I took out all the old switches and the fuses, this boat had the original switches which were not encapsulated so they all rusted out and the fuseholders which were in a separate unit above the switches were completely rusted out, so much so that they did not work and while disassembling, they crumbled in my fingers. Now I've got two sets of holes, two rows of 6 or 7 holes in the console. I'm looking for new switches, ones that are largely waterproof/encapsulated along with inline fuses to get that done.
I took off the wood framed console door system to both finish it off and to fix it up some since from pulling the battery in and out of the console, the frame came loose at the bottom left corner, so I glued it and will think about putting a stainless/galvanized corner brace on it if I can find one that small. I also will plan on putting more thru-bolts/screws into the frame so that it is tougher than the number of screws originally put in which were not that much. I also have to refit the old tray that was in, again, with more screws, possibly some 5200 to ensure redundancy and hang it from the rear with the original aluminum brackets which were just long rectangular pieces of stock then put a stereo in.
My Dad has been buffing the boat out with the 10" Ryobi buffer he bought, it is the first time we had done it since we got the boat in 87, so while it is not exactly a gloss shine we are getting back, the sun is at least being reflected back which is a huge difference.
I scrubbed and did a little scraping to the bottom of the boat, we've got about I don't know how many layers of paint on the bottom, but we've got a lot. The boat is kept in a brackish saltwater pond that leads out to the Sound, and despite this, the bottom stays clean and free of growth/barnacles which is very good, so that took care of that.
I had the original console cover taken to have a copy made, that will be $230 and someone is going to replace the clear plastic fronting on the original dodger along with the zipper, reinforce/repair all the places where it is ripped/torn along with the snaps for around $100 which is a great deal as we might all know how much canvaswork costs.
I think that for the cost of a new cooler/seat for the existing frame we have for the old one, we are going to go with a new cooler/seat combination for what is around $350-400 and just screw it down where the old one was. New coolers go for around $200-300 so for the price of a cooler, and for a little more, we get the whole thing, so we might be selling the old frame, which is stainless steel and still perfectly good, along with the old cooler and cushions.
Other than that, we are just waiting for the dealer to call us and tell us when we can bring the boat in to have the new motor put on, the warm weekend here in MA really helped allow me to get a lot done and get us in the mood for the 2006 season.
