Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

[jb93]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

I looked at the hull pics (posts #8 and 9 page 1). I know it isn't close up, but they didn't look too bad. Could you live with polishing it and waxing it up best that you could, since it is a fishing boat and not a go-fast hull that really would benefit from a high shine paint job. Your work interior is very nice, so I know you probably want it to look just as good on the outside. Just a thought that you could polish it up nice for $100 and call it good.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

The hull itself isn't in too bad of shape. In fact, no matter what I do, I'll probably leave the bottom surface alone with he exception of one ding and some wear along the keel. It's the screw holes on the transom that have been patched that I would like to get covered and if I'm going to do that, then I'll want to get it done before I mount the drains and outboard.

What I have just decided to do is to get enough gelcoat to redo the back of the transom and in the splash well where I had a minor cut through. That at least would be a small enough area to get a feel for working with gelcoat.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Ended up reorganizing the work space around the boat tonight and getting prepared for a productive day of work tomorrow.

I did get a flat board installed between the main stringers. This board helps to spread out stress from the transom the tops of the stringers. Stratos originally had one installed like this; however, they had large cuts out of the stringers which lost meant the loss of some structural integrity. Their board was also wasn't connected to any decking. When I set the backmost piece of deck, it will be PB'd to this board as well as glassed to the transom. It might be overkill and add a couple of extra pounds, but this transom WILL BE SOLID!

The board in place

All glassed in. I still have to glass the bottom, but I'm doing a bunch of other transom work tomorrow as well.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Day 44!

One of those days that started slow but ended with a lot of progress being made.

So, I am being very anal when it comes to putting holes in the transom. Any hole that is put into the transom is going to be drilled over size and filled with PB. The screw will then go into PB only and the wood will be left alone. So with that in mind, I've opted to mount 3/4 plywood in spots where I'll be mounting things. This plate is where I'll mount terminal strips for ground wires and sensor or control wires in the back of the boat.

This plate was put in place specifically for the wash down and aerator pump. With exception of the stern eye, there will be no unnecessary holes in the transom here.

I had to finish out the board that I mounted yesterday between the main stringers and attached it to the transom. I learned that putting epoxy saturated 1708 on the bottom of a board really sucks. It wasn't that bad, just messy

I also put one last layer of 1708 at the base of the transom and out onto the hull.

With all of those preparations out of the way, I was able to get the deck boards all set in place and work with fitting the cap.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

With the deck boards in place, I was able to see how well the cap fit the deck and how well the cap and hull screw strips aligned.

The front of the cap aligned nicely.

The sides have some fitting issues. There is a bit more of a gap than I would like, so I'll be glassing strips on the stringers to raise the height and close the gap a bit. The starboard screw holes aren't lining up terribly well, but I'm going to redo the screw strip there anyway and can make it work while looking good.

There were some issues with fitting where the deck drains are located at the rear of the cap.

With everything pretty ironed out, I was able to cut the live well hole as well as the fuel tank access cover. The white center piece was cut from the original deck and is being reused. To make things fit better, I moved this piece forward 3". This also moves the console forward 3". It won't have that much of an effect on the boat as the new outboard is adding 40 extra pounds on the stern and this will help balance it out a bit.

I also cut holes for the access covers at the rear of the deck. These things are cheap and will likely be replaced at some time, but my budget has been blown out of the water and I have to cut back on some things that I'd like.

Here's the back deck prior to getting the bottom side glassed. Pretty good C side.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Another day and a lot more done on the boat. Yay! I used PB to seal all of the water routes between the stringers as well as touching up other areas that I had missed. If you've done this kind of work before, you know how many little things get overlooked and have to be dealt with.

No, that is not a pile of elephant doodoo on the rear deck. I finally got the livewell glassed in place. It was a piece of cake as I expected. It's not going anywhere.

I also did some extra work in the bilge area. There are a few things to note.
- Originally there were 2 strips of wood glassed between the bottom of the bilge and the stringers. I made them a bit larger and they certainly made the bottom of the hull more solid.
- You can also see the piece of plywood that I glassed into place to mount the fuel filter/water separator.
- The white pipe comes from the front of the boat where it connects to the front bait tank/storage area. It tees into the drain line that is shared with the livewell. Later in the day I glassed the pipe to the floor of the bilge to keep it stable.
- Originally, the hole for the plug was about 2" above the floor of the bilge. Even tilted up, it was hard to get water out of there. I drilled the hole in straight and then at a lower angle to where it came in at floor level of the bilge. When I was doing my PB work, I put the plug fitting in place with plastic wrap on it and worked PB around it and the drain hole so that no wood is exposed. It is effectively 100% water proof now!

I got the last bulkhead glassed in place today as well. I had to use PB to seal around the drains. One is from the front most bulkead area in the bow, another is for the dry storage area right behind that and 2 are for the fuel compartment.

I had some great news today as well. Wince I have a fair amount of deck area to cover, I picked up 2 gallons of thin epoxy from US Composites. When I laid 1708 glass today, it looked just like 1708 that was laid with the higher viscosity epoxy that I got from fiberglassite.com. The thin worked in a little quicker but the end result looked the same. I can say though that I like working with the heavier viscosity epoxy more. Glass likes to stay in place a little easier.

So with the help of the wife, we managed to get almost all of the stringers and bulkheads capped today. With some cleanup tomorrow, I'll be painting the bilge area and touching up the other compartments. I really expect to get the first piece of deck installed Tuesday night and the cap on by the weekend!

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Well, things have slowed down a bit. That always happens when you start to get into detail work. My wife cleaned up all of the brass and bronze parts for the boat over the weekend. They look very good imho.

I had some issues with the wash down pump. The upper housing had gotten cracked and I had to get a replacement. Shurflo recommends mounting them upside down in case and seals start to leak. That prevents water from getting into the motor. To mount it upside down, I'll have to remove the board that I glassed in place and mount another one higher up on the transom. I'm probably going to leave it as is for now.

Here is the mounting board for the pump as well as the water pickup piece that I did get installed. Another goof on my part. The deck drain comes in right at the lower left corner of the board that I glassed into place. Argh.

The starboard side is coming along well. I installed my terminal strips and routed the bilge and fuel lines through the bilge access hole. I thought that I might have goofed since I forgot about the fuel line; however, they both fit snugly with plenty of room for wiring.

I had gotten behind schedule the last couple of days but I was determined to get some foam in place yesterday. We wanted to see how it worked, so we did one of the larger bulkheads with a little less that 1 quarts.We poured some foam and laid a foam board in there, poured some more and another foam board and a top cover of foam. Amazingly strong for 2 pound foam.

 

[Teamster]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Looking good,............

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Day 50! and I am toast. Doing a rebuild with a deadline can burn you out pretty easily.

Well, I got some more foam poured last night. It wasn't terribly pretty, but it is flotation. The aft deck is also prepped to go in, so I've taken the afternoon off and the plan is to get the aft deck glued down with PB and tabbed into place. I'm using a slow thick epoxy for making the PB and it's supposed to be cool here tonight so I'm getting some moving blankets and will run a heater in the boat tonight. That should keep the temps up enough for the epoxy to set. Tomorrow, the plan is to do the next section of decking and possibly even the front deck. By Sunday evening, the entire deck might be back in place.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

It was a cool afternoon so I decided to take it off and work on the boat. I had to do some work on the undersides of the deck pieces and pour some foam but that went quickly.

A look of the rear of the boat.

The back of the bilge. The bilge pump and 2 float switches are now mounted.

A view of the bilge from the other side. You can see the fuel filter and water separator is now mounted.

The bilge outlet.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Here I am using a ziplock bag for laying out a heavy hairy PB mix. I picked up thick epoxy with slow hardener from US Composites. I wanted something slow and thick to stay in place and not go off on me in the middle of the job. I mixed in a lot of cut glass and it really flowed nicely. I was able to put a pinky sized bead of PB on all surfaces before putting down the rear most deck.

Wherever the PB oozed out, I used a finger and made a fillet out of it. On places where the deck will be glassed to stringer, I spread the PB out flat. It worked very very well.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Once the rear deck was in, I needed to put some weight on it. The front flowerbed rock wall needs rearranged anyway.

I filled the outer edge with PB and glassed a strip along the newly laid decks. I'll put more glass over it tomorrow.

There is one problem with using slow epoxy. It needs heat to cure at it's normal speed. With temps under 70, it can take 2 to 3 days to cure. On the way home, I stopped by the local rental place and picked up 6 moving pads. I draped them over the rain tarp and sealed the front and rear.

As you can see, it is blocked off inside quite nicely.

I now have a heater in there running and it is a balmy 85 degrees and will stay that way even though we are expected to have a cool night. Tomorrow, all of the epoxy should be nicely cured and ready for the next step.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

I went out this morning and the temperature was in the upper 40's. It was warm inside of the insulated cover over the deck. I checked some areas and the thick epoxy was hard as could be expected. Later this morning, I'll pull out the rocks and weights and probably drop the cap to see how well that it fits.

Once you get over a hurdle like this on a job, you have to step back and analyze what to do next. The next tasks will be.

Prep the screw strip.
Finish prepping the transom for a gelcoat respray.
Respray the transom.
work on the fuel tank and possibly mount it.
Finish prepping the center deck section that hold the center console.
A few other odds and ends.

It's coming together quite well now.

I still have to rework all of the hatches and covers as they were also water logged but that is work that can be put off until later. Getting the hull and cap together with the center console installed is the first major goal.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Nice progress, baker...you are really cranking through this build...
I really like how the plumbing is coming together...
I used a similar technique to glue down my deck a couple of weeks ago, 'cept I used thick poly PB and mostly my gloved fingers to make a bead of the stuff on top of the stringers...laid the deck sections down and added weight...
I gotta say, once cured that deck is glued down solid...I am very pleased with the way it came out and I didn't have to make too many additional holes to fasten it...
I don't have to worry too much about cool temps, but I like the moving blankets as an insulator, idea...
Have a good one...

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Well, there are the first 2 rows of decking. Glued down hard as a rock.

A task for the day was the screw rails. Here, they are all cleaned out.

I got around 9 feet put in on both sides. I ended up planing down some of the exterior plywood. It went in tight and was epoxied very well. The old screw rail wood was all dry rotted and crumbled in my fingers.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Another task for the day was the fuel tank. I had to drain about 7 gallons out of it but I can use that in my smaller boat.


Here it is before I started.

It had some corrosion on it as it had sat in water for a while. Nothing was eroded through the aluminum so I'll probably be ok for a while.

I used a bare metal primer that went on pretty good. It was white and a few runs developed, but it will be hidden so I'm not too worried about it.

After the first coat of paint.

I flipped it over and painted the top as well.

When flipping it, I marred the bottom just a bit, so we hung it between the scaffolding and I touched it all up. It didn't seem like I got much done today, but these were tasks that I knew would eat up some time. Tomorrow is already a full load with the goal of capping it next week sometime.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Uhmmm, did you use SE or Zinc Chromate primer on the tank prior to the Bare metal primer? Did you Acid wash the tank prior to the primer? All of this is highly advisable prior to painting aluminum.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Point taken. Unfortunately I just hit it with the primer and then the top coat and from what I saw, it can't be any worse than what was in there originally. There's the 100% right way and the good enough to get by way. If it lasts 20 years, then it will likely outlast me. If it lasts 10, then I'll replace it with plastic.

There was also evidence that the tank had sat in a few inches of water through the years. Under my ownership, it will likely never even see much in the way of moisture much less standing water.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

Arg. Yesterday was one of those slow days. The ones where you go at it for several hours but feel like you didn't accomplish anything.

I did get the deck completely tabbed to the hull and main stringers. It was solid before, but this made it even more solid. I also got the aluminum plates installed on the center piece that is the hatch for the fuel tank cover and mount for the center console.

As I look at it though, I and over half way done with installing the deck. Today will be more foam and hopefully tomorrow will be that last big piece of decking. Perhaps by Thursday, the cap will be going into place.

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Stratos 1850 possible rebuild?

This is how I feel.

I'm slowly getting things done, but the weather is cooling and will be rainy for a few days. I did manage to get the last large piece of deck on last night and with the help of blankets and heater, it should be well cured today.

But I am starting to slog along. Maybe I'll get lucky and have the cap installed by the end of the weekend. One can only hope.