PVC I the limber holes, but I didn't think of it til after the fact. Oh well. I thought about fiberglassing the back side of the hull where all the holes are, so I have fresh material to screw into. Maybe I will still do that before I put her back together. It cant hurt...maybe Ill go pick up some fiberglass tape today.
Last edited by lmnelson86; 03-11-2015 at 02:43 PM.
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Fiberglass itself don't hold screws very well which is why they use alot of rivets. Trevira looks and feels similar to a thick felt and hardens like a thin piece of wood when soaked in resin. If I didn't have access to the trevira I would resin coat a test piece of felt from the fabric store. Let it cure and drive a screw in it. I would imagine it would a have the same effect.
Last edited by flipz96; 03-11-2015 at 10:16 PM.
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I stuffed most of the voids between the sole and stringer with this 2lb closed cell foam that I cut to shape. This was scrap foam from a 53' boat stringer build.
I used PL glue and screws to secure the floors to the stringers. I mainly used the PL glue to "sure up" the tops of the stringers to ensure good contact. The sub floor was stuffed good with the shaped 2 lb foam so that they also provide support. I also "taped" in the sides using foam chamfers and 2 layers of 2 oz csm and taped in the inner floor to the main stringers using a layer of 3610.
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I also added aquaplast cleats underneath the forward center walk through panel for additional support. There is also an aquaplast backing on the the other side of the stringer. These will get glassed in. I will do the same for the aft removable floor.
I forgot to mention a while back that the forward center panel had additional coring glassed to them for more rigidity.
My rear blower ducting was in bad shape. It broke and at the bottom and some of the flanging came of.
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The aft floors were a little jagged due to sanding so to "sure it up", I waxed two pieces of wood, laid the glass, screwed the wood to the removable floor land, and used the roller to massage the resin and glass to the hard edge. I let it cure, pulled up the wood, and it worked out perfect.
The floor gets another two layers of 1708.
I just need to do a final light sand and and paint the bilge and the motor is ready to be dropped. I already precut the carpet. The floor is pretty solid.
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