Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Ok. I pulled myself out of the mud. At least a bit.

The paint on the fuel tank had cured enough so I attached some supporting hoses to the bottom of it. This is the same thing that Stratos had done. There are tabs on the top of the tank that will get bolted to the stringers for additional support.

The tank in place.

Well, tonight I managed to get the last of the foam poured and trimmed out. Quite the messy job but I didn't want to have any holes in my new deck. The last 2 pieces were put up in the front of the hull. So now I can say with confidence that THE DECK IS NOW ALL IN PLACE! It still needs to be tabbed here and there, but it is in place!

View to the back

Today makes 56 days straight (8 weeks) from deck cut out to having a deck almost completely back in place. And today I realized that my last order from USComposites was for thin epoxy with SLOW hardener. $%#%^!!!

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Well, we had a cold front mover through yesterday which meant day of light rain. Fortunately, the tarps are working their magic, so I was able to work all day long.

The fuel tank mounting is completed. I mounted it the same way that Stratos did originally. It has tubing underneath for some support and then is attached to wood blocks that are mounted to the stringers

Keeping in mind the concept of keeping dissimilar metals apart, there are rubber washers inside of the mounting holes as well as a rubber washer separating the aluminum mounting tabs from the galvanized mounting lag bolts. The lag bolts do not penetrate into the the stringers. The wood is standard pine and not pressure treated.

Also during the rain, I was able to attach the livewell lid retention strips. You can see where I beefed up the backing with fiberglass to make it more durable.

The deck is totally tabbed in place now and ready for the cap and center console piece.

After the rain stopped, I was able to get the center console piece epoxied in place. As usual, there are some minor variances in the old fiberglass of the center console piece and deck transitions, but with some sanding it fit very well. I used a lot of weight focused on the outer edges to get it seated tight and to push out enough PB to create fillets. It is a slow epoxy, but as of this morning, it was cured enough to remove the weights. After some work on the screw strip, I'll drop the cap and see where everything lies. Hopefully all will be well and I can get the cap affixed either late today or tomorrow evening!

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Ok. Gelcoat question time. I picked up a gallon of white gelcoat to do the transom. It is not a terribly large area and I plan on spraying it. Will I be able to do a coat, wait 10 minutes and do the next coat, etc... until I get it built up enough to add the finishing wax for the final coat? Or will I be able to spray coat after coat until the finish coat? I've not worked with this material as of yet so I don't know how it will behave.

Advice? Cautions? Pointers? Prayers?

 

[Teamster]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Everything is looking great,...........

I don't know anything about gel-coat,...

Hopefully, Someone who does will be along soon,................

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Here is the status yesterday. I lowered the cap back onto the hull to see how everything would line up. There were some gaps here and there, but nothing that couldn't be filled with PB. A little sanding here and there on the bottom of the cap helped get everything even closer.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

As the camel on the Geico commercial would say...

"Guess what day it is? Guess what day it is?"

IT'S CAP DAY!!!

Yep. More rocks on the aft port corner. I have to work with what I've got on hand.

The inside of the transom and the back side of the cap got coated with hairy PB and clamped together. I could hear it gooshing out and made a fillet along the seam. When cured, it will be rock solid.

I needed to force base of the inside of the cap outwards a bit. That causes the lower lip to press against the deck. Not pretty, but again it works.

Just another view.

I can now put the boat back on the trailer and tear everything down. But, I'll leave the scaffolding in place so that I can lift the old outboard into my truck to take in to the dealer when I get the new power plant installed. WooHoo! I'll have the new e-tec on very soon!

 

[lokonn]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Got to be a great feeling to get the cap on! Congrats!

 

[Tnstratofam]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

What a great job you've done. Yours is coming back together as I'm getting ready to tear mine down. I'll be starting a new thread soon on my resto, and I will be following your footsteps for my stringers and deck. Again she's really looking great.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Sounds like great progress!

BTW: is it me or is that the same pix several times.... My laptop lags sometimes when I cut & paste the photobucket IMG

 too fast sometimes, so I get the same pix posted rather then different too..

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Yes. I realized that I didn't update the image names as I posted them. My excuse was that it was 9:30PM and I was dead tired.

It took 60 days from cut off to cap day. And that was working on it every day and I ate up a lot of PTO to do it.

 

[Teamster]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

I will be worth it in the long run,..............

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Yes. I realized that I didn't update the image names as I posted them.

Wasn't sure you knew @pix is all.

This may very well be how they were able to quarry, haul & install all those rocks for the great pyramids:

Whatever works!

Looks great! I expect it to be a huge relief 60days in to no longer be topless...

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Last night was spent affixing the cap to the screw rail. The starboard side was a little higher than was desired. One of those things that happens when it is late at night, you're tired and in a rush. It all worked out well enough though. It's not perfect, but secure enough and doesn't look too bad.

Rain is in the forecast for today and tomorrow, so I'll have to wait to finish securing the screw rail on the port side. But there is plumbing and wiring to be done and that will get the focus tonight.

I am looking to load the boat back on the trailer Friday night or Saturday morning which means that the cradle will be coming down.

The scaffolding will remain for as long as it takes to get the outboard lifted up into the bed of my truck. Once that is over, then it all comes down!

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Not much to add for the last couple of days. I've been focusing on getting the plumbing and the wiring finished. I'll have to wait for the last few touches of the plumbing until I get the transom finished out and gelcoated.

I've been working on the "brain" of the boat though. Here it is sitting on the bench. It has:
16 24V DC inputs on the base PLC - These will be used for sensors around the boat. Bilge floats and such.
10 relay outputs on the base PLC - These will control lights, pumps, etc...
8 relay outputs on the first expansion I/O module - These will also control lights, pumps, etc...
2 analog inputs on the base PLC - One will monitor the fuel tank sensor.
4 analog inputs on the first expansion I/O module - These 4 will be used to monitor battery voltages.
2 analog outputs on the second expansion I/O module - One will be used for sending 10 milliamps to the fuel level sensor.the other will be to set a 10V reference voltage to be used with the potentiometers on the kicker motor actuators.
And an RS232 module on the left side of the PLC. This will read the NMEA 0183 navigation data from the depth finder/chart plotter.
Here it is to ooh and ahh over.

A larger version here.
http://bakerjw.org/WebPics/BoatPLC.jpg

It will connect via Ethernet to the touch panel that I have yet to procure.

NMEA2000 runs over CANBus so I'm also looking into interfacing with NMEA2000 devices such as my new outboard.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Still plugging along. Last night was miserable. I had to grind down all of the cap pieces so that they transitioned down to the deck better. It was a lot of grinding and made for one more heck of a mess. Tonight I'll be glassing the cap and deck together with some PB here and there to try to get as even of a transition as will be possible. It's not going to look as good as I'd have hoped, but there's not much that I can do about it now.


And to top it off, my windshield cracked. We had taken it off of the center console to clean everything up and it had been put somewhere it shouldn't have. It's my fault for not ensuring that it was put away in a safer location.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Well, with the help of my wife, we were able to get over half of the deck glassed in place. With the aid of some well placed PB, the transitions turned out mu better than I had anticipated. it doesn't look perfect, but I am 3 pieces of 1708 from being done with fiberglass work!

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Well, tonight did the trick! I still have to rework some hatches, but the boat is now back together. The cap is glassed to the deck! There is happiness in Bakerland!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Congrats

 

[Tnstratofam]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

:rockon:Well done indeed.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Very nice!:thumb: