Phase one of my could be major overhaul

[cSickNick]

Craig, Nice!

Nothing beats the look of a fresh inboard!!

I can smell it now, fresh rockfish wrapped up in al foil cooking on the intake manifold ..... yum !!

- Nick

[Miles Offshore]

hey guyz thanx a bunch- other than the motor though my boat really looks like sheet. Thanx Chance-Nick I use that tinfoil treat right often- nice hot sandwitch on a cold day is always nice !!! Chuck- no green gucci for me ! Lotsa bloody decks and blood pumping out the bilge is my kinda gucci!!! (that and teak,lol). Hey Don, that aft deck is coming up and the remainder of the bilge will be painted also, including that coupling. Since I have worked for the navy for 30 plus years now , i generally like to paint anything that doesnt move! I do have a question for you though, after I remove the hatch and do tank inspection if they look bad then I will probably replace them. Do you make them??? Ill get back with you via phone or b-mail if you do. Fellowship- the motor itself is easy to work on and so are the different systems associated with an inboard. my biggest pia was dissasembly of all the electronics, t-top , wiring , console etc. Took me a couple days to do that. Ill update theis post with pix as i go along. wont be fast though- craig

[Jon G]

Nice work Miles , looks like your doing it right! That bilge looks great all cleaned up keep up the great work.

[other tom]

nice job! thats the way to do it right....

[Miles Offshore]

Hey all- well its on to phases 2 and 3 now- since the summer is screaming by and the friggen billfish bite is insane i thought i might just pull and paint the rear hatch, inspect the fuel tanks and take care of the normal bottom/hull haulout stuff-zincs/paint-etc. anyways after getting that big -heavy ass rear hatch removed i inspected the bottom of it expecting just laminated plywood on the backside like I have seen on some other "well known" boats. Much to my pleasant surprise there is laminated plywood ,along with laminated ribs spaced every 20 inches or so. no water intrusion whatsoever-(see pics). So looking at my tanks and bilge they didnt "appear" to be too awful bad so I poked and prodded the "dreaded foam" around 2 sides of the tanks and it seemed dry. (seemed is the key word here). I was doing some repairs on the deck piece and pondering paint and such when curiosity got the better of me. There was an area with a slight amount of corrosion on the filler tube of the starboard tank that just on a whim I sprayed with wd-40 and an area immediately turned black. Damn I didnt like the llooks of that so i said the hell with this , i am going to prod this foam a little more and then started seeing some moisture. Now flashback to february when striper season was winding down- one day i noticed my stbd fuel gage on "E". didnt think much of it but thought i had fuel in it so maybe the sending unit wqent bad which seems to happen occasionally. Well to make a long story short and two days of diggen out nasty water soaked foam, I found a hole about 3/8" wide by 1/2" long in the forward end of the tank. I guess Im lucky me and my buds werent the next shuttle test pilots. Never smelled any fumes at all though so go figure. Now its replacing both tanks , hoses etc and then Ill worry about the decks and cosmetic stuff,lol. Heres some boat porn for you guys that like it. More to come- craig

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rhaul-%202006/

[Michael Vezzosi]

Hey Craig, how are ya? Man, now you've got my curiosity. I've always had a strong odor in my garage where my 20 is stored. But this year I've noticed a stronger odor coming through the rigging opening in the floor. I'm not sure that my tank has not been replaced before because the 90* fill on top is ever so slightly taller than what would have ever been factory. Even a very small 6" square access plate over top, yet it is not even close to the thickness of the original hatch. Pretty bad when my battery switch is about 6' above the rigging hole! Take care. Mike.

[Miles Offshore]

hey Mike - if you smell a strong odor then you had better figure out what it isand where it is coming from quickly- i would also suggest disconnecting your batteries until you figure it out!!!! Those tanks in mine believe it or not are not the original tanks either- they were replaced when the diesal was replaced with a gas engine in 1987. (date on top of tank). No sheeter though Mike- if your tanks are original then you probably need to get them out and replace . let us know the verdict!!!!!

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Ha Mike

You might want to take that boat out of your garage until you get her fixed.
Gas fumes + spark = one unhappy wife and one replacement house.

FellowShip

_______________________________________________

My motto: Just for the Grins

[strick]

Craig-

Sorry to hear you are missing all that good billfish fishing but I dont feel too sorry for you because we dont have any billfish fishing over here we have to go and catch those nasty bat rays if we want to have any fun!
On a more serious note...it's good to see you found a potential disaster and are fixing it. I'd do away with the foam during this re-model let your bilge breath better. Thanks for keeping us posted. I see you have included the famous toe shot in one of your pics.
PS I like your new fiberglass spa cover.

strick

[Miles Offshore]

Hmmmm, they are some pretty toes huh,strick! glad to hear you are watching my rebuild attempt. I can handle a lot of the mechanical stuff but my glass work leaves much to be desired, so i am studing you guys works of art and will give them my best shot....but i can only hold out so long before i must fish!!!! . I pulled the foam out of the port side tank today and it is completely dry. go figure. I got my rudder stuffing box broke loose today also finally which ive been dickin around with a while. Im thinkin instead of awlgrip on the deck I might just use interdeck epoxy cause it really aint going to do nothing but get beat up again???? (gaff hooks, bats, nets, rod butts etc ). Im just not sure its worth the extra cost for the deck. Cap will be a different story. Mama is being unbelievably non-combatent too, i wonder whats up wit dat??? - Im going to use 1/2" solid silicone rubber strips to lay in the hull lengthwise under the tanks and use gary hills method of 3 or 4 coats of epoxy primer on the tanks and use just a minimum amount of foam to keep the tanks from shifting. Ill shoot some pix and keep posting them as i put her back together.-

craig