And so it begins .....again
 

I was really un happy on how my prior rehab turned out and I considered selling it and going with a newer boat, but it seems like I would be better served to redo mine. And it would be somewhat easier on the wallet.

I sold the engine and console

I saw the job done here on a identical boat and that's the way to go, although I don't think I need to go as far as they did.

So here is the plan:

Do most of the Grunt work myself but leave the finishes to a Pro

The floor...I am going to take up the skin, replaced the rotted wood, re-glass skin back

Redo the gunnels and front deck.

I also need to raise the transom to accommodate a new engine

Install SS rub rail ...I love the look

Paint the boat but this time by a PRO

Buy a new path finder console and all the electronics, steering, T-top .....etc

As to engines I am leaning to a 150 E-tec but like Mercury Optimax also.

New Aluminum trailer

Am I missing anything????

Now the hard part is the time table I want a July deadline

Tomorrow starts the deconstruction...Pics to follow

I hope you are talking July of 2015...because if you are talking this year, "I am sorry there is no way in HELL that you will get it done!"

As you know I have been there and done that...:D

I was thinking the same thing, That's a lot in a short time unless you are putting 40-60 hrs a week of time into it.

Yea I know it was wishful thinking

Unless I throw a lot of money on it

But I did get the floor up already and will be grinding down the undersides of the skins and maybe get them back in this week end...weather permitting.



LOL

Might look at the way billythekid did the deck in his build turn over the nonskid but it on the Melamane panel recore and vacuumed bag it or weight it down

Thought about how MROBERSON did his deck

http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...t=23607&page=4

But finish the paint etc... like this


http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...ad.php?t=26268

But I will look into billythekid's build

I mean honestly it takes a good month to paint the boat...inside and out, with all the prep.
If you don't have a painter lined up that in itself is a process.

I can vouche for that. took me a good 3-4 weeks to sand all the old bottom paint, fair the dings, sand, fair, sand, primeX3 then paintX3

Well the sides and the bottom was already done and it may not be 100% but it is close.

My plan is to not paint the hull and bottom at this time but only do from the rub rail in, so that will shorten the time needed.

I have 2 guys I mind to do the paint and they just need a 2 week lead time.

It's been raining down here so the work has ground to a halt, but looks like this weekend should be good for grinding.

I would like to have the floor skins out and ready to be put back and the bottom glass skin in the boat ground out and ready for the new wood by Sunday...weather permitting.

One of the glass guys told me he could get the transom out and raised 5" done in a week.

Like I said ...Here I go again...

Did some work on the floor today

Took off the skins and 1/2 of the rotted wood and had loads of fun with the grinder

Should be done with the whole floor by the end of the week end.

Chugging along

Took out the hatches that cover the gas tank and flipped it over and took a saw set it to 1/2 inch cut a checker board pattern in it and took out the matting and the nasty wet wood underneath. I bet it must have weighed at least 80 to 100 lbs with all the wet wood down there. Finished with the grinder to the underneath skin on the floor ...what a PIA tomorrow will get the hatches done...
Pics to follow

But now its time for the MIAMI HEAT GAME....GOOOOOO HEAT

Filler question??????
 

I have not posted in a while and the project sat for way too long.

I went and bought 1/2 nida core to replace the wood in the floor and enough glass and resin to hopefully finish the floor.

My original plan was to try and use the skins that I took off the deck but I see that is was not going to happen so I laid several layers of glass to build it up to where it was.

But I need to apply some kind of filler to be able to get it even and smooth again.

What would be the best filler to use? ??????????

After that I plan to pour a composite transom which has been ready to get done for 2 months.

What's your resin system?
I used VE, fumed silica, milled glass and a load of glass balloons. I suspect you want to go easy on the milled fibers if you DIY a filler. Enough balloons and it gets pretty easy to sand. Not as easy as poly and balloons, but nothing like straight VE.

I think Hermco had a 3M VE based putty that he liked- he posted about it once. I never tried my Merton's Hull and Deck Putty.

I used poly for the resin

Looked a little on the Fgic.com website where I bought all the materials and it looks like they have a compatible product that looks like it will work. Am going to call them in the morning.

They also have the pourable transom in 5 gal buckets and it only involves 1 trip up

Well I worked about an hour each day for the last 4 days since it is getting hot down here.

I have about 85% of the floor done and all that I need is to pickup the fairing supplies to finish. More fun sanding LOL

I started measuring how high up I need to extend the transom and following some advise here I'm going up to 26 1/2. Going to use some of the skins that went un-used off the floor and glass them into the transom and have it ready to pour the transom sometime next week end.

Boy am I having fun with grinders, sanders, glass and resin

all this fun pays off, looks good there....

Back at it
 

Well it's been a while but I have been grinding and glassing every day for the last 10 days an hour or so when I get home. Almost to the point that I can think about the portable transom getting done. Still need a bit but I'm getting close. The floor is also about 90% done just another layer of mat and back to fairing and sanding.

Not many pics but I will start taking some in the next few days.

It MAY turn out to be a 2017 model ....if you know what I mean...LOL

Stay with it... I have been hauling my sceptre around for 12 years and it has never touched the water... Sitting for 2018 completion...

Some work done today.....more work yet to come

Will it be done this 4th of July...:D

Sorry man I just had to bring up the past....however its great to see you back getting itchy and dirty again.

Thanks cor the words of encouragement. And if deserve the 4th dig

Well some progress is being made. I Sanded down the hull since I was unhappy with the color I plan on a yet to be determined color. The transom is ust about ready to go back in. But while sanding I thought about the gunnels and the soft spots in a couple of places. So I am going to take it off and re due the undersides. I ran into my 1st and hopefully last encounter with the famous potter putty that was holding down the live well in the back. With a long chisel and a few choice worse I finally got the top free. Now I just have to wait for my boys and a few of their strong friends to come by to volunteer them. Any words of wisdom is always encouraged. I might as well do it all now than have regrets later

so I'm still waiting for some of my son's buddy's to show up to help, I'm sure they will all be around when the boat is done.
After reading on what others have done with the cap here is what I gathered from it. Most of it I can use the left over nada core I have but in the high stress area such as rod holder locations I should use a stronger material. I don't want to use plywood so I'm of to FGCI and see what I can use. And I will probably buy the pourable transom also. Now if the rain would stop I can get back to grinding and glassing.

I can understand using the pourable stuff if the back of the hull had nice gel coat and you didn't want to disturb but now that you grinded all of the gel off the rear why not just cut the skin off and do it from the back? You all ready got to glass back there anyhow now it would not be much harder to go that route. I like to always do a transom replacement form the inside but in your case doing it from the back would make more since. Most people that pour transom do it to keep from having to do all the fairing on the transom or to keep from tearing out the inside to do it form that angle. Now that you got to fair any how and the back is sanded down there is nothing to gain in my mind. Just a thought. You will be fine either way but I thought you were going that route to keep from having to cut the back and do all the fairing and sanding. Looks like you got to do that any how now?

Yea it's at a point that I can go either way, but I'm just going to go pourable for now.

I can almost see the finish line on it and being able to use the boat again.

Next on the horizon is getting someone to paint the hull at a decent price.

And the getting the Admiral (wife) to cut a check for the engine .. I've got to start earning brownie points

Well time for some pictures on this beautiful Saturday in Miami. I should be down in the keys fishing but hey I'm a Seacraft owner which means grinding or sanding or some other way to sweat.
Here are a few pics of the top cap off and the nasty wet wood I'm replacing

"And the getting the Admiral (wife) to cut a check for the engine .. I've got to start earning brownie points"

Let me know how that works out!!! :)

Oh yeah, if she does please give me the secret how you did it!!!! I have not figured out the correct procedure yet.

Don I know exactly how to do it....she wants a new kitchen and bathrooms....oh yea and she want to go on trip to Germany... Now add that up and well.... no engine

Enough work for today it must be 90 outside But in looking lifting the cap off will let me do some of the things I was planning on doing a bit easier. Pouring the transom on the sides to the correct hight will work easier painting the insides under the bait well and storage area on each side in tile chad will be easier and doing the foam under the cap will now be possible.

But any ways off to work to try and make some money.

You are not being of too much help Jorge!!! :)

Hang in there!

I need to fix a transom and do caps but haven't yet. I have been picking off little things one at a time, so the result on my 20 MA is an ugly patchwork quilt. Yours should be great when you are done

Good luck!

Well I'm my 3rd ryobi grinder .....fiberglass seems to kill power tools I was grinding the bottom of the cap when it got really hot started sputtering and started smoking. Well no more Ryobi grinders it's off to Harbour Freight for the $15 grinder. So the project stalls for the moment

Burned up 2 of those in the last month.
They love me. They used to include extra brushes which were much beefier.

Hope I don't jinx it but I have a Milwaukee angle grinder that has survived so far - I do try to remember to blow it off/out with compressed air at the end of each day.

My Porter Cable angle grinder is my favorite and most useful tool, and seems to be bulletproof. It gets used a LOT turning my sloppiness and mistakes into dust! I wear a full body hooded tyvek suit, gloves taped at the cuffs with blue tape, a full face mask, goggle safety glasses, and a serious respirator. My wife calls it my moon suit and my buddies call me a wimp, but no more itching makes it well worth the ridicule.

So I'm about 1/2 way in replacing the wet wood from my top cap. I went with nida core. 1st went with thickened epoxy and 2 layers of glass to seal it in.

My question is what could I use in the areas of the rod holders and other high stress areas?

I do plan to thru bolt the various rod holder etc.... in place and would like some strong no wood backing

Easy way would be wood but I'm not going with that

I don't need a whole lot of material to get it finished so buying a sheet is over kill

I would use a high density foam like coosa blue water 26 or something similar or heaver. I like to take aluminum plates and place them on the bottom of the foam and glass them in place or just bed them against the glass and use them as backing plates. They will spread the load nicely and the high density foam will not crush like the lower density stuff will. Far as grinders I have burnt up both. The better brand name units last much longer it seem tho. The trick is to stop and let them cool while using if they get warm / hot and blow them out well. My Milwaukie has done the best so far. Looking good, keep up the work!

So does anyone have some Coosa bluewater 26 laying around they want to get rid of?

Hi Jorge,

You may want to check with Shine. He was advertising some composite material at pretty good prices and I am sure he could hook you up with Coosa.

Just about done with the top cap. I just need to glass the high stress area but the rain and work has slowed the progress. I'm driving to Gainesville this weekend to visit my son and plan a stop in ft pierce to visit marine liquidators with a shopping list . Only problem is that my wife already saw the list and gave me the "look" well I'll buy something small