My 1971 20' Seacraft project

apneadreams · #1 03-23-2010, 11:40 AM

I picked up this boat back in October of 2009 for $500 that included the boat, trailer and 2 large rolls of fiberglass mat. Jason (the guy i bought the boat from) had already started the restoration by tearing out the floor and replacing the wood in the transom. Since I didn't have any exp. working with fiberglass and restoring boats he recommended this site for insight concerning the restore...

apneadreams · #2 03-23-2010, 11:51 AM

So there was much work, and many decisions ahead of me in this rebuild and no clue how much $$$$ would be needed to restore thsi boat properly...FYI...I'm broke and poor before starting this project...so I decided to use poly resin instead of epoxy for cost...and through trial and error have come to thr realization that you should apply this liberally when applying fiberglass. I learned the hard way not to be so stingy in the application...I had some hollow / soft spots in the floor glass that I had to cut out and redo...

apneadreams · #3 03-23-2010, 12:04 PM

This boat had about 5 layers of bottom paint layered and waiting for my attention....since I am keeping this boat trailered and i want the bottom to look pretty, it was time to get dirty and remove those layers of bottom paint...through much trial and error, I found the best way to remove the bottom paint economically was to use some aggressive brush on gel stripper and using a sharp scraper, scrape scrape scrape....unfortunately for me I was a little too aggressive and caused many gouges to the bottom of the boat...sometimes less is more since the gouges cost me alot more time and labor getting her right.

apneadreams · #4 03-23-2010, 12:14 PM

I used the original consol and increased the height of the profile...I did keep the original width since I have a 28gallon poly gas tank that will be used as a kicker in case i want to take it longer distance that will fit perfectly under the consol....

apneadreams · #5 03-23-2010, 12:21 PM

This past week the conditions were right for paint application...I went with Interlux perfection snow white...This gives me a good base in case i want to go 2 tone (blue sides and white everywhere else) later...it's all about available $$$$...now i'm really broke...after trying unsuccesfully to spray primer...i decided to roll and tip the paint without the tipping aspect...straight roll only...

Basspond · #6 03-23-2010, 12:27 PM

Nice project! What size gas tank are you going with?

I might invest in some boat stands, that block job looks kind of scary...