Wow, that's a lot of progress and some good clean work 

Yeah working in the heat in FL is tough - I almost passed out many times from the heat over the years during the rebuild.  This worked for me and I went through a bunch of them - A BIG tarp overhead about 5 ft above you, that allows you to extend the sides out about 10-15 ft. and propped up with tent poles. This allows the air to cool that wafts through before it reaches you.  A big floor fan is also a must.

Its brutal. I am hoping to get most of the structural work done before it starts getting too hot (I can work under shop lights in the evening now with the new carport so that should buy me till early summer).

Haha I wish. I saw some posted somewhere and thought it was pretty cool coming from the factory

Does anyone have pics of the factory recessed side dive platforms? Thank you.

I’ve been piddling around on this project until the weather and my schedule line up to finish the deck rebuild. I replaced the seals on the hydraulic steering, which stopped the leak at the stern. The manufacturer specifies some pricey hydraulic fluid (which they market @ $27 a quart at West Marine) for their unit, but I will continue to use ATF until I’m satisfied that all problems with the steering have been resolved. I run the engines every few weeks and consider it a victory when I can start them without using starting fluid. I’ve treated the engines with Seafoam a few times, and they do seem to be running more smoothly now, but they really need to be run in the water.

The previous owner said the trim tabs had never worked while he owned the boat, so I removed the tabs' hydraulic power unit, figuring that a failing seal had allowed the hydraulic fluid to leak out.   The unit has a “quick connector” and is easily removed, and that is part of the problem with this system.


The hydraulic power unit is easily accessed at the stern.


Corroded connector and wiring for the trim tabs' hydraulic power unit. I suspect that quick connectors in the bilge never last long.

The pins were badly corroded, and all the wires on one part of the connector fell out when I tugged on it. The fluid reservoir was full with no sign of leakage, and I was hoping that just replacing the connector would fix the problem, but when I bench-tested the unit as per the manufacturer’s instructions, I found that although the solenoid valves functioned normally, the pump would operate in one direction but not the other. The Bennett technical support guy gave me some bad news – “one of the windings on your motor has failed”. There doesn’t seem to be an easy fix for this beyond replacing the motor, and the Bennett web site doesn’t list the motor as a separate replacement part, so I would be replacing the entire power unit. If I can’t find an inexpensive replacement somewhere, I might just replace the entire trim tab system, but for now that job goes to the bottom of the priority list. Any advice about dealing with these trim tabs would be appreciated.

I did manage to resume the deck work by reinforcing the edges of the Coosa boards where they will slip between the layers of fiberglass. I used some 4-inch biaxial tape cut in half lengthwise, but I ran out and wound up finishing with some 6-inch cloth, which I liked better because it’s a little thinner than the biaxial tape.


Reinforcing the Coosa board edges with epoxy and fiberglass tape. This should strengthen the joint when the deck pieces are reassembled. I trimmed some of the rough edges with a box cutter after the epoxy gelled and removed the rest with careful use of an angle grinder with a diamond blade after the epoxy had completely set up.

M

I feel like I should have more than this to show from today.
Major snowstorm here tonight/tomorrow... staying home and refusing to shovel a single inch of it.

A little more about this developing cabinet.. the livewell is sitting on a floor that is 4" above the deck. The bulkhead at the face of the livewell will have arched cutouts at deck level to allow any deck water to flow through and out the scuppers in the transom. There will be enough room to reach through and clean anything out if necessary.
The 4" floor will be the base of the storage cabinets under each seat (either side of the livewell). Each seatback cushion will have an access plate behind it, that when removed will provide access to the fuel/water separator, rigging, wash down pump, livewell plumbing etc... that will be mounted in or routed through the area between the cabinet and the face of the transom.







thanks for looking - Paul