Re: the 1967 Holiday 18 and Multiple Boat Syndrome
i think maybe he meant that me with any sort of tool with sharp edges and electric power is trouble....but yeah, that's a good idea. i was just going to liberally mark on floor boards with sharpie pen as i'll never see it once the Nautolex flooring is down. so i'm gathering that most of you just drilled new holes and dispensed with trying to hit the old pre-existing holes?
Don, the Chrysler is still part of the plan....it’s just leaning against a tree to rest while I do the tranny. I gave up on the underfloor tank plan cuz Moeller no longer makes the sole tank that would fit, even as a special order. You’d have to raise the floor somewhat to even fit a 7" thick tank, and then there’s clearance for the fittings. You could make it work if you raised the floor slightly (think Jas’ “bottom feeder NASA honeycomb” flooring plan with the 2" foam cut out for tank clearance) and positioned something over it (console? Storage locker?) that would allow for fitting clearance. I just went with 18 gal stock size/shape tank under splashwell and will add another in bow, size and precise location TBA. As far as the durabak being hot, based on what I’ve gotten so far with impromptu “feel tests”, it’s probably significantly better than alum painted in similar color and I think better than the Tuffcoat on the Lone Star. If you’re really curious, I can do some side by side testing with pieces painted in each.
FNM and GA, what makes those chisel pics more impressive is that this degree of adhesion was achieved with surface prep consisting of leaving maybe 3/8-1/2" of dirt(I was wrong when I said 1") , slightly damp, on the surface, through which the globs of durabak had to penetrate to even REACH the aluminum. Removing this stuff will make expandofoam look easy, so I hope I don’t ever have to. Decided to reinf the rear cleats too since I may have to set 2 anchors some time to accommodate tide swings. I redid the cleat reinf in ?" ply and just over the size of cleat base as I decided that what I had was gross overkill, would eat up too much space under gunwale, and also I didn’t have any SS machine screws long enough for the 3/4".......it still will have to tear the alum gunwale apart before the cleat parts company with the boat.
Kev, I hope you know I’ve been doing all this hull prep work in your honor, so we can turn the Holiday into a giant ice bucket to keep the beer cold........ I think those LED strings might be too bright for inside my console unless I want it to double as a clandestine garden! But they’ll work great under bow, and in cabin of Starchief.
Just checked the weather and we’re due for rain this weekend. So much for 3 weeks til the monsoons. Used to be you could set your watch by the weather patterns out here. But since last year’s scare with the fire getting real close to our cabin, I LOVE rain............
