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Console and tank and
are now primed and the coffin is scraped and cleaned. UPS has made several more
deliveries to support the re-assembly of the console. Today's package contained
all the wire I will need for the whole boat. I purchased several 100' rolls of
marine grade tinned wire and some Blue Seas items. Bobby has offically converted
me and after seeing the quality of Blue Seas products, I will not consider
anything else going forward. While things have not moved as quickly as I had
thought, they will slow down a little more in the next two weeks, but progress
will continue.
Coffin cleaned, more work to be done and glassing the foaming holes.
I finally made some preogress and had a couple nights in a row to work on the console. Friday night I shot the console with Awlgrip oyster white and it came out very nice.
To get started today, I picked up some stuff I had ordered through Kellog Marine Distributors. This is one of several shipments that I will receive over the next several months of this project.
Tonight was test fit night. I want the Awlgrip to cure a little more before I start really working on the console. I dropped the gauges, wheel and other stuff in to see how it looks.
I wanted to leave an area on the console (just right of the throttle) wide open for future electronics. I'm thinking something along the lines of a large plotter with integrated fishfinder. I like the new Raymarine E Series, but they are a little pricy.
I thought that
attacking the coffin cover would be easier than it is going. With this said, my
hat is off to anyone that has done a transom!! As mentioned in previous posts,
the coffin cover had water and this was due to previous seats (or something)
that were never sealed. Luckily, this is the only concern in the whole boat and
I knew this going into the purchase.
I started tonight with the skil saw and made a series of cuts on the bottom deep
enough to cut the glass and core, but not the deck side. The trick for anyone
doing this is to cut the perimeter and then made lots of passes everywhere in
between. I'm very itchy right now and should have been smart enough to wear
surgical rubber gloves.... The image below represents about 2 hours of work and
I will have 2 - 3 more before I'm ready to cut a new core. Speaking of cores, I
was very surprised upon removing the OEM core, I will say that Mako builds a
great boat, but the poor construction of this units accelerated the failure. I
found over 25 separate pieces that were used for the core and while this may not
be a concern on first thought, I will state that there were gaps that allowed
the water to flow around and the core would have lasted much longer if this was
not the case.
I still have lots of wet wood removal to deal with. I'm already thinking of how I want to cut the new core (obviously better than Mako), but glassing something that big will cause voids, so I'm open to input.
