My Restoration Process

[muddywater]

I still am not sure how you guys do it. It is WAY more fun to go spend time in one of my other boats than to suck fiberglass dust for days on end.

After a few years of fiberglass dust my Shop Vac, Skil grinder, and Black & Decker sander bit the dust. I replaced the grinder with a Bosch grinder which I got an optional dust shroud for. The dust shroud tends to get in the way so I do not use it all the time. I have mostly been using 60-grit flap wheels for cutting stuff fast, but it occurred to me at some point that I could put 60 grit fiber backed sanding discs on my Harbor Freight sander-polisher and that seems to give me more control for the initial knock down on repairs plus it seems like it puts out coarser dust that does not fly around as much. The 6" Ridgid sander I have had since the beginning has been holding up pretty well (probably because I think Metabo made it for Ridgid). The Shop Vac had been getting on my nerves because it would clog after about 10 minutes. After it died I replaced it with a mid-sized Fein which has been really nice. The hose is so long the vac does not even have to be in the boat and the auto on/off with tool use is nice as well.

Anyway... too many distractions to spend all my time on the Seacraft. I had a welder build me a 13 foot smooth bottom mud hull which I put a 12 HP mud motor on for hunting. FUN... Click on the pic to see us running across a mud flat. The second is a video link running through grass on a hunting trip. Both videos are with the 12 HP. I later upgraded to an 18 Copperhead and after some mods the little sucker runs 27 mph with 2 people and hunting gear. This year it will probably get heads polished and carburetor mods (or a 30mm carb from a 35 as some of the Ultralight glider owners have done).