1977 Sylvan Sea Monster Side Console Rebuild

[oldrem]

Between the rust bath and some touch up with the wire wheel I'm pretty pleased with my former pile of rust. Some of those bolts are $6 ea to replace and the 5/16x3-1/2x3 square u-bolts have to be custom made.



Moved on to start work on the frame. It had some dings and dents I wasn't happy with, so brought out the 6 pounder to make them far less noticeable. (Same area shown stripped below after straightening)



Set the frame back on the stands and started removing surface rust with the cup brush on the underside. I soon found out much of the paint was coming off fairly easy, so after burning up a cup brush I moved to a flap disc. The insides of the channels I'll probably just use a hand wire brush before applying the Rustex, but I thinks I'll do all easily accessible areas like this. It was a long long day - think I'll sleep tonight.

 

[BWR1953]

That cleanup is going great; those parts look excellent; like new! WTG! :nod: :encouragement:

 

[Woodonglass]

Nice Work!!! I HATED doing the workover on my trailer but...It IS a necessary evil!!!

 

[oldrem]

Thx guys.

Spent the last two nights stripping more of the frame underside. When it came to the insides of the channels I found I had flap wheels and wire wheels that fit inside the channels, so started stripping the sidewalls of those too until my wife came out. After more than 30 years she knows how OC I am. All she had to say was "you're putting in an awful lot of time on that beat up old trailer". Now I'll be back to my original plan of just getting the loose stuff out of the channels so I can move on with the coating.

 

[Watermann]

Uh yeah I know the feeling, did you see this pic I took of my admiral when I was doing the same sort of trailer work on my SS? The posture says it all...

 

[oldrem]

Uh yeah I know the feeling, did you see this pic I took of my admiral when I was doing the same sort of trailer work on my SS? The posture says it all...

Yep, the admirals usually out rank us lol

Last Wednesday Ebag had an evening sale of 15% off any items purchased before midnight on a single invoice so I took advantage of it and ordered a bunch of items I had on my watch list. Between that and other things I ordered elsewhere, it's been like Christmas all week. Some of the trailer parts weren't worth rehabbing so I went new - like a good excuse to go power winch with wireless remote and all LED lights.

 

[oldrem]

Did some further reading and found out I was taking things too far for the coating to work, so tonight I finished everything up with a cup wheel top and bottom.

Unbolted an old brace the PO had put on the side to support a weak spot in the frame. Got everything cleaned up for my welder to go at it next week after he recovers from his daughters wedding. He's going to weld a plate on the inside for a proper brace. Once Rick is done it'll be stronger than new.

 

[Watermann]

Plating and welding is the proper way to repair trailer frames, guess the PO wasn't aware of that by the looks of all the holes.

 

[oldrem]

Did as much as I could on the frame the past 2 nights. It has 3 coats of Rustex and loaded on the trailer to go to the welder Monday night.

Got the leaf springs cleaned up and coated last night. Did the same today with the axle.



Had to improvise a bit and made a painting rack from a length of conduit, lashed to a tree on one end and a ladder on the other. Yep I'm a country boy. Got the leaf springs and a lot of other parts hung with wire and painted.

 

[Dennischaves]

Your moving right along
nice job

 

[chevymaher]

I have painted many a trailer hitch and rear end housing hanging from the tree. There is a permanent peice to hang things from out there. Matter of fact that is where the outdrive was done.

 

[mickyryan]

Hagin parts for paint is always best way for me spin n spray

 

[oldrem]

Saturday night I was tying threads until midnight to small parts that didn't have holes to hang for painting.

I promised the Admiral I'd take her to the County Fair yesterday, so got up early. I taped the ends of the axle assembly and shot a coat of primer then moved the parts from the rack onto pegs in the garage, hung a new set of parts and got those painted then went back and painted the axle assembly.

After the Fair I had a little time to do some straightening and dent removal on the fenders.

 

[mickyryan]

its going to look great when you are done

 

[oldrem]

Thanks Micky, I hope so.

Got very little done the last two nights thanks to rain on and off. Seems every time I get a little done, the rain starts again. No room to work in the carport with the boat in there.

I did get the frame and one fender to the welder Monday night. Tonight I'll pick those up and drop off the other fender. Didn't notice some minor cracks on the top of it until I cleaned it up.

I'm hoping the Admiral lets me prime and paint frame, fenders and tongue on Sunday. I have 3 guns, 1.2, 1.4 and 1.5. I'm planning on 1.5 for the primer and 1.4 for the paint? Tractor paint with hardener. I think I read to thin with 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and acetone? Temps are supposed to be mid 80's with 75% humidity. Ideas on what ratio to use ???

 

[Watermann]

I used 1.2 tip with 2 oz of reducer (VM&P Naphtha) with 8 oz of paint and 1 oz of hardener. 50/50 is way too thin, the paint can should give the proper reduction and type. Same with the primer and 1.4 tip.

 

[oldrem]

I used 1.2 tip with 2 oz of reducer (VM&P Naphtha) with 8 oz of paint and 1 oz of hardener. 50/50 is way too thin, the paint can should give the proper reduction and type. Same with the primer and 1.4 tip.

I do have naphtha. So just 8oz paint 1oz hardener and 2oz naphtha? I just double checked - my small one is 1.0, not 1.2. I also have a 1.8 lol. I'll use the 1.4

 

[Watermann]

Woodonglass has this write up on painting your boat that has great info. https://forums.iboats.com/forum/own...gy/585593-paint-your-boat-for-under-100-bucks

 

[oldrem]

Woodonglass has this write up on painting your boat that has great info. https://forums.iboats.com/forum/own...gy/585593-paint-your-boat-for-under-100-bucks

Yep, I've read it at least 10 times over the past 6 months, just thought I'd seen him mention the other somewhere. I did check with Valspar and they do recommend Naphtha as the only reducer for spraying, so will go that way.

Got my parts back from the welder last night, so will be using the next few evenings to get everything prepped and hung for a day of painting Sunday. Originally I was going to put the frame on jack stands with painter points and use a creeper to paint the underside until my son-in-law said "Pops, you have the gantry - hang it". Duh - it was too obvious. Big chance of rain the next 10 days, so will wheel the boat into the driveway and do all the painting in the car port.

 

[oldrem]

Decided I couldn't live with the bend in the 1/4" thick light brackets. Not sure how the PO bent them that bad. It was time to unbury the old arbor press this morning. Not so noticeable now. I'll have to do some paint touchup, but worth it to me.