1988 Supra Mariah Floor Restoration

[lmnelson86]

Looking great Luke, and fresh gelcoat/paint always makes things look better.

As a user of these forums, I want to say thanks for taking the time to add the pics. Showing a visual is what helps so many other people and that's what these forums are for.

Titan, thank you for the kind words. Posting pictures is my pleasure. I have read through hundreds of threads and thousands of posts on here, and much to my angst there are hardly enough photos. Threads are worthless without photos, you can never have too many. I agree 100% that this is why the forums exist. Taking the time to upload them to photobucket is worth it, because the small pictures suck! Waiting for them to load is a pain also.

[flipz96]

Taking the time to upload them to photobucket is worth it, because the small pictures suck! Waiting for them to load is a pain also.

I'll have to do that going forward. Everything is looking good, Luke! Almost there! Its already getting warm down here is Florida. Things are getting a little more urgent!

[wotan2525]

You're cruising now. I wish you would have used 4200 or 5200 on the bolts for the pylon. You're causing the same problem that caused these stringers to rot in the first place -- encapsulating them correctly and then drilling holes through the fiberglass. Sure, it will take another 20 years to rot but you could have prevented that this time.

[lmnelson86]

You're cruising now. I wish you would have used 4200 or 5200 on the bolts for the pylon. You're causing the same problem that caused these stringers to rot in the first place -- encapsulating them correctly and then drilling holes through the fiberglass. Sure, it will take another 20 years to rot but you could have prevented that this time.

Everything that I have drilled through has been sealed with resin afterwards, before the bolts go in. Water should never see that height, as it will be kept high and dry when not in use.

[Okie Boarder]

Coming along nicely, for sure.

[lmnelson86]

This weekend was pretty successful I would say. I was able to get the entire floor glassed in. I used two layers of 1708, the floor is now solid as a rock. The floor also has a layer of 1.5 oz mat on the bottom side. I used a biscuit jointer to install the two 37 degree pieces of the floor up front for the dog house cover. They were glassed in as well.

To do the floor, I used a very short nap roller that I picked up from the fiberglass supply store to apply the resin. I also used the ribbed aluminum roller to squeeze out any air bubbles. This method worked AWESOME. I was sick and tired of dabbing my life away with a brush, and this gave me a nearly perfect surface. With the help of my brother and father working the edges, we knocked out the floor in about 2 hours I think, didn't pay much attention to the time.

Tonight I am going to trim to excess off of the floor, glass/seal the edges as necessary, and prep for gelcoat. I have decided to go with Awl-grip for the bilge and transom, so the areas that are painted will get re-done. Awl-grip has a tighter finish than gelcoat, which can be pretty porous in my application. Awl-grip will allow for a better surface to clean. I was able to just hose off the bilge beforehand with no issues, always revealing a nice shiny surface.

I took Sunday off and spent the day out on the lake with my girlfriend and my buddy watching some snowmobile/quad/bike/truck drag racing on lake st clair. Good times.

Enjoy:

[lmnelson86]

Front section glassed in, moving on to the second row:





Done:

[Okie Boarder]

Looking good...you're getting close!

[lmnelson86]

Trimmed excess glass last night, sealed all of the edges with a few coats of resin both last night and early this morning. Also got the hole cut for the bilge inspection panel. I hope to either paint the bilge with Awl-Grip tonight or get started on the gelcoat floor. Waiting on webbing agent so I can do the webbing pattern on my floor, so I may just wait until I have all of the supplies before I do that. Picture taken after trimming and before resin etc.

[lmnelson86]

Last night I rolled the first coat of white gelcoat on the floor. Tonight I will do the second coat as well as the webbing. I have both black and purple for the webbing, not sure if I am going to do both colors or just purple. It'll be a game time decision.