Work Begins Soon

[Mark42]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Nice work Bob! Especially on the transom.

Just one suggestion - be sure to put the struts on the windshield frame so they don't flap around out on the water and crack.

Nice to see another MFG saved from the dump!

 

[woosterken]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Bob,
I just got Overton's spring catalog today.
they have Taylor Made windshield support bars
part num. 36235 11".....$15.99 each
36236 12"....$16.99 each
36241 13"....$17.99 each

made of anodized aluminum tibing with nylon fittings
page 95

woosterken

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

New Seats

New Seats

Thanks guys, I still need to measure the distance between the windshield and dash. I actually had the windshield in place today and forgot - AAARG!! I definitely plan on putting them in though.

After work I went up to Baltimore as planned to look at the two helm chairs. They were a little dirty, but there weren't any cracks or other damage to either one. I'm going to see if I can get them sparkling white by just cleaning them, but if not I'll give 'em a couple coats of paint. I was able to get the guy to knock a few bucks off because the cushions aren't usable and one was missing. I took them though so I can get new ones made using them as a template. Has anybody had new cushions made and if so, can you give me a general idea of how much it might cost? As you can see from the pictures the pedestals are too long. I'm going to try to find a metal fabrication shop around here that has a band saw that'll evenly lop 2"-3" off each one. Other than the length, the aluminum just needs a good cleaning to start shining again. I temporarily put the windshield and the chairs where they'll eventually be bolted to give you an idea of the final layout I have in mind. Look at all that fishing room!

Yesterday I got the remainder of the wood out of the corner caps. Besides the backing plate for the bow eye - THE BOAT IS WOOD FREE!! WOO HOO!! I still don't know how I'm going to get the Seacast in there. pduquette - I was thinking the same thing as you by putting the boat on it's side, but I have no idea how to support it and I'm also afraid of damaging the gunwales. I'm going to call those guys at Seacast to see if they have a solution. Any help here is greatly appreciated too. Now for some pictures.

BOB

 

[*EdC*]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Hi Bob,
The corners require a "Form" to be made. It very simple, but difficult to explain.
Say... the transom space is 1-1/4" wide. or another way, the width of the wood you removed.
You will need a pair of wood blocks about 12'' long and about 6'' wide by 1-1/4'' thick. 2 pieces of 5/8" plywood, glued together will work.
Now fit them snugly into the corners. With a pencil, trace the profile of the transom fiberglass onto the blocks. It's sort of a "S" shape. Cut that out with a sabre saw.
Next get a compass. NO, not a navigational compass The kind you had as a kid in school, You know, a pencil on one side and a point on the other. Set it at roughly 3/4'' and scribe the cut you just made. "SS"
This should give you a plug, that when inserted, you almost can,t see. These will be the form for the seacast. When you pour the resin you will need to put a hole in the top of each of these to accommodate a funnel. The corners get poured after you fill up the lower section.

Hope that helps

Regards,
Ed

 

[woosterken]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Bob,
maybe an auto body shop or a muffler shop could chop off your seat post

woosterken

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Materials

Materials

Ed - I follow what you're saying about making the forms and using a funnel to pour the Seacast, but what about the cavity directly below the gunwale cap? If I drilled the hole for the funnel in the cap I could fill the entire cavity, right? Id have to cosmetically repair the area though, but there are plenty of other areas I'm going to have to fix anyway. What do you think?

woosterken - You're a GENIUS!! I'm going to try to find a muffler shop that's open on Sundays and try to get the pedestals cut tomorrow. I'm going to a boat show at 10am, but maybe I can do it before or after. If not, it'll be Monday. Thanks!

Today was cold, rainy and nasty so I went around and got all the materials I'll need for the fiberglass work and the chair clean-up. Too cold to start any of the work though. It's supposed to warm up around mid-week though so hopefully I can get started then. It'll give me some time to read up on techniques beforehand. Here are some (lame) pictures.
BOB

 

[*EdC*]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Hi Bob,
Sure you can drill a hole above the corners. Doing it the other way is just one way to avoid additional patch work. Here's a link that shows the funnel method. But I bet you've already seen it.

http://transomrepair.com/zk/fullrepair.shtml

For what it's worth, I'll be cutting holes too!

Regards,
Ed

 

[Mark42]

Re: Work Begins Soon

The cushions for those seats are available without the seats as a replacement item. I think the seat is actually made by Moeller Marine, but it is sold under a few different name brands.

In fact, iboats is having a sale on the cushions for that seat right now for only $50.39.

http://www.iboats.com/WD015_Complet...4512566--**********.200844709--view_id.426928

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Re: Work Begins Soon

WOW - Thanks Mark, right under my nose too - HAHA! I'm more than glad to support iboats. Without them and this forum my restoration would be a mess!! The cushions should be here by the 25th so I'll start working on the seats tomorrow so they'll be ready.

Ed, I was thinking about the whole seacast/funnel situation and was wondering if you know how thick the seacast mix is? I assume it would have to be thin enough to get through the funnel tube...and I'm going to be filling the rest of the transom before I even get to the funnel so I guess I'll find out then. So I guess I've jumped too far ahead. I'm hoping it's one of those things that works itself out as I'm in the process of doing it.

BOB

 

[*EdC*]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Hi Bob,
Yea, it's pretty thick. I think they mention using a wood dowel to push it down the funnel. Seacast has a forum too. Here is the link.
http://transomrepair.com/forum3/index.php
If you email them, They will send you a booklet and a sample.You may also want to get their spacers. $2.50 each. better than casting your own.
Hope that helps.

Regards, Ed

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Thanks Ed! I emailed them yesterday and got a response today and they're sending the sample out to me too. I gotta say, good customer service really goes a long way! Now, once I pay those thugs at the IRS,, I'll go ahead and order the Seacast. I have all the supplies I need for 3 other projects for the MFG in the meantime so I should be able to stay busy.

On a side note, I was cruising the craigslist boat pages around here and I'm finding it almost impossible to not buy another project. Found a nice 20' center console that was cheap, cheap, cheap!!! Guess I'll have to take a pass though unless someone in the area wants to rent me some shop space. Just kidding...sort of.

BOB

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Seat Clean-up & New Hardware

Seat Clean-up & New Hardware

Today I started working on fixing up the two used helm seats I got a couple of weeks back. I disassembled both of them and gave the plastic seats a good scrubbing. For some reason that makes no sense to me now I decided to paint them separately. I realize now that if I had done 'em both at the same time I'd be done with this project now and could move on. Oh well, can't change my mind now. Anyway, I gave the first seat two coats of primer and four coats of Rustoleum gloss white enamel. Tomorrow when I finish the other seat I will spray them both with some clear coat.

The seat bases were pretty cruddy so I decided to clean them up as well. I started with a 100 grit sandpaper in a power sander to take off the original protective coat and get down to bare metal. I then used progressively finer grits, 220 then 400, and finished with #3 steel wool which left it with a nice brushed aluminum look. I gave both of them two coats of clear to seal the finish.

I also received some new hardware I got off ebay on Friday. There are 3 cleats and 2 chocks made by Perko. I got them to be a temporary stand-in for the original hardware until I decide to pony up the cash to have the originals re-chromed. I'm kind of digging the teardrop shape though, so I might keep them. I took some pictures of where I will eventually install them.

Tomorrow I'm going to finish the second seat and hopefully get all the areas that will need new fiberglass ground and prepped so I'll be ready to lay the glass as soon as the temperature permits. And now......Pictures.

BOB

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Finished Seat & A Touch of Hell Besides!

Finished Seat & A Touch of Hell Besides!

Today I finished cleaning up and painting the second helm seat and I gave both seats a shot of clear coat to finish. According to UPS's tracking website, my cushions should be here tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing how the finished seats will look.

After I finished the seats I got out the grinder to prep three areas that will need new fiberglass. When I was removing the wood from the transom I noticed that where the inner transom skin met with the sides of the boat, the joints were very thin. I want to be sure none of the Seacast escapes through these areas so I'm going to reinforce them prior to pouring. When I started grinding I saw just how thin the joints were.

I also wanted to address the hole that I discovered last year during disassembly of the boat. It was repaired, but not the right way...according to all of the books I've read recently, so this was ground down too. In all of the areas I've ground I'm down to clean, relatively smooth fiberglass. My question is, do I need to rough up these areas so that they will accept new resin or am I o.k. with what I've got? If I need to, should I use coarse sandpaper or something else.

Lastly, I want to say that grinding fiberglass is without a doubt one of the three worst things I've ever done. I had all the proper safety equipment and I wore long sleeves & jeans, but that sh!! got EVERYWHERE!! If there is a hell I bet every one of those damned souls is sentenced to an eternity of grinding fiberglass. YUCK! How 'bout some pictures.

BOB

OOPS! The grinder got a little squirelly and got away. Check out how thin the joint was. I barely ground anything and was still going through.

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Pictures Of the Hole

Pictures Of the Hole

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Re: Work Begins Soon

OK - I got the cushions for the seats in the mail yesterday, but didn't have time to try them out until after work today. When I opened up the boxes and test fit them they fit really well, but had extensions with snaps that must have been for a different model seat. To keep them in place I used some "industrial grade" Velcro with self adhesive backing. The adhesive is super sticky so I hope it will hold up well. I used a razor to cut off the tabs since they don't really serve any purpose in this application.

They came out just like I planned and it was a fun to do too...especially after the transom & fiberglass grinding! I have fiberglass decking like the rest of you guys, but do you think I'll need to build the area up where the posts will be secured? Each post has 6 holes for mounting and I want to be sure it's SOLID. Let me know what you think.

BOB

 

[matt9923]

Re: Work Begins Soon

I would reinforce the seats with plywood. Are you planing on putting carpet in? if so carpet over the plywood and put the seat on top of the carpet. If you don't reinforce you could crack the glass.
You doing a great job i have a mfg project going as well take a look at it, it has good ideas as well as yours has given me.
Matt

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=296606

 

[Landscaping Wiz 808]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Hi matt9923 - I think you're right, but I really don't want to put any wood in the boat. I was thinking about adding a few (4-6) layers of fiberglass to the area to reinforce it. I'm not going to add any carpet so I can just spray the deck down after a day of fishing.

I've actually been following your thread since the beginning, but haven't commented since you have some of the heavyweights from iboats helping you along. Believe me, they know a HE!! of a lot more than me. Can't wait to see your Niagra when it's done.

BOB

 

[matt9923]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Cool, well my boat being done hmm... that's a while away
I am getting my motor by the weekend and am planing on taking it for a maiden voyage with the new motor. I will do things in steps. Idk what order but i know i have to do the transom. I plan i doing some river boating and fishing and maybe ill do the transom mid season when the a holes are out taking over the water. I love the MFG's they still look good and can be made to look like nice boats with some TLC and grinding...
I will probably keep this boat around for a long time and maybe buy a newer boat or jet ski. I love anything that moves fast with a motor. Boats, jet skies, dirt bikes, quads cars ext their all fun.
Matt

your boat looks great. CL and eBay have some good deals.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Work Begins Soon

Landscaper i have the same boat as you only 67' wesfield regal, I've noticed just lately that the deck (fiberglass like yours) is beginning to show a slight depression about 6" wide uniformly dead center from the little bilge sump forward all the way up to between the rear seats. It's almost like a channel between the stringers from the lower outside hull plug, do you notice any give in that area on your deck? Thanks your's is looking better and better.
I glassed in a board from the footwell up to the lower dash at an angle and installed a hatch opening so all my life preservers towels and loose items stay in there contained. I'll get some pics for ya soon.

 

[matt9923]

Re: Work Begins Soon

a70 mine has a cracked deck all the way up the center between the stringers.
I will fix it with 1708 biax.
Matt