1997 Chaparral 2330 Bowrider - Minor Restore and Refit

[Martine Brucheau]

Re: 1997 Chaparral 2330 Bowrider - Minor Restore and Refit

great work their, what was the cost of the engine if you don't mined?

 

[NorthwestChap]

Re: 1997 Chaparral 2330 Bowrider - Minor Restore and Refit

Martine, you can find the info here.... Michigan Motorz | Marine Engine Parts Sales & Service | Shipping World Wide

 

[NorthwestChap]

Well, I'm afraid I've been very remiss in my updating this thread with my progress. I hate to leave anything unfinished, so...

 

[NorthwestChap]

Let's see, I left off with the start of the gelcoating. In preparation for gelcoating the bilge I reinforced the ski tow eye on the inside. Added additional fiberglass and a much larger stainless steel plate to help in spreading out the load.

 

[NorthwestChap]

I wanted to gelcoat the ENTIRE bilge area, so I decided to use both methods mentioned previously. The overhead and tight quarters on the upper bilge required the use of the pressure pot and wax additive. I did this first.

 

[NorthwestChap]

I used my preferred method with the dump gun on the lower bilge. The green tint is the PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) which replaces the wax as an oxygen inhibitor for the curing of the gelcoat.

 

[NorthwestChap]

The next step was to make this...



Look like this...




and this.

 

[NorthwestChap]

Got some parts.

 

[NorthwestChap]

Lots of sanding and painting.

 

[NorthwestChap]

Everything was going pretty smoothly...

 

[NorthwestChap]

However, when installing the closed cooling (full) system, I ran into a problem. The hose routing out of the port exhaust riser interfered with the remote oil filter.

 

[NorthwestChap]

I purchased this closed cooling system from the same vendor as the engine, and though it was really close, it wasn't quite the one needed. There are a lot of slight differences between the individual installations of the many boat manufacturers, so it's understandable that variations are inevitable. I called Seakamp directly to talk about my problem, and was rewarded with some amazing customer service. I spoke with one of their techs at great length, and with his help, was not only able to solve my remote oil filter interference problem, but also make a slight improvement in the routing one of the hoses. The Seakamp tech sent me elbows and hoses, and actually fabricated a 3/4" to 1" elbow for me to make everything work. I was impressed.

I needed a little more space to route one hose around the filter so I added several stainless washers to move the remote oil filter aft a bit.




By replacing a straight fitting with an elbow, and moving the "T" aft, I was able to get everything working perfectly.

 

[NorthwestChap]

Now we're talkin.

 

[NorthwestChap]

I threw together a test stand...

 

[NorthwestChap]

And...

 

[Hoosmatroos]

Nice!

 

[NorthwestChap]

Thanks Hoos.

 

[NorthwestChap]

I wanted to match the deck with the gelcoated fiberglass insert in the bow. In order to do that I needed to have smooth gunwales and textured walking surfaces. After fiberglassing and sanding the deck I decided to use fumed silica (cabosil) mixed in the gelcoat to fill the imperfections prior to spraying the finish gelcoat. I spread it with a drywall knife and plastic spreaders. In theory this would have worked really well, but unlike drywall joint compound, the silica infused gelcoat was extremely hard to sand. It made a lot of extra work.

Gelcoat with fumed silica.

 

[NorthwestChap]

After sanding down most of the imperfections, I sprayed the gunwales using the dump gun, followed by PVA.

 

[NorthwestChap]

The deck was next, followed by lots, and lots of sanding. I wanted a smooth and level surface for the final spray which would be which would be finish sanded and buffed on the gunwales and sprayed with texture on the deck.