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

[wtenglish]

Strick,

I believe that I've already done that but honestly can't remember. I'll check it out when I'm home over the Chrismas Holiday.

I almost went by your place the other day - was at the hobby shop in the shopping center. But - you aren't there! Would your bride let me take a peak? BTW - I still have not done anything with that transom piece. Bad on me. Still have plans for it though. Let's try to fish over the holidays!!

[wtenglish]

No worries Ron, you saved that piece as it was headed for the landfill. Stop by anytime, I'm driving back tomorrow for a couple weeks so give me a call.

[wtenglish]

General, mission accomplished!

I had actually started prepping the area before working out of town for a few months but am back now and am trying to get back on track. Thanks for the reminder though.



Laying out the coring for my two hatches.



Cabosiled in place and glassed with matt.



Bow hatch set in place to test fit.



Added matt to try and fill in some areas on sides of the stoarge compartments in the bow before fairing.



Weather and temps are still an issue but so I have been doing a LOT of sanding lately. Yesterday's 70 degree ceiling allowed me to start fairing the transom.



More updates to follow.

[everybody]

Looks good. I bet your happy to be home.

[wtenglish]

It is good to be back St. Augi!

Lot's of fairing and sanding as of late. Went ahead and put the boat on blocks so I could access the bottom and to work on the trailer when the temps were to low for production work.



I had been looking at ways of removing the bottom paint without having to sand all of it. Soda blasting hasn't been an option in my area and the only mobile unit wanted $700. I located this peel away product that they say is safe for fiberglass and decided to give it a shot. It is pricey at $80 a gallon but I figure the time saved would be worth it.



They provided this paper to install over it while wet but think it was probably not intended for inverted surfaces.



After a dwell time of about 45 minutes I used a 6" drywall knife to try it out. There is only one picture because this stuff was so messy. Even after wearing a tyvek suit gloves and respirator I still got it everywhere when scraping off.



I haven't completed the removal yet, only about half and have plenty of cleanup to do but it seems to take off large portions of the bottom paint.

Shot of the interior with a skim coat of fairing compound. I have a lot of work to do. Notice poor man's Festool!



With the temps still below 50 at times I stopped by and picked up the trailer parts from the nice folks at Float On Trailers. If you remember I had purchased a Seafari that was on this trailer and swapped with my previous one before selling the boat. This trailer is 30 years old but in sound structural condition.




You can see new torsion axles laying on the trailer.





A friend giving me some much needed help. The axles were heavy!



New fenders to replace the old "flying nuns".





All in after new torsion axles, rims and tires, center jack, V bunk and guide, lighting and overall cleaning.

[Trayder]

Peel Away....brings back some real bad memories, it works, but I can relate to the mess.

Your trailer looks brand new in the last shot, very nice work!

[KenB]

Some questions about the floaton trailer... I have an old one that I was planning to sell (any ball park suggestions on price would be great). I will be at highway speeds pretty frequently, plus all the salt on the roads up here, so I figure a new trailer with disk brakes is more cost effective then trying to fix up my float on.

BUT then I saw the great job you did on your trailer, and now I wonder about just cleaning up mine... how much pitting did you have? how did you clean it up? How much were the new axels? Did you think about adding brakes?

THANKS. BOAT LOOKS AWESOME. I went out to go sand this AM, but there was snow everywhere. On the other hand, cleaning out the soggy plywood is a lot easier here... whack it with a hammer and the ply shatters (because it is frozen). Bet you can't do that in FL!

[DonV]

whack it with a hammer and the ply shatters (because it is frozen). Bet you can't do that in FL!

Thank God!!!!! Let go in my shorts and T-shirt and get a beer!!!

[wtenglish]

Trayder,

thanks for your input! I've reviewed your restoration many times for ideas.

KenB, a friend told me there was a refurbished Float On on Craigslist for $800 bucks last week. Take that with a grain of salt as if a deal that good was available you would have to be standing there with cash in hand. And I have no idea of the condition. New axles are $375 each. Pitting was surprisingly minor for a trailer of that age. The worst areas were under the I-beams from the tire spray but nothing that would compromise the structural integrity. Never considered brakes for this boat. I would not think you would need them unless you were 26' or larger with a quarter ton truck like I drive.

DonV, your locations say it all!