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.