1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

So you are going with vinyl instead of carpet? What vinyl did you go with? Looking forward to pics when you get laying floor

Ended up choosing Nautolex, color is natural. Was seriously considering the deck coatings that some of the resto's are using, but wasn't willing to be one of the first out of the gate on new use for product. Plus I had already purchased my epoxy and was told by Rustoleum you couldn't put it over epoxy. Thirdly the stuff is very close in price to vinyl. Maybe the next boat.:eyebrows:

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Today we got the plywood tweaked.I will really be happy when that goes in for last time. Dang it!, just remembered I didn't cut the hole for access to fuel sender. Anyway, got first coat of epoxy on tonite, we''ll see where that is tomorrow morning. Hopefully gonna start ''stuffing'' the hull tomorrow and some other odds and ends. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend.

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Nice job on the deck fitment . What ya using for floatation ?

 

[joe423]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Thirdly the stuff is very close in price to vinyl. Maybe the next boat.:eyebrows:[/QUOTE]


...Next boat...?

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Going to use foam board, the stuff I got is 2'' thick, green, closed cell. Hadn't seen the green before but seems like the pink stuff, spec says .01%moisture absorption. Not a whole lot happened today. Still waiting to second coat first side of plywood. Did get splashwell drains and a new main drain installed. I understand that 5200 is the best stuff around but I swear it is the devil's spawn. The friggin stuff gets everywhere, you can't just wipe it off, and no matter what tool is within 50 yrds of it, it will end up with it on it. God forbid you gotta make a quick run to the bathroom. Anyway, holes are sealed. Drains came out decent but not perfect. Forgot to take pic after main drain was installed. You can see from picture original was off to starboard side and too high for my liking. I cenered out, and lowered new one.

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Not a whole lot going on right now. Got the inside of the boat ready for primer and have be putting second coats of epoxy on floor.

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Got to go thru the perfect example of ''Denial is not just a river in Egypt'' today. I screwed up the mixture on first coat of epoxy. Big time. Completely reversed the ratio. Man that was hard to say. I thought, ''I can fix this! I'll just use less hardener and thin it by 30%, brush it on and get it all mixed, heck I probably won't even need to put another coat on. Yeah, this should do the trick.'' Almost did. Had some soft spots. Well this time I'll score the soft spots wipe it with acetone and put another thinned coat on. If one almost worked two should do the trick! Almost. Felt a little soft, maybe it just needs more time. I know, I'll flip the boards and do the other side. Man, this stuff works like a charm when you mix it correctly. Better put second coat on, that will give other side more than enough time. Second coat dried, flip boards over, things are looking pretty good. I just might be a genius. Today we are gonna give them a light sand for drips and stuff. Huh? This is getting sticky, I am going thru a lot of sandpaper. I'll bet I just need to scrape this one area. Huh? Here is another spot! Uh-oh this stuff is coming off in strips. Just get the loose stuff, wash it down and put another coat on. Move on to next board, this is going better. Get to other side, Huh, this one is doing it too! You are an idiot! New plywood purchased, was able to use old sheets for template, first coat of correctly mixed epoxy on, new order off to US Composites. Lesson learned expensive and a lot of time wasted.

Hopefully this will help someone.

I was honked earlier but am laughing at the amount of denial now.

 

[Johny25]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Sorry to hear lokonn, I know how frustrating that can be......been there before myself on some projects lol. Reminds me of our old company saying between the guys "we do it nice because we do it twice" :facepalm:

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Got to go thru the perfect example of ''Denial is not just a river in Egypt'' today. I screwed up the mixture on first coat of epoxy. Big time. Completely reversed the ratio. Man that was hard to say. I thought, ''I can fix this! I'll just use less hardener and thin it by 30%, brush it on and get it all mixed, heck I probably won't even need to put another coat on. Yeah, this should do the trick.'' Almost did. Had some soft spots. Well this time I'll score the soft spots wipe it with acetone and put another thinned coat on. If one almost worked two should do the trick! Almost. Felt a little soft, maybe it just needs more time. I know, I'll flip the boards and do the other side. Man, this stuff works like a charm when you mix it correctly. Better put second coat on, that will give other side more than enough time. Second coat dried, flip boards over, things are looking pretty good. I just might be a genius. Today we are gonna give them a light sand for drips and stuff. Huh? This is getting sticky, I am going thru a lot of sandpaper. I'll bet I just need to scrape this one area. Huh? Here is another spot! Uh-oh this stuff is coming off in strips. Just get the loose stuff, wash it down and put another coat on. Move on to next board, this is going better. Get to other side, Huh, this one is doing it too! You are an idiot! New plywood purchased, was able to use old sheets for template, first coat of correctly mixed epoxy on, new order off to US Composites. Lesson learned expensive and a lot of time wasted.

Hopefully this will help someone.

I was honked earlier but am laughing at the amount of denial now.

That sux! Have you tried putting the wood out in the sun to harden up the epoxy?

I know you said it was coming off in strips, if it gets hard enough you can take it off with a belt sander and reuse the wood.


When mixing epoxy, mix small batches until you get used to working with it. I use the 3 to 1 mix and usually just mix up 3 squirts of resin and one squirt of hardener to a batch, less waste if a batch kicks off in the cup and gets hard. .. and if you mess up mixing a batch it'll be less damage done too, less epoxy material and less wood it is spread on.

Aggitate your hardener once a day too, just gently swirl the liquid around in the bottle for about 45 seconds at the beginning of the day.
I've been doing some epoxy work for the last couple of days restoring a couple of old boat paddles with some old (over a year old) epoxy I had leftover from a past project. I kept getting an amine blush on the first paddle I'd do with a batch and couldn't figure out why, went to the USC site and read about aggitating the hardener. I guess the additional mixing from dipping the brush was enough to prevent the blush on the second paddle per batch.

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Thanks for the support guys. Live and learn. Just got thru putting second coat on side one of new plywood. The stuff looks gorgeous! Should be able to flip in the morning and get first coat on side two, if not tomorrow night. Did get the inside of boat painted this weekend. It came out pretty good. Most of the sides of hull will be not seen unless you open hatch or storage areas, but wanted it to be as light as possible in those areas. Gonna go and get some flotation installed.

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Floor epoxy process is done! Got final coat on Thursday night. Need to washdown with warm water and then give it light sanding to get rid of bugs that had death wish and provide some bite for contact cement. Had got started on flotation last Sunday. Didn't get very far though. After putting the new boards in for bow spent the rest of the day on flotation. Still have a little more to get through later today. Don't know if the board is equal in flotation value to the original, but we will have at least double amount of space filled with board than original. We did leave a space down center for any water to travel back to bilge. Also got fuel tank placed. Thinking ahead does anybody have any brands of pumps for livewells that they like better that others? I am starting to shop that stuff and was hoping for some insight. Thanks, have a good Sunday.

 

[Landof9000lakes]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

we made some more progress on the re-do this weekend. Flew solo for most of the time on saturday. Was able to get the interior out. Salvaged a handfull of aluminum hinges, various lengths of aluminum angle and flat stock, and a bunch of decent fasteners. Also removed tie-downs, rails and other misc stuff attached to ganwales. Today we tackled carpeting and what was left of floor. Nothing was good enough to save as templates so i'm sure that will add time to the new floor. Boat had a ski locker and that seems to be where the rot started. Also turns out that anywhere there wasn't foam was where the floor crumbled. Bow mounted fuel tank came out without muck trouble. I'm thinking about a belly tank where the ski locker was and losing the bow tank. Am also thinking about batteries for trolling motor going up front where fuel tank was. Any input or thoughts on those relocation/additions would be welcome. We also got most of the foam out. Thanks to pmc and his resto thread on his great lakes special, we went after the foam, carefully, with shovels and it came out in some satisfying chunks, for the most part. View attachment 191384View attachment 191385View attachment 191386View attachment 191388

nvrmnd...

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Foam looks good I like the idea of standing pieces up verticle .. I think pmc did it the same way on his SN .
Keep up the good work !

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Foam looks good I like the idea of standing pieces up verticle .. I think pmc did it the same way on his SN .
Keep up the good work !

That is were I think I first saw it. Seemed like there would be less voids doing it this way, at least for this style of boat. Sunday work on boat didn't happen due to rain and an un-planned committment at Church. Hopefully back at it on Monday. Anybody have any favorite pump brands for livewells?

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Got the rest of the flotation installed. Then prep work on the deck boards. Washed them down with warm water, sanded with 220 grit where contact cement was going and then washed 'em down again to get rid of dust. Did a test fit on boards one more time and then started the vinyl work. Vinyl laid out nice. Had to do some thinking though on how to get a 54'' x 70'' sheet of vinyl placed without ruining it or getting it stuck where I didn't want it to be. Ended up rolling sheets up with glue side out and then setting and un-rolling vinyl across deck boards. Flipped board after using roller to make sure vinyl had good contact with face. With board flipped I then applied cement to edges and overlap. Once that set up worked edges and got it secured to back of decking. Got the deck boards installed with rivets. Put sealant in each of the holes in the deck, stuck in rivet and then wiped any oozing sealant. Deck feels good. Looking forward to getting to see how it cleans up. Also got the splashwell mostly installed but I am out of 5200, and the connections thru the transom will have to wait until I get more of that. Hope everyone had a good weekend. We got a little rain last night and this morning and some it was still on deck when I took the pictures.

 

[Pmccraney]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Nice progress! That vinyl work is tight. Good work.

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Thanks PMC. I'm diggin it. And also thanks for the example on the flotation install

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Looking good! Great progress..

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

Thanks for the encouragement JB. Feels good to have a deck again after 5 months. My ankles and knees are thriiled to be able to be on a flat surface again.

 

[joe423]

Re: 1987 Bluefin Sportsman 1900 - The Fun Begins

And don't forget about the "invisible rivets"!