Build a Barge Workshop

[Woodonglass]

Merry Christmas my friend!

 

[southkogs]

Merry Christmas @Woodonglass - and to all!

Was out at the in laws today. Got snow here in TN which means it was way too cold for us thin-bloods to be workin' on the boat!

 

[southkogs]

Collected parts and did little bits here and there on the barge over the winter. Not too much to show, but we've had a couple of warm days here in TN so it was time to get back at it. We're not worried about polishing the pontoons, but I did decide to clean them ...

The aluminum cleaner was AMAZING. I couldn't believe the difference.

I used a scrub brush, but it wasn't really a lot of heavy scrubbing. Not exactly spray on, wash off but not too much work either.

We should be getting into the wood decking next.

 

[sphelps]

Wow ! Those cleaned up nicely !

 

[southkogs]

A couple of years ago, a neighbor turned me on to an aluminum wheel cleaner for the cars. I became an instant believer in the stuff. It's unreal how well it cleaned up aluminum wheels. Not just the ones I drive, but when I would mess with some of the father-in-laws "works in process" cars I got similar results. So, I found a Starbrite Aluminum cleaner for pontoons and gave it a try.

The bottoms of the pontoons look like they have a lot of scale built up, and there are still some stains in places I couldn't easily get to. So I'll have to decide how dedicated I am to shiny pontoons after we get it back on the trailer. But for now what's visible when she's on the water looks good

 

[southkogs]

Nothing you can see in terms of progress on the 'toon. We've been collecting some parts, grabbing hardware and figuring out painting the fence before we start reassemble. So, not much to see.

But I mentioned the "pontoon-pause" to work on FIL's Mercury Comet. We wrapped up the brake rebuilt this past weekend. All in all we redid all of the brakes (lesson for me since I hadn't worked on drums before), changed all of the brake lines and rebuilt the emergency brake. All of which were a learning experience for me.

He and I took a ride on Sunday - dropped the top and cruised from Livingston, TN to Monterrey, TN and back home. Comfortable car to ride in; I can't believe how much I like the bench seats. But, I thought I'd toss up a couple of photos to validate the 'toon delay

 

[Willyclay]

Nice! Merc-O-Matic huh?

 

[southkogs]

I believe so. The C4 wasn't out until '64, I think.