Another 25 Seafari goes under the knife

[Blue_Heron]

If y'all are gonna do much diving off those 25 Seafari's, you might want to mount the swim platform closer to the water than where the one on Dave's boat was mounted. The ideal location is right AT the waterline, like this one on the old Seacraft 21 "Unohu", which had a simple fold-up platform supported by cables connected to the towing eyes!

Good point, Denny. I notice Bob's had a cutout for the outdrive. I'll look at dropping mine as low as it will go without interfering with the outdrive, but I don't want to get it much lower than the cockpit deck. The coaming and transom on the 25 Seafari are high and would be difficult to climb over if the swim platform is at the waterline. I'll have to ask Connor how he likes his. He does a lot of diving and his appears to be mounted higher than mine was.
Dave

[seafari25]

Nice Dave!

I`ll be following this one closely...shop is looking good!

You know...when I became a member here almost 2 years ago, there were no 25s. I mean, the were, but no members frequenting the board and none in the picture section of the home page. Now they`re popping up all over and there`s now a wealth of info on the board about them. It`s seafari 25 heaven in here I`m looking forward to your progress, as it too will be added to the wealth of info, I am learning about my boat.

Here is a link to my photobucket for your reference. Let me know if there`s anything I can do.

Brandon

[Blue_Heron]

Nice Dave!

I`ll be following this one closely...shop is looking good!

It`s seafari 25 heaven in here I`m looking forward to your progress, as it too will be added to the wealth of info, I am learning about my boat.

Brandon

Thanks for the kind words, Brandon, and everyone else who's posted. I've been trudging away and it's update time. First, I had to stock the fridge in the shop. As I've gotten older, my priority in beer has gone from quantity to quality. Based on their recent posts, I'm betting strick and grgrmouse will appreciate my selection.





Now, back to work. The transom on my boat was redone in '95. There were areas with serious spider cracks that I needed to investigate. After chipping at it a little, it looks like they used gelcoat to do the fairing on the outside. It's more than 1/8" thick where the spider cracks occur. I'll grind it out and fair it back, hopefully this weekend. Anyway, I knew I would have to strip the paint off the transom to repair the spider cracks. I bought some high dollar eco-friendly paint stripper to get the paint off. I put some on a 6" x 6" test patch and let it sit for about thirty six hours. It barely touched the paint. I got out the scraper and managed to peel it off. So Tuesday after work, I went out to the shop to slather the whole transom with paint remover. To prep for the paint remover, I took the scraper to the aluminum oxide and 5200 left behind when I pulled the swim platform brackets. Well, some paint came off with it. So I kept going. It looks like when they did the paint job, they may have used gray automotive sanding primer. The finish paint film was tough, but once I got the scraper under it, the primer separated easily. Too easily. I had the whole transom stripped in about 15 minutes. Here's the area with the worst spider cracks:





So I thought to myself, I don't really like this black paint job. All the nicks and scrapes show the original gelcoat. It was peeling and chipping at the chine, and I guess I figured out why. The primer wasn't what it should be. So last night I stripped the starboard side. In less than an hour. It was like peeling a cucumber. Tonight I did the port side. Here's the "before" pic:






Here's the after:





And the pile of paint strips:




Now, I know I've opened a can of worms, and most of the prep work is still ahead of me, but this is the way I wanted to go with it anyway. I'm glad the paint removal turned out to be way easier than I had hoped.

Dave

[wtenglish]

Nice work and good job on your dolly. Your shop is awesome!

[Islandtrader]

WOW...It is hard for me to believe that the paint came off like vinyl. Good thing for your pictures. Amazing

[Blue_Heron]

Your shop is awesome!

Thanks, Will, but it seems a lot smaller than I planned with that behemoth in there. My first boat project was supposed to be the Hewes Bonefisher. I guess I got sidetracked. But, damn, I'm havin' fun.
Dave

[Blue_Heron]

I've been doing some more patching and sanding, but not enough to post yet. I used saw horses and plywood to set up a couple temporary tables in my shop. I found that cutting glass cloth, mixing resin, sanding parts, etc. generates a lot of stuff that has to be moved around. It seemed like I was spending a lot of time moving stuff from one table to the other so I could clean up and move it back. I decided to take a few hours in the evenings this week to make a portable work bench with storage underneath. Here's Before:




Here's the fabrication underway:




The finished frame, on casters:




And the completed bench with stuff stored underneath:



Hopefully, it will improve my productivity.
Dave

[NoBones]

WTG Dave...
I just love cracker engineering!
Anything to make the job go easier is a good idea..

See ya, Ken

[grgrmouse]

Well, well, how did I miss this??

Off and running! Nice work on the tank tumbler. We have used a nice tree and rig the tank on ropes and do it the HARDWAY with a 3' chunk of galv chain in there. American ingenuity at it's best. Nice start!

Nice beverage selection too

[Mahi54]

Nice work and good job on your dolly. Your shop is awesome!

Looking Good Dave....Nice work....Rob