Monday, August 28, 2006

1st coat of Primer

We spent about 16 hours sanding this weekend. We started on the bottom paint with sandblaster grinder pads, respirators, goggles and tyvex suits...Laying on your back roughing off bottom paint in August in NC is not a job I would send a resume in for. But we did it, up to the point where the trailer stopped us. Then we switched to sanding out all of the patched spots...Next came an air down, then we liberally rinsed the beast and re-tested the drainage for the entire boat, including the cuddy.

Acetone wipe down, then thinner solvent wipe down and primer. We actually rolled and tipped the primer, to hopefully save ourselves a little sanding time later.

Here are the pics (b4 and afters):

the spotty bottom paint still looks great! : )





we still have some sanding to do.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Splash Down!

3 months since the last post, but we have been able to get moved in and come back to the boat here of recent. Since the last post (I think), we have adjusted the trailer to move the boat forward, mounted the transducer, completely rewired the dash, installed the trim tabs:

which we both agreed were needed, once we did our first sea trial! no pics from that venture just smiles, the boat ran great! Even better, NO leaks!. After the initial launch we got an idea about our water line and could cut the holes for the scuppers:
We were impressed with the thickness of the transom...

then we ran the PVC:

and finally installed the ball scuppers:

we let that setup overnight and then back to the lake the next morning for the second sea trial. As you can see from the pics, she is sitting a little heavy in the back, we are thinking of moving the batteries from the transom to the cuddy in order to shift a little weight, and we are also keeping in mind that there is no windshield on her yet.....which we are in the market for. Here she is in the water, with me at the helm:

and my favorite pic:

we still have a lot to get done, mainly cosmetic - painting and sanding.