Mike's 77 22-2 Rebuild

[perchman97]

Boats really coming together nicely l!! Cap cane out sweet

[Tampa Bay Mike]

Thanks guys. Not a lot of progress this weekend, just some sanding and prep for the next coat. Did manage to get out on the other boat for a few hours yesterday afternoon which was nice.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

Fair, sand, repeat. Getting closer every day.





So question about fairing. How smooth is smooth enough being that I am going to gelcoat the inside? Is it better to get the surface 100% and then just sand the gelcoat enough to bring out the shine, or am I wasting a bunch of time trying to get it nice first?

[RickK]

You need to get the substrate kinda close = gelcoat fills a "fair" amount of blemishes/
I hope you are going to spray the gelcoat with a 50/50 mix with Duratec - that'll save you a bunch of effort trying to get a shine. I would think that most of the deck is going to be covered in nonskid minus the water runs, so that leaves the inside hull sides, gunwale sides and maybe the gunwale top (I would add places with nonskid on the gunwale top also) to be shiny. So if you you use the duratec you shouldn't have anything to shine up.
Was this your plan?

[Tampa Bay Mike]

I'll check out the Duratec. I honestly haven't thought that far ahead yet. I guess I just figured I would roll it on and shine it up, but considering how long all this sanding takes it would definitely be worth a few extra bucks to save some time.

[RickK]

Get a cheap Harbor freight spray gun (I bought more expensive and they didn't work as well), learn how to take it apart to clean it quickly and you'll be fine. The Duratec is some great stuff.  Use it to spray your console too.
If you're going to have water runs (stripes in the deck for water to run off via) you want to spray them but the non-skid gelcoat is rolled on (I hope you use the nonskid approach I use - it is great result.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

So I got a little sidetracked from fairing today and ended up buying a t-top. I've been eyeing it for months down at marine surplus and finally decided to just do it before it disappeared. It fits my console almost perfectly and I think it's a good size for the boat.

I will have to modify the hatch on the front and will lose the top door but I think it'll be pretty easy since I still have the fiberglass I cut out of it. I'll probably end up using it for the anchor locker hatch so it should work out fine.

I also think I may try to build a hardtop for it instead of canvas. I like that look a lot more, just not the price.

[Woodeneye]

Looks great. Wouldn't it be easier to cut and shut the support tubing? You must know someone that's a handy welder?

[mshugg]

It’s easy to get side tracked from fairing.  Top looks great.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

Looks great. Wouldn't it be easier to cut and shut the support tubing? You must know someone that's a handy welder?

I did talk to a fabricator and it is doable of course, but we decided that repairing the fiberglass and modifying the hatch is the better way to go. Plus I do think those supports add to the overall look and will be helpful to hold onto when I add a cooler seat in the front. Oh, and the other big factor was that my spare time is worth a lot less than his.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

Well thankfully I kept the cutout when I built the hatch originally so it was a simple fix. I cut it to size, glassed it back in from the backside, did a tiny bit of filling and fairing, and rolled some gelcoat on it. In total it only took about two hours. I will need to wet sand the gelcoat tomorrow but that should only take a few minutes. As for the starboard, it was just a matter of unscrewing the top piece and then cutting the sides down and drilling a few new holes across the top.

[RickK]

And then there is that way - looks good Mike.

[Woodeneye]

Keeping the cutout? Genius.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

Keeping the cutout? Genius.

I think I have kept every scrap of glass, coosa and foam that I have cut lol. I could probably build a small skiff at this point out of all the crap laying around the shop.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

I've been doing a lot of sanding and fairing lately. Just need to do a little more work on the hullsides and I can get ready to spray. I hosed all the dust off so I could get a good look at it and I think I'm about there.





HF has their spray guns on sale this week and I did some reading up on Duratech so it will hopefully go smoothly.