Ok, where
was I? I skipped a section on the 1st page, so here it is. After the 2nd
coat of epoxy on the bottom, I attached the keelson and 2 stabilizer rails.
Then a final coat of West System over them to seal it up tight. Then the
paint (VC17, bronze) was applied with a roller. I like the way this paint
goes on, it levels itself well and dries FAST! I'll get to my BIG "oops"
concerning the bottom paint later.
Now we're back up to speed.
After the sides had a few coats of varnish, I rolled her back upright and
started the decks. The front and middle decks were an easy job, the originals,
although pretty weathered, were still in the right shape and made perfect
patterns. They were originally 1/4" plywood, but I had enough 3/8 mahogany
left over from the sides, so they got a little thicker. I had to rabbit
the edges to fit into the top trim grooves ( which were cut for the orig.
1/4" deck ), but other wise a straight "trace and cut" procedure.
Next came the replacement
of the deck trim. The front deck piece had broken off on one corner and
I couldn't find the piece to glue it back on, so it got rounded off and
the other end was shortened to match. The rear deck trim was fine and was
simply replaced. The king plank on the forward deck was in descent shape,
but had a bunch of holes in it where some equipment had been removed. I
was going to make a new one, then decided to leave it for "character".
At this point, I also trimmed the top edge of the transom to fit the top
side trim ( I couldn't get to it effectively when it was upside down ).
The top side mahogany trim wasn't in bad shape, except for one 6" section
that had some dry rot. I cut out the rot and spliced in a new piece of
5/4" mahogany, then sanded it to match the original contour. I tried out
the stain to see how different the new piece would look next to the original,
WAY off. I ended up bleaching the entire top trim a few times, and it evened
out pretty well. You can see the splice if you're looking for it, but it's
not noticeable.
I removed the decks for
staining as they were to be a lighter color ( Petit Light Mahogany Filler
stain ). While the top trim was drying, I stained the decks and worked
on the seats. All but one of the seat sections were in good shape, the
back rest of the rear seat would have to be repaired or replaced. It had
warped and cracked through the middle lengthwise, but wasn't rotted at
all. I decided on fix instead of replace. I cut the cracked section out
of the middle ( only about 1 1/2" wide ) and glued in new mahogany, again
bleaching the whole piece to blend in the new wood. Then all the sections,
along with the front and rear dash boards, were sanded and stained with
the dark mahogany.
In between the staining, drying,
varnishing, drying cycle, I got started on the floor and insides. I decided
to stain the inner sides to match the outter, and paint the floor grey
with a black stripe seperating them along the boot stripe on the outter.
I chose a West Marine primer and floor paint that went on nice and so far
has proven to be durable. I stained the inner sides, then primed the floor,
got out and added a varnish coat to the top side, then the seats, decks
and dashes. When the top side varnish was dry, I'd start over again. It
was quite an operation for a few days. 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of
paint for the floor, 5 coats of varnish ( I think, might be more. I lost
count and kept coating it until it looked nice and even) on the trim, decks,
dashes, inner sides, and seats. When all this had dried , I put the stripe
on the inside ( boot top black) and started putting the interior back together.
There was a dividing wall that went between the front cockpit and the underside
of the bow, I had decided to leave it out for more leg room. Once
everything was back in place, I put the final few coats of varnish on the
exterior.