25 Seafari

[bilgerat]

Made a little more progress this weekend. saturday I almost finished up with the reconstruction of the bulk head walls and the gas tank compartment floor, ive got 1 more layer of glass and resin to put on the tank compartment floor and ill be ready for new tanks, well new tanks as soon as we get them built that is,
I then cleaned and prepped the bilge for paint and built and pre fit a shelf for the battries to mount on. Today I wacthed most of the Nascar race then decided to start wet sanding the sides of the hull to see how thwy would come out, I wet sanded with 800 then 1000 grit and then buffed with 3M heavy duty and I was amazed how well it came out. I got 3/4 of the port side done before My arms wore out. It looks great!!, I cant wait to get her all buffed out and shiney!!
Heres a few pics...

[bilgerat]

Well I finished up the bilge in the past two weeks, I cleaned and prepped it and applied a good coat of grey gelcoat , I installed a 4000gph main bilge pump and a 1500gph back-up on float switches, I then finished and installed the shelf to mount the batteries on and got them installed and hooked up.
I havent had time to build My new gas tanks so I got to thinking, I had this plastic 17gal tank in My collection of junk boat stuff and it fit in the space in front of the batteries perfectly! I installed new fill and vent hoses leaving enough length to reach My new tanks when I get them built. I hope My 150s will both run off of one tank and 3/8 fuel line
Im getting close to a Seatrial!!
Hes a pic I snapped.

[bilgerat]

finally got My fuel tanks finished up and installed!
My buddy who is a awesome frabricator and welder copied the old tanks exactly and the fit great! , I put down some rubber strips and used some old rub rail insert i had under the tanks to keep them off the floor and mades some starboard braces to secure them in place. I also replaced the fuel fill, vent and fuel lines and installed 2 water seperator bracket and filters on the inner transom wall. now I just have to raise some gas money to fill them up!!

[Bigshrimpin]

Those tanks look great!!!

[gofastsandman]

Each motah needs a dedicated 3/8 pickup. Neoprene or rubber under the tanks?

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by bilgerat

. . . I put down some rubber strips and used some old rub rail insert i had under the tanks to keep them off the floor . . .

I hate to mention this now that you've already put the tanks in, but some rubber has carbon in it, and carbon is at the very bottom of the list on the galvanic scale, even lower than zinc (platinum, gold and nickle are near the top). Depending what's in that rubber, you may have set up a galvanic couple between the rubber and the tank that will cause galvanic corrosion! My yacht builder neighbor built some experimental boats for the U. S. Navy out of carbon fiber, and he said they had terrible problems with galvanic corrosion and electrolysis! Putting strips of something under the tank to keep water away from it is a great idea, but I think strips of starboard glued to the bottom of the tank with 5200 would be safer than rubber. For more info on corrosion, check out yacht surveryor Dave Pasco's article at http://www.yachtsurvey.com/corrosion.htm. He also has a good article on how to install fuel tanks at http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm
Denny

[ct9amr]

I agree with the starboard solution. The Shamrock guys have been doing that and I did the same when I replaced my tanks in my 92 shamrock as the foam held the water in and cause corrosion.

Great build!

[bilgerat]

the rubberI I used came out of a chapperall cruiser that we scrapped, when we pulled the fuel tank out of it it had these 2" wide x 1/4" thick long strips of rubber under the tank, It was 25+ years old and the tank was in suprisingly good shape so i used it under My tank, I also put down some old rub rail plastic insert that I had laying around, I put strips of it on the front and back bulkhead walls and a few strips under the tanks

[Normagain]

It is probably neoprene then. Neoprene good, rubber bad according to everything I've read. There were strips of neoprene stuck to the bottom of my 1974 20' SF tank when I took it out last year also, original tank built in 1973 stamped on it. The place that built my tank gave me 1/4" x 2" neoprene to put under the tank and also welded doubled up aluminum strips to keep it even further off the bottom of the tank coffin.

[Bushwacker]

Sounds like you're good to go on the old rubber, probably neoprene, that came out of the other boat. Might consider doing a test with a piece the rub rail insert, where you lay it on top of some aluminum in water and let it set for a couple months to see if it causes any corrosion.