1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

It really does look Awesome, Mustang! I showed it to my neighbor the other evening. He's a professional painting contractor. He thought it was still wet! IN bright daylight, I can see where I missed a couple of small bubbles, but there is not debris and it looks like I spent hours buffing and varnishing 10 or 15 coats or so on it. No pictures yet. I'll get some today.

I talked to the Marina yesterday. They still haven't found time to check the drive shaft alignments or to put the boat up on stands. I've given them a deadline and told them that I'd be there next Friday to buff it out and paint the bottom and that I wanted to launch Sunday. And in the meantime, I expect that they'll have checked out the drive shafts and de-winterized the engines in preparation of launch. It's not like I waited until last minute, here. I signed the work order to align the shafts and tune the engines last November. Just because they lose a mechanic should not delay my launch this long.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

It really does look Awesome, Mustang! I showed it to my neighbor the other evening. He's a professional painting contractor. He thought it was still wet! IN bright daylight, I can see where I missed a couple of small bubbles, but there is not debris and it looks like I spent hours buffing and varnishing 10 or 15 coats or so on it. No pictures yet. I'll get some today.

I talked to the Marina yesterday. They still haven't found time to check the drive shaft alignments or to put the boat up on stands. I've given them a deadline and told them that I'd be there next Friday to buff it out and paint the bottom and that I wanted to launch Sunday. And in the meantime, I expect that they'll have checked out the drive shafts and de-winterized the engines in preparation of launch. It's not like I waited until last minute, here. I signed the work order to align the shafts and tune the engines last November. Just because they lose a mechanic should not delay my launch this long.

Waiting for the pics Thats crap that your marina is treating you that way. I'd be pizzed off!

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

ok...here's some pics of how it turned out.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport


Here's another one.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

View attachment 141039View attachment 141040
Before After

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Waiting for the pics Thats crap that your marina is treating you that way. I'd be pizzed off!

I'm none to pleased, CC. The Steelhead run will be about over by the time I'm in the water.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

I'm none to pleased, CC. The Steelhead run will be about over by the time I'm in the water.

Might be worth getting on a charter for a couple trips until you splash. One good thing about delay drop in is you can get more projects completed.

The table looks ok,lol Just kidding, looks great man, fine job you did there.

 

[lil buggy]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

BSnB (man with the shiny shoe),
that table looks awesome kudos. wow that is smooooth. i love it. did you end up taking the trim off for the barcoat? how thick did it end up?
i hope you get up to see her soon and the marina has it done for ya quickly.

again looks great man. i am having some table envy

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Might be worth getting on a charter for a couple trips until you splash. One good thing about delay drop in is you can get more projects completed.

The table looks ok,lol Just kidding, looks great man, fine job you did there.

Yup, I'm thinking about that CC. There are 3 Charters that run out of our Marina. One in particular that I've gotten to know. I plan to see him this week and find out how booked up he is. He's offered to take the Admiral and I out if he's not too busy. I also talked with him about taking a ride on my boat early in the season to give me some tips on how I'm rigged. I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks for the compliment on the table.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

BSnB (man with the shiny shoe),
that table looks awesome kudos. wow that is smooooth. i love it. did you end up taking the trim off for the barcoat? how thick did it end up?
i hope you get up to see her soon and the marina has it done for ya quickly.
again looks great man. i am having some table envy

Yup...the shoe is still shiny and so is the table. No, lil buggy, I left the trim on and spread the bar top coating out to the edge so that it would run off the edge. I used a foam brush to coat the Mahogany trim with it. It's probably not as thick over the trim, but it's probably still equivalent to 3 or 4 coats of varnish. I'm guessing that the top is coated to a depth equivalent to about 6 or 8 coats.

I'm pushing the Marina and I expect that they'll respond. I can be pretty persuasive when it's called for.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Yup, I'm thinking about that CC. There are 3 Charters that run out of our Marina. One in particular that I've gotten to know. I plan to see him this week and find out how booked up he is. He's offered to take the Admiral and I out if he's not too busy. I also talked with him about taking a ride on my boat early in the season to give me some tips on how I'm rigged. I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks for the compliment on the table.

Now if we could just add some uv stabilizers to that bar coating, we would be good to go. Wonder how it would do out in the weather.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Now if we could just add some uv stabilizers to that bar coating, we would be good to go. Wonder how it would do out in the weather.

I wondered about that too, CC. I did put a couple of coats of Varnish on the table prior to adding the bar coating. I don't know if Spar Varnish has any UV protection in it, but if I'd used Epiphanes, I know that does. That then would have provided the wood the needed UV protection. The Bar top coating is an epoxy. Once cured, I would think that it would hold up to the weather, but it might yellow from the sun. It would be an interesting experiment.

I used an unfinished piece of 1 X 6 Cedar to spread the bar-top coating over the table. Maybe I'll set that outside somewhere and test the effect of the weather on it.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Table look awesome!! It came out as good as anyone could ask. Definitely going to stand out in the cabin!

Sorry to hear about the marina. I must not have read why they are checking the shaft alignment, was something off?

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Table look awesome!! It came out as good as anyone could ask. Definitely going to stand out in the cabin!

Sorry to hear about the marina. I must not have read why they are checking the shaft alignment, was something off?

I think so, Mustang. At the end of last season I was feeling some vibration from the Port engine while in gear. The props look ok, so I wanted them to check the shaft alignment. I also wanted to have both engines tuned up over the winter. That didn't happen either. I figure at this point, if I can get the underwater work done, including alignment, I can launch. Once I'm in the water, I can do the tune up and take care of anything else that might have suffered over the winter.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Thats a shame to hear they haven't been able to do the work. The only vibration issue I had was from a dinged prop. It look ok, but when a straight edge was run and the prop spun past it, one of the blades look to be 1/8-1/4" off. Turns out, 3 of the 4 were actually out, and that one blade was the fine one.

Did you happen to have it checked professionally, or did you just take a look at it? It seems odd the shaft would come out of alignment, whereas I can see a prop possibly having an issue from something under water.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

I didn't have the prop checked professionally, mustang. I suppose it's possible that the prop got dinged and is causing the problem. I'd hoped that by eliminating the shaft as the problem I could then deal with pulling the props. Everyone I've talked to suggests that the shaft or shaft bearing is the most likely problem. I'm not experienced with these straight shaft inboards so I"m trying to learn as I go.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

Well, I was able to get up to the Marina one day this week. I brought my boys along with me. It's nice to have cheap labor! My youngest son, now 25, worked for an auto detailer shop in High School and got pretty good at detailing cars and boats. I appointed him lead buffer.

We hit the entire boat with the power washer first, scrubbed it with a **** and Span solution and the hit it with the power washer again. Then we soaked a rag with Acetone and wiped everything down again. While my older boy and I went to work on the scum line and bottom, my youngest went to work compounding and buffing out the hull.

The boat had not gotten a good power wash at haul out last fall and the port side was particularly bad. The lime/mud scale at the water line was thick and the power washer wouldn't touch it. I learned several years ago that cheap toilet bowl cleaner (The Works is what I use) does a great job of getting this stuff off. It's thick too so it stays in contact with the gunk for a good while. It works like muriatic acid eating away at the lime/mud scale. I'd let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes and then hit it with a scrub brush. Carefully, this stuff will burn your skin. Then power wash it off. I used 4 bottles of the stuff, but finally got it clean. I was pleased to see that it ate through some of my bottom paint too. When I hit it with the power washer, the bottom paint came off all the way down to the gelcoat. If only the Marina had gotten the boat up on stands...

Here's an old pic of the scum line.



Looking along the side in the picture below you can see where the lifting strap was the did not get power washed last fall. You can also see the dull streaky look to the hull.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

I tried to get a picture of the after results on the scum line, but the photo didn't come out. If the weather holds, and the Marina puts me on stands, I'll get the bottom paint on this weekend and touch up the boot stripe which is a tape rather than a paint, which I'd prefer. Another project for next fall.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

AS I said above, we power washed and cleaned the hull and then my youngest son went to work with the power buffer with a wool cutting bonnet on it. He used some Maguire's compound on it, which he didn't like as well as the 3M stuff. I really began to bring the color back. Then we washed it down again to remove the compound.

Next up we applied my favorite Heller-Glanz Cleaner Wax, still using the wool compounding bonnet and frequently cleaning the bonnet by running a screw driver at an angle through the bonnet while it was spinning. While using this Heller-Glanz stuff he said "this stuff is legit!" High praise, I think from a 20-something.

It really did a great job bringing back the gray stripe, but the most dramatic change was to the black band above the rub rail...WOW...deep shiny black now.

Here's a couple of pics of the end results.




I think I'm going to remove those engine compartment vents again and paint them gloss black so that the disappear almost into the black band. Last year I tried some Chrome paint on them. That's what you see here. It worked ok, but they faded some and lost their shine over the winter.

 

[BSnB]

Re: 1987 28' Chris-Craft 283 Amerosport

A few more pictures. The first thing I noticed was the shine. My son pointed out that it's the "color transfer" you're looking for. That is, how deep and crisp a reflected color are you getting in the wax from outside objects. chriscraft254 got it and mustang did too. NOw I think I got it too. Ice anyone?





I like shiny things!!!

Before the final launch, we'll hit it one more time with the straight liquid Carnuba wax and a foam buffing bonnet to give it a deeper shine and I'll finish it off with a spray finishing polish and a microfiber rag which gets all the edges and the non-skid areas.