Cold Weather, Slow Progress! - Project ~25% Complete

I was really hoping to have finished at least half the hull wet sanding by now especially those areas preventing me from installing the new hull decals. The weekend weather just hasn't been very cooperative and it seems like when we have had a nice day I was traveling.

My strategy to schedule teak repairs / refinishing and rewiring my dash was a great choice. I have been through about 90% of the teak trim now repairing split end with a 2-part epoxy and refinishing it with Teka cleaner & teal oil. Some pieces were rutted and looked as through they may have been pressure washed at some point. A bit of light sanding really made a big difference. I still have one long piece of teak trim that must be replaced. I have not decided if I am going to replace it this spring. More than likely I will hold off on this until next winter when I plan to replace the 3 teak bow storage locker covers.

I am close to completing my dash rebuild project. After a great deal of research I decided to go with Cole Hersee 54xxx series switches and Blue Sea 5021 waterproof fuse holders. I found a great deal on these parts on a hard to find website called www.lowcostboatingstore.com (Bryan Outboard in Bryan TX). The selection on their site was great even though it has a very dated look/feel. It was, by far, the best combination of price & selection and the delivery was prompt.

The dash wiring will be replaced in stock colors. West Marine had about half of my 16 & 10 gauge wire available on their website. They actually sell hook-up wire by the foot on and will deliver it for free to your local store! piratewiresupply.com filled out the remainder of my 16 gauge order. I will be using soldered non-insulated connectors with marine grade shrink tubing that I found on eBay from Casey Electrical Supply.

I also spent a great deal of time looking for a teak laminate for the dash panel itself. Woodcraft sells teak veneer packs and 3M has a marine vinyl alternative. Be careful with the vinyl to make sure the grain is running in the right direction! ($30 lesson learned). In the end I decided to brush on two coats of satin oil based poly and defer replacement until next year. While it did not cover the edge of the panel where the wood grain had flaked away it really looks great. I also need to continue my search for round switch labels.

The replacement fuel tank has been purchased from Florida Marine Tanks in Henderson, NC. and is currently in their production line (4-6 weeks). FMT manufactures these tanks for Grady White and has prints on file. Don't bother submitting a quote request on their website. I never did get a reply and finally called them after about a week of waiting for a response.

Replacement deck plate (Beckson pry-out) and scupper (TH wht) orders were placed on BoatersPlus.com.

This weekend I will start my outboard search at the Richmond Boatshow!!

Old Decals are Gone! - Project ~23% Complete

Sunday, January 6th - The weather was absolutely perfect for working on the boat! Better than that, Stephanie came down this morning asking if I had already gone to get the boat from the storage yard. I knew that this was her way of saying that she wanted to help and I was really excited about her chipping in.

I store the boat about 5 minutes from my office. On a nice day I will take a sandwich over to the boat peel off a foot or so of the old decals. Before this weekend I removed maybe half of the port side.

Overland points

Stephanie did an awesome job removing nearly all of the remaining decals. It was a lot of fun having someone to share the day with. Along the way I sent Jim a picture of her working on the boat with a comment that said "Overland points". An hour or so later he drove up to drop off the tools that Joey borrowed for his corn-hole enterprise wanting to know if "I needed any help". ;0) He and I finished removed the decals that Steph did not get to. With my new decal kit in-hand I was really excited about having this task behind me.

1000, 1500, then 2000 grit followed by fine compound using
my new Klutch buffer (nice tool)

While Stephanie worked on her task I was free to focus on the job that I have been really looking forward to, wet sanding and buffing the hull! I worked on the port stern section of the boat today. I count this as a about 15% of the total not including the bottom. I did a test back in the fall skipping the 1000 grit but that section just did not look as good. It is hard to see before and after in the picture above. If you look at the left side you can see where the blue bottom paint starts. There are several other pictures in my Hull Repair album. The difference is just amazing!





I was thrilled at how easy the bottom paint came off while wet sanding and how clean and smooth the gel-coat was underneath. While refinishing the stern I used an organic orange stripper which was a messy extra step that I can now skip. Before today I had been thinking that I would repaint the bottom but after this weekend I am going to wet sand if off "over time". I have already done the stern and I think that I will do the waterline and maybe the first 3-5 feet in the bow before the initial launch.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

Football season and the holidays are behind me and I am really looking forward to having time on the weekends to continue with the hull refinishing. I used my Lowes Christmas gift card (thanks Dick and Jan!!) on a bag of tools to keep on the boat and bought new hull stripes with the Birthday / Christmas cash from my Dad. Dad has a Grady exactly like mine so this decal replacement task will be a bit of a test case for a project that he is considering.

I purchased the hull stripes on eBay from a guy named David Croteau (eBay id=davidl5030). David has an arrangement to purchase OEM decal materials from the same supplier used by Grady White. David told me that he can also supply registration numbers and other decal sets using the same material that he will use to make my hull stripes.

Fuel Tank Drawings

A couple of weeks ago I pulled the perforated, oil-covered fuel tank from the my bilge. Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in generating another one of my craigslist success stories that I completely forgot to take  measurements for a replacement! I pinged the Grady-White customer service link on their web-site looking for tank drawings and received the response below on the same day. No big surprise from a company that builds great products.

---

Hello Glenn,

Attached is a drawing of the 40 gallon aluminum fuel tank featured in the 1985 model 190.

If a tank fabricator is needed an option for you could be our current supplier Florida Marine Tanks. Should you like to contact them they can be reached by phone at 305-620-9030.
I hope this information will be helpful.

Best regards,
Eddie Rowe
Customer Relations
Grady-White Boats

Removing the Fuel Tank - Project ~ 15% Complete

Great day today.... the tank is out! After siphoning out another 10 gallons of fuel, I cobbled together a lift using two six foot pieces of rope and a couple of Joe's corn-hole 2x4s (thanks Joe). With one rope tied to the fill nipple and the other to the fitting at the opposite end of the tank I was able to lift it straight up through the narrow opening in the deck.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning oil off the tank and scraping sludge from the bilge. What a mess!! The 10 gals of fuel and tank are on Craigslist and I already have 3 takers.

I also fixed the rub rail on the starboard side ahead of the helm and took some metal polish to the hand rail. I may need to take this off the boat to get at the rust stains that encircle each of the rub rail bases. My last big addition was the new bow roller. Nice touch.

Appalachian football games will consume the next couple of weekends. My next tasks will be to finish cleaning the scuz from the bilge and start wet sanding / buffing the hull. The trailer wiring harness also needs to be replaced as I am getting tired of debugging wiring issues ever time I move the boat!

UPDATE: 09/04: The tank and the gas cans are both gone! Thank you Craigslist.

Retrospective - Project ~12% Complete

The first challenge that I have is that it is football season. I don't expect to make a great deal of progress until after Thanksgiving. Below is a quick summary of my prior activities. I will fill some details later on. Browsing through my albums will give you a pretty good feeling for where I am.

• 08/16: Found the boat in the Charlotte Craigslist and settled on a price with Tony that same day.
• 08/18: Patti and I left the house at ~5am and drove to Charlotte. We met Tony at the storage lot and paid for the boat. It was a bit rough but pretty much what I expected.
• 08/18: We stayed with Jim and Jean. Jim and I adjusted the boat on the trailer, did a bit of hull buffing, and pulled off the registration decals.
• 08/18: Abby was the first passenger on the Grady. We took her out to dinner to celebrate.
• 08/19: Fixed a minor trailer light issue and brought the bought back to Richmond in a driving rain storm. We got pulled over on the way home.
• 08/20: Put the boat into storage. Created an add for the motor on Craigslist and sold it to Doug in about 10 minutes! I had about 9 responses in 30 minutes.
• 08/24: Doug came to get the motor. He pulled it off with his portable lift.
• 08/25: Took the boat to the house and started pulling the fuel tank. I also did some buffing and washed down the boat. I drained about 15gals of fuel from the tank but there may be another 10 gals in there.
• 08/26: Listed the fuel on Craigslist under free stuff. It took a few days to get rid of it.
• 08/27: Listed my biscuit joiner on Craigslist. I am going to use the $$ for a straight handle buffer.
• 08/29: The guy came to pick up my joiner and the other guy came to get the gas.
• 08/30: Patti added some of the 2-cycle gas in the mower...it died.
• 08/31: Drained the tank of the mower and cleaned the carb. There was a good cup of water in the fuel that I drained from the mower. Emailed the guy who took my fuel and gave him a heads-up.
• 09/01: First JMU / App football games. No work today. I will be sitting in Bridgeforth.