1978 SF restoration, my first one.....

[wtenglish]

With Ron Brooks requesting the rear boxes I wanted to make sure I wasn't giving away something that I would need in the future. After taking some measurements I realized that when I had cut it out during the intitial tear down, my gunnel caps weren't going to be long enough. Glad I caught this. That would have been a real shocker to get ready to install the top cap and realize it was 14" short. In this photo you can see where I marked what had to be cut.



After cutting I clamped into place before glassing to the top cap.



My first trial with a mold release went pretty well. I was trying to figure out how to glass in the large opening in where I had cut the storage compartment out of the center console. I used some hardi board that I waxed with Partall #2 then brushed on about three layers of PVA. After fastening this to the outside of the opening I then turned the CC upside down and begin applying layers of 1708 from the inside. Now some sanding and filling the rest of the voids.



Another thing I did was build this short 18" table. Since I don't have the luxury of a covered area for my entire project, it allows me to keep the CC off the ground during rain events to keep it clean and it's easy to lean and tilt in any direction to access the area I need to work on at any given time.



Back to the top cap. In the process of removing all the old coring I got to a point that I could recognize an old repair.





Everything sanded and cleaned up.



New coring. This will be installed with Cabosil and glassed over with 1708.



There are some cracks in the top cap that will have to be fixed.



I'm using a Dremel tool to grind out the torn glass and will patch from the inside with strips of glass.



Putting the final wrap on the inside of the transom. This is a final layer of 1708. Next step will be building the equipment mounting pads for my pumps and fuel filter.