sphelps I can’t decide if it’s the restoration or not that is making my hair fall out and what’s left of it to turn gray. Between the project, the weather, the Army, and my kids, it’s a solid toss up.
I still have yet to make any progress on the grinding. Between the crazy SeaTac weather we’ve been having and being back at work, I haven’t been able to get any time to finish the little bit of grinding I have to do. As far as grinding goes, I only have about 1/4 of the transom, the port-side float box, and the edges where the deck will be tabbed in. That being said, when I’m able to find time to grind, it’s raining. If the weather is nice enough for me to get out and do it, I’m working. This has to be what hell feels like. I can see the end of the grinding in sight, I have everything I need to start putting it back together, but I can’t seem to make any headway on the project. Lol. I’m thinking that if the rain keeps up, I’m just going to cut the pieces for the transom and get them glued together so I don’t have to wait as long to slap the transom in. Thinking I may get the stringers cut as well while I’m at it. Maybe cut them a bit bigger than they need to be so at most all I’ll have to do is trim them down when I get ready to get them installed.
On the plus side of everything, I finally got the tooling in that I needed to start rebuilding the gearcase. I also got the fuel tank in today. Happy that got here before I got done with the grinding. I’m chomping at the bit so bad to start getting all the new stuff in that I probably would have made the fuel compartment too small. Lol
I’m hoping to get the stringers/transom installed soon so I can start removing all the gelcoat and fix any damage to the hull before the floor starts going in. Figure this way I’ll have access to the inside of the hull if need be. I also decided to change it up a bit. Instead of using gelcoat, I decided to go with Alexseal. I know it’s a topside paint, but I’ve read many reviews of people who did their whole boat up in Alexseal and had no issues with it after leaving their boat in the water for 1-2 weeks on end. I figure since this girl is going to be a trailer queen, it should be just fine. On top of that, I saw a video from boatworkstoday on YouTube where he did a side-by-side of Alexseal rolled out and rolled and tipped. The results of rolling alone were enough to sway me. It’s also salt, water, oil, and UV resistant, sandable/buffable, and pretty durable. Repairs are easy enough on it as well. I also liked the fact that it has a much longer working time than gelcoat and will be easier for me to roll out the old design with nice results. Only downside is that it’s not exactly the cheapest.
