Re: The Legend of Chug A Boom, or how a man and his tri-hull conquered the garage???
So here we are with my little side project. I'll start this post with a few pic's since it doesn't count otherwise. First up I've got about 7/8 of the interior sanded save for the very back and detail work upfront.
An hour or two more and she will be as ready as I'm gonna get her. I should have finished that off tonight but it was cold and I was tired so I broke out my redneck body kit and took care of some of the more egregious problems.
Thanks to GT for the idea of sawing up rubber mallets. I went to make this one a perfect fit for the "v"'s in the floor but...
Discovered it's real hard to see pencil lines on black rubber! No worries though as it still works just fine. I pounded these two spots back to something like flat in order to get a good surface for the patch.
The only other worrisome spot is here right under the drain tube.
That crack runs under the very misshapen drain tube. My plan is to cut out the drain tube, patch the crack from the inside, and then close off the drain hole both inside and out with another patch.
Speaking of patches I've got a few questions for y'all,
1. I intend to use aluminum from the cab fairing of an old 18 wheeler to make my patches. I intend to cut and fit them then cover them in 5200 and rivet 'em in placing a rivet every 1/2" or so staggered along each edge. Is this good? Should I add/substitute JB Weld in this equation? How much will the rivets suck up/down the metal?
2. I am going to seal the transom wood by painting it with rustoleum thinned with mineral spirits on the first coat. I can't remember what WoG said the correct ratio was for this..50/50 ???
3. As I understand it this method of transom protection is good for about a decade or so. Given this, is it REALLY worth it to get stainless steel hardware?
4. Self etching primer, using the rule of thumb that a spray can covers 10 square feet this boat would take 8 cans a coat??? That doesn't seem right, I haven't yet looked for quart prices as I don't know how much to get.
5. I've seen people wet sand with both fine sandpaper and scotch bright pads (this latter just on self etching primer) is there a preferred method among these two?
6. I believe I've seen both mineral spirits (or acetone I can't remember which) and the water/vinegar mix used to clean the hull before paint. I'm leaning towards the water/vinegar myself but again is there a preferred method and if so why?
7. I've been thinking that given the cure times for rusto it would be best to do the color coats on the boat interior first so the boat could then be flipped for painting the outside with much less worry about the paint. Any problems with this idea?
Well that's where we stand this weekend till next time, Goodnight from these two,