July 23, 2009
Well the good news is that I added more photos and essentially finished posting the photos. Check the newly added photos starting with this page. However, after giving it some thought we feel it will be very interesting to see some before and after photos side by side. So a new page was added and has yet to be populated with these photo comparisons.
The bad news is that we got the response from our Ski Safe insurance group after making a claim to have the sterndrive replaced. The repair costs quite a sum of money to have someone else do it for us but the sterndrive itself is the majority of the cost there. Anyway, the Ski Safe policy is like most insurance policies in that they are after protecting their profit margin and do what they can to low ball a claim. It's not their fault -- it's just how insurance goes. The point is, they covered the collision with some drift wood that ended up breaking a gear tooth and destroying the sterndrive internal components. BUT... their payout on the claim was about $125.00. The parts themselves are over $3,000. This means the boat will be dry for a while until we can evaluate our options and possibly get an SEI sterndrive (http://www.sterndrive.cc) as a replacement for the genuine Mercruiser parts which are very very high priced. Still weighing all options here.
No purpose in being upset, it's now time to carry on with some minor repairs getting her ready for next season.
July 5, 2009
Last Thursday (July 2, 2009) we hit the lake and cruised around. The dogs were in heaven and we had a great time. The test run went really well. We do have some bad news to share, but the good news is that all the fiberglass work turned out to be sound. She floats and didn't take in any water from the lake. We did get about 8 hours of solid rain on Thursday evening. We didn't think to bring the boat cover with us, so the boat took in a lot of rain water. We were happy to see that it drained out just fine.
The bad news is that on Friday just before we planned on heading back home we were cruising on the lake again and about an hour after we launched the boat on Friday we suddenly heard a banging noise coming from the stern. I turned towards the nearest shore and beached the boat so that we could inspect the issue. Nothing obvious was found but a consistent banging noise still persisted when the engine was running. A nice couple gave me a ride to our truck so that we could retrieve the boat where we beached it. We basically wanted to avoid doing any further damage. More analysis is needed to find out what the root cause of this issue is but it's most likely located in the outdrive. Today I spent some time trying to find the source of the noise and found metal shavings in the stern drive gear oil. We'll be taking the stern drive apart soon. I hope we can avoid having to pull the engine. This is an unfortunate finding but we feel like it's just another (new) kink we need to work out.
Some of the photos have been uploaded. Right now Google is failing on the photo upload so it looks like we've reached a stopping point for the night... More content will be uploaded over the next couple days. For now check out the Rebuilding Stringers and Floor link.
July 1, 2009
Today we hoped to be out at the lake but decided that if we headed out it would only mean we rushed through the last few steps such as mounting chairs and other interior seating features. Of course we had to pack up some gear to camp overnight at the lake. For those and other benign reasons we decided to head out first thing on July 2.
My point is, we did it! The boat was damn near completely rebuilt from the hull to the sole in approximately 2.5 months. Amazing in itself I think, but considering that we didn't know much about fiberglass work and knew even less of how fiberglass boats were constructed is even more surprising. We can definitely say that the structure of the boat is completely solid. We just hope she can keep the lake water out. We'll soon know for sure.
More to come when we return from the test run.
June 29, 2009
It's hard to believe that we've accomplished so much. To be honest with anyone checking this site, we have been so busy working on the boat that every "free" minute has been spent fiberglassing or other miscellaneous work to get the project done. In summary, if we weren't working at our actual career jobs, we were here at the house working on the boat. Our social life has certainly be impacted but we hope it's about to pick up.
We are still planning on being at the lake on July 1st. That's this Wednesday. Today, June 28, we got the carpeting in. But wait before I give up the spoiler let me say that we have been taking photos of the progress for the last few weeks and haven't spent the time to update the blog. The good news is that we have photos and can share the entire experience with you. The bad news is of course I don't want to give up the end product all at once. So... Every few days or so, I'm going to upload the photos (which takes quite a bit of time) and share it step by step... Once again, we appreciate your patience and look forward to seeing how the photos turned out (right now they are stored on the camera).
Without giving up too much, let us say that we are amazed at the results. It's really hard to believe how much we've accomplished in the last couple months.
June 8, 2009
Wow, I can't believe how far we've come since the last update. Every, and I mean every, spare moment has been spent on the boat lately. We have been taking photos but need to process them (e.g., reduce the resolution and upload) which takes time. Not much time has been available lately so let me just explain in words where we are at, rest assured we'll post those photos as soon as we can find a block of time.
The upper outdrive is assembled.
All stringers and ribs are fiberglassed in the boat.
Floatation foam.
Sole (e.g., decking wood) is cut and has been dry fit.
More to come, and the photos are being captured. We appreciate your patience, please stay tuned the best photos are yet to come...
June 1, 2009
Tonight we got some work done on the outdrive as we installed the new gimbal bearing. This past Sunday we also got some work done on cutting a hole in the transom for the outdrive to go through the hull. This week we mostly plan on doing work on the mechanical parts to prepare them with the new parts and such. We're basically doing what we can while we're waiting for the new fiberglass material to arrive. We expect it to be here on Friday, so this weekend will be filled with resin mixing and wetting out fiberglass again. Things are still coming together and we couldn't be more excited to see the results!!
Use these links and scroll to the bottom to see what we have to show at this time.
May 26, 2009
Tonight we basically did some work on the outdrive removing corroded portions with a wire brush and scrubbed all the parts down with Simple Green. These steps are being done to prepare the corroded surfaces for some touch-up painting.
And finally, we have the first shots of the boat being constructed back together. We have some more photos to take, but for now you can see what we have by clicking on the Framework Repair link Framework Repair.
May 25, 2009
Wow... Today we can really see some progress. First of all the fillet around the transom turned out really well. The transom is very solid now, even more than before. Today wasn't about the transom though, that was yesterday's fun.
Today we got most of the stringers and one major rib attached to the hull. we would have kept going to get all of the framework (ribs/floor and stringers) in but we ran out of fiberglass. It's so great because we can now begin to see the boat coming back together. The new wood looks beautiful as compared to the old rotten stuff. I'm sorry to keep postponing the upload of photos but I need some rest before going back to work tomorrow. Major update tomorrow, I promise.
May 24, 2009
Well the transom is pretty much done now. We just have to put the drain tube through it, and cut the hole for the outdrive and it's good to go. I just got in to sit down for the first time today. I have a huge blister on my left (dominant) hand and bruises at various places of the body. We finally got the fillet mixture down using a little bit of milled power fiber, and wheat flour mixed in with epoxy. It looks really good. Shortly after applying the fillet we kept mixing epoxy and tabbed over the transom. The result is looking amazing tonight. We have it curing outside right now and will be focused on the stringers and ribs tomorrow. Right now the boat is damn near completely hollow -- just a hull.
If I had more energy I would upload today's pics but I'm completely worn out. I think the neighbors are calling us crazy. We've been working non-stop on this boat all weekend thus far. I completely missed the Indy 500 today, sounds like it was a good race too. Oh well, the boat is more important at this point. Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep before having more fun tomorrow. The grinding is over at this point -- now the glassing and other fun stuff goes on. Oh Yeah!!!
Boat restoration in record time... Check back soon for some more photos showing actual progress this time. I look forward to tomorrow morning.
May 19, 2009
We removed the rest of the foam tonight. It is a time consuming task but with two people it goes pretty quick. With all of the foam out, we can see all stringers and ribs as they are exposed. The boat looks very naked right now. We can see the stringers that have solid wood still, and and plan on doing some reinforcement of those with some fiberglass patches. It will look odd with the patchwork on the old stringers but will increase the life of those for sure. Any other stringers or ribs with any signs of rot are being taken out and replaced as needed. I hope we can cut the new pieces out of a single 4'x8' sheet of 3/4 MDO plywood, we've really taken a liking to that stuff. We're also going to replace the board that was glassed-in on the topside of the keel, perhaps by using a 12' 1x6 piece of aspen. The aspen is light and very strong, the cost is about right too.
It has come to our attention that we are definitely going to need some more fiberglass to finish off the decking. For now the focus is on the framework though. I'll be sizing up the cardboard templates this week, and then will have a new sheet of MDO to cut on Saturday. Then a resin mixin' party shall ensue.
May 18, 2009
Finally got around to making an order tonight. We now have most, if not all, of the remaining parts and materials we'll need to finish the project. We still have quite a bit of resin and hardener for epoxy left over so I couldn't justify ordering another batch of that. So with exception of some additional fiberglassing materials, we're fully supplied.
Tonight I'll post some photos and try to catch up on the blog updates. I hope to be better about keeping the blog updated more routinely, rather than the feast/famine mode... Here it goes...
Check out the additional steps shown on the transom which is accessible here.
We also added a new Framework Repair page which now has some photos of the decking cut out here.
May 16, 2009
Wow, this week has been busy. Unfortunately we've been doing things other than boat work. Anyway, today we worked on the engine back at the uncle's shop were we have had it stored. We replaced the oil pan gasket which was ordered a while back. During the time the oil pan was unmounted, we looked over the crankshaft and cylinder walls. It all checked out fine. I'm also going to order some replacement spark plugs because the current plugs are not marine grade -- I noticed some minor rust on the connector terminals. Easy fix. I also completely drained the oil out of the engine and noticed that it had been quite a while since the oil had been drained out. It seems most people find it convenient to pump the oil out through the dip stick guide tube. It would be nice to have a hose permanently connected to the oil pan drain plug to facilitate an easy method to drain the oil. I'm going to make a large order from Overton's tomorrow so this drain tube might make it on that list. Tomorrow will be a full day's worth of boat work, I look forward to it. The decking will be removed so that we can begin working on the stringer and rib replacement.
May 13, 2009
Today was an amazing day. I thought I had to grind out all of six of the 1/4" bolts used to clamp the transom boards together but got some critical advice from our friends at http://forums.iboats.com . It's completely obvious to me now, rather than grinding out the metal bolt shafts we just needed to heat up the bolt metal which would, in turn, heat up the resin cured to the bolt. This made unscrewing the bolts really easy. As of this day we are back on schedule and everything is good in the project again. We will have some photos of this posted in the Transom Replacement page.
May 12, 2009
The 1/4" carriage bolts we were using to clamp the boards to the boat, while the resin was curing, broke off when we were removing them out of the 2nd transom board. Yup everyone of them, six total. The bigger 1/2" bolts came out fine. We are very happy with the results of the adhesion, it was apparently clamped a little too good though. Anyway, I'll need to grind those out of the holes while at the same time being careful not to damage the new transom boards or even worse, the hull. A slight delay on progress, so we'll need to pick up the pace a little to catch up.
May 10, 2009
Lots of progress this weekend. On Saturday, May 9th we put the first transom board in and on Sunday just finished with the second and final transom board. This weekend was also our first experience working with epoxy resin and fiberglass. This stuff is amazing, when it cures it is completely solid. I'm really impressed at how easy it is work with and the results are rather permanent. Completely worn out after putting two transom boards in over the course of just two days.
I'm so tired right now that I'll have to wait to post more pics. Until then take a peek the bottom of the Transom Replacement page to see how the first transom board went in.
http://sites.google.com/site/boatrepairproject/transom-replacement
During the week we'll be whipping up some fillet material to fill the gap between the perimeter of the transom boards and the boat hull. Then next weekend we plan to do some work on the engine. Things are still moving along on schedule, I couldn't be more excited about this project. It's been a lot of work but very rewarding so far.
May 8, 2009
Tonight all of the initial fiberglassing materials and tools were delivered. We had part of the shipment delivered last night but tonight we have all that is needed to get most of the fiberglass work done for the entire project. I know we'll need at least one more shipment but the estimated majority is now on hand.
Tomorrow is the big show. I will have my wife helping out, I hope we don't glue/resin ourselves together. I figure the marriage is a close enough bond -- LOL (ok that was funny). We will definitely go through a couple rehearsals until we get the manuevers down really good without the resin applied. Even though we have most, if not all, of the components out it is still difficult to get the large pieces of plywood in place. After that what could possibly go wrong? (not so funny)
Look forward to some photos tomorrow, I'm so excited. After thinking this through a million times, I'm glad to finally get new resin on the boat.
Wish us luck we'll need it. First timer fiberglasser coming up!
May 6, 2009
Tonight I got started late on the boat work and did some rough sanding of the 2nd transom board. We plan to finish this up on Thursday if possible and get these boards glassed on Saturday and Sunday. We do need to score some acetone to clean the surface before we start applying resin. We'll probably get to that on Thursday or Friday. I do appreciate the helpful tips from http://forums.iboats.com. Those folks have been very helpful thus far. Of course Dan Polk has been very helpful too, thanks Dan! http://transomfix.dcpolk.com/.
May 5, 2009
No boat work tonight. I was lucky enough to be in the 3rd row of the Dave Mathews Band in Albuquerque, NM. Totally awesome show, if you ever get a chance to see DMB you should definitely take it. Anyway, the boat had a rest tonight -- no grinding or destruction tonight. We did get an engine alignment tool delivered though. This thing is quite heavy and came in a cardboard tube. This completes the parts and tools we ordered from http://www.wholesalemarine.com.
May 4, 2009
I finally had a moment to upload new photos and illustrate the work done this weekend. We also got some outdrive parts in a day early today. After a few weeks of shopping around and doing price comparisons, we bought the Mercruiser parts from http://www.wholesalemarine.com. We still have an engine alignment tool expected to arrive via UPS tomorrow. Anyway, check out the work on the transom boards here, and then check out the work being done as time permits on the outdrive here.
May 2, 2009
Today my brother Alex and I built the template for the transom boards AND cut the 3/4" MDO sheets. The transom boards fit very well, and it has come to our attention (to no surprise) that it will be challenging to get the board in the boat while it is coated with resin (wet out) and fiberglass. Alex and I also cut many other parts with the scrap wood left over from the transom boards. We are looking forward to many boat outdrive and engine parts to arrive this week, as well as the fiberglassing and epoxy materials.
I'll post some photos of those boards soon. Sorry for the delay in photos but we were able to catch up with some great friends that we haven't seen in awhile tonight -- it was great.
More to come, check back soon!
April 19, 2009
We are now done with the Damage Assessment phase. Check out the latest photos added to the Damage Assessment page.
April 29, 2009
Haven't updated the blog in 10 days so I thought I better get to it. I added a page with some photos to show the final portion of transom removal here. In the last 10 days I did a lot of research and ordered boat parts, purchased most if not all of the wood needed to replace the transom and all decking throughout the boat. Today I ordered a lot of fiberglass, 2 gallons of epoxy resin (with matching hardener) and a few tools to get us started. I'll add details discussing the items of what was ordered and why we decided to go with each item.
This weekend we plan on cleaning the rest of the fiberglass powdery leftovers from the old transom and cutting the new boards.
Next we will be building a template out of cardboard and cutting the plywood for the transom support. Here is a link to the current phase labeled Transom Replacement.
Stay tuned and check back soon.