Spring Project(s) 74 20SF

[SeaPlusPlus]

My boat is green! Finally after sanding, sanding, sanding, and some more sanding, she has color. Very happy with how her sides and bottom turned out.

Some pics:



















Also got some more boat jewelry and electrical supplies. (4) more stainless strap hinges for the two forward hatches since I converted those from butt hinges to strap, and (2) new hinges for the baitwell (the 5 holed ones). A new stainless Shakespeare ratchet antenna mount for my 8' VHF antenna and a Shakespeare flange mount for my XM weather antenna. 100' each of 16 gauge black and red tinned wire, a new 8 switch panel, (3) SPDT on-off-on switches to replace some of the switches on the panel, a 12 fuse panel for devices that don't need switching. Also got a new Standard Horizon Quest-X VHF radio and the RAM3 second station that goes with it. That way I'll have VHF communication ability from on the cobia tower. Also pictured is the pop-up LED bow light I talked about earlier.

Tonight I'm going over to tape off her outsides and wipe down her insides/console/hatches so that they can be sprayed Matterhorn White this weekend. So close to wrapping up this project I can taste it, and good thing too, I'm dying to fish.

[strick]

Love that color! nice job on all the prep work...it's all fun stuff from here on out

strick

[uncleboo]

Man, that thing looks awesome!!!!! I'm getting excited for you. Kinda funny how you spend so much time and money patching holes and making things pretty just to start drilling holes again. At least these holes will be where you want them. Hope you get wet soon.

[IslandRunner]

Man it looks great, makes me want to learn how to do fiberglass work and start on my Seacraft, i was just wondering if you have any pictures of when you redone your transom thanks

[SeaPlusPlus]

Thanks for all the compliments guys. I'm really happy she's finally starting to come together.

IslandRunner - unfortunately no, and I really regret not documenting it too. FWIW though, its 2 layers of 3/4" Bluewater Coosa. I did it from the inside, leaving the outer layer of glass intact. The inside is 5 layers of 1708 biax and I put glassed coosa knees on two stringers going about 1/3 up the transom so it would provide more support on the transom.

The inside of the boat was painted, and all the hatches/console were painted. The hatches turned out awesome, couldn't be happier. The console looks very good as well with the exception of a small hair in the paint right on the dash, but fortunately its right about where my steering wheel goes so I'm 99% sure it will be covered.

Some pics:









The inside of the boat on the other hand is not as good. Apparently I'm blind cause I missed a lot of pin holes along the top of the gunwales that I should have seen in the 545 that glare right in your face in topcoat (to my defense its very dimly lit in there, but no excuses). Rather than just running with it and having it bother me I've talked to my painter and he suggested using a razor blade and some Evercoat filler with the white hardener and going around and filling all the pin holes then sanding down the inside with 3M Scotch Bright sanding pads to take the shine off the top coat and then we can shoot it again and it will have a good mechanical bond between coats.

At this point all the holes have been filled/sanded smooth again and I'm working on getting the shine off the rest of the boat. Sadly too cause it looks good in shiny white minus the little holes. We'll be shooting take two of white top coat this weekend.

[SeaPlusPlus]

Another update. Boat left the paint warehouse last week and went to S-S Marine, t-top fabricators. They did some final measurements and drilled the support holes in the console and drilled and tapped the holes in the plates in the deck. Top goes on tomorrow (Tuesday) so picked the boat up Friday and brought it home to work on her over the weekend. Didn't get a terrible lot done between the heat and the summer showers they we had Sat & Sun, but managed to get some, and get some shots of her outside.

First time she's been home in a long time (notice the new driveway, 230' x 13' wide drive + 60' radius circle + 40' x 30' boat parking went from asphalt to all pavers)


First things first, gotta get the decals on


Couple of glamour shots.






Got the console and the tank hatch screwed in, console has (29) 1-1/2" #12 stainless screws that hold her to the glassed wood pad on the floor. You could probably pick up the boat by it.


Got the forward hatches in and the black trim around the rod holders and anchor locker.


Looking back


One of the holes S-S drilled and tapped, can see the 3/8" aluminum plate in there.


Shot of the stern. Armstrong plate installed. Didn't snap a pic but those hatches are hinged in now, tape was temporary for driving down the highway.


Can't believe how different it looks from the before haha.


That's all I have for now. T-Top installed tomorrow, and you bet I'll have some pics of that. Still got a long list of to-dos to put her back together, the first of which is non-skid, its a death trap right now with any water on the deck.

[uncleboo]

What an awesome job! I know you can't wait to get her wet. Driveway looks great as well.

[DonV]

Couple of glamour shots.

This is on the edge of SeaCraft porn.......way above glamour shots. Us SeaCraft perverts love these kinda pics.

Outstanding!!!!

[SeaPlusPlus]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Boat is back at my house with the t-top on and boy does she look sexy.



As it said on my contract with the builder its a "Custom Cobia Tower", and if you can't spot a cobia from up there you can spot one. It's a little taller than I imagined but I had it installed only to spot from/troll from in good conditions, would never consider running from up there. I'm really happy with how she looks. The back two legs of the crow's nest disconnect and it folds forward for trailering (2" below required height but I ain't going under anything with only 2" clearance).

Boat load more pics:











Ebox












The tower has (6) legs that bolt into the floor, these go into the 3/8" Aluminum plate that was epoxied under the deck. Then there are (4) connection points on the console (two on front two on sides), each one has a backing plate.



The two connections on the sides of the console are open on the inside and are the cable chases.



Now that all the subcontracted out work is done on her, its time for me to put her back together again. Long hot weekend ahead of me. Started last night with the leaning post, freshly reupholstered.

[Old'sCool]

That's really nice!! I really like the wire chase set-up. Is the top fiberglass?