76' 170 Rebuild

[MJB]

RickK,

I did allow for the trough on the top of the stringers and will place the drains on the outside of the motor mount location.  The old motor was a 115 weighing ~320lbs, new to me motor is a 2001 90 2s Yamaha weighing ~262lbs according to manufacturer.  This weight seems to be more in line with the original motor combinations for the boat.  The deck will be about 3/4" higher than the previous deck, so I'm thinking she should sit high enough so the drains will be out of the water.  

With the trough I still have to account for the motor bracket and where the bolts will have to be in the transom, so trough depth will depend upon bolt location more than anything.  

As for the drains in the stringers, when I dug out all the wet foam from before I figured I would add them to help with any draining down the sides to the bilge.  Probably more for my peace of mind than anything.  I do plan to add a bilge pump and an access hatch to the bilge, I like to be able to check and see what's going on before something major happens.

To date I've been getting things ready to start roughing in the deck, I had saved the fuel tank coffin and did some reinforcing and glased it in the past couple nights.  Now that it is in place I can start to cut the pieces which will form the deck.  I'm planning to cut the pieces of marine ply this weekend and then glass some cloth on the backside before I glass the pieces in to the boat.  If I do, I'll get some pics of the progress.

[MJB]

Finally downloaded some pics, so here's the latest.  I've been doing something on the 170 after work and on weekends with the exception of a week off during kids spring break.  Most all work has been doing all the small things in getting ready to glass in the new deck.  Rather than make a new rigging and drain channel I decided to "salvage" the old channel which I had saved along with all the other pieces I had cut out.

I had cut the channel down the middle when I had cut the deck out so it took a little bit of time to glass the 2 pieces back together and do all the fitting to glass it in place to the aft deck pannel.  Once I had the rigging channel fitted then I had to figure how I would make the drain channel.  Decided to use the old channel, so prepped that piece and fitted it to the aft deck panel which took a bit of time making sure when the channel was in place I had room for the top and bottom mounting bolts for the motor.  As it turns out the bottom mounting bolts will be below the drain channel out of sight accessible from the bilge (I will have an access panel to the bilge for bilge pump).

Here's a pic of the aft deck panel with both the rigging and drain channel glassed in place.  Also laminated another piece of marine ply on backside of deck to strengthen.  Entire underside of all deck pieces got a layer of 1.5oz mat.


This took quite a bit of time, more than I planned but I think it was worth it.  

Here's all the deck panels dry fitted.








And finally the first panel glassed in place.




I glassed the deck to the stringer with a layer of 1708 in between and  used 1" SS screws to hold in place which were short enough not to go thru the top of the stringer.  I wanted too make sure no water entered the stringers, so after repairing those way back when and glassing in the top I then glassed 3/4" marine ply on top of the stringer -- this is what the 1" SS screws penetrated.  Maybe overkill but I don't want any chance for water to enter the stringers.

I have to run the wiring for the bilge pump, run the hose for the pump, and install the thru hull for the bilge drain, pour a bit of foam on the outside of the stringers and then finally get the rest of the deck glassed in -- hoping to get this done by Sunday night.

[RickK]

Getting there.  Looking good Mike. 8)

[LilRichard]

Looks verrrry nice.  What is your plan for the deck - paint or gelcoat?

[MJB]

Thanks.  She'll get paint -- Awlgrip likely.....or maybe Imron, not sure yet.  I've used Awlgrip and liked the results on my other boat.

[GoneFission]

Project looking good Mike - is AB, NC short for Atlantic Beach, like the little oval stickers?  

See ya on the water!

[MJB]

GoneFission,

Correct -- Atlantic Beach.

[MJB]

Finally got the rest of the deck glassed in this past weekend, the biggest piece with the rigging and drain channel.  Started Satruday morning with another dry fit, cut the 1708, ground down a bit more.  By lunch time was ready to go, but with the amount of area I had to cover and the temps that day I knew I needed help, so my wife "volunteered" and she really helped out quite a bit with mixing epoxy, helping place the cloth, wetting out cloth, passing tools etc.  Even with help we didn't finish glassing until 7PM.  Sunday I did some grinding and glassed the rigging channel to the inside edge where I had cut it out.  Monday night after work did some more grinding near the transom to fill in the areas I had cut out originally at the corners and used 3/4" foam insulation panels as the backing for the form to tie in from where I cut to the transom.  Tuesday night glassed in both corners with 2 layers of 1708, now that I have that in place I'll go back over and add another layer or 2 and do some finish glassing to better match where it ties in at the transom.

Big projects now are to make a new fuel tank lid, finish glassing in the console shelf, and finish the repairs from the old holes cut in the console, add some drains for the fwd deck comparments, finish transom, add a layer of 1.5oz mat on the outside.  In between I'll begin sanding down the outside hull, see if I need to make any repairs.  Then looking at the finish work.

Here's the pics.











I don't think the pics can really capture the whole story, but I can certainly say I am glad to finally get the deck in, took more time than I planned but I'm happy with how it came out so far.

[LilRichard]

Very clean work - looks great!

[MJB]

Ok, it's been awhile, not because I haven't been working on this "thing", just not alot of major progess worthy of pictures.  Once I got the deck glassed in, then the fun began with filling and fairing and sanding and on and on and on.  In between I made a new fuel tank lid which should last forever.  I mixed more 406 and 410 than I care to mention, but finally got the inside of her done to the point of actually getting a coat of primer on before Jul 4th.    

In between all this, I managed an offshore trip for grouper, another trip out to the stream for some dolphin with my wife on Jul 4th, went to Alaska and caught some salmon and halibut that we've been enjoying.  

Then it was hot as anything thru the rest of Jul first part of August and I had to take a break from the "project".  Once it did cool a bit, I wanted to get the 170 off the trailer an flipped over so I could begin work on removing all the layers of bottom paint to see what I had to deal with on the hull.  Once she was off the trailer I decided it was a good time to do a little work on the "home made" trailer, it needed new hubs and I had to move the axle forward to better center the CG of the boat on the trailer.  THe hubs didn't want to come off, so that took a bit of work.  Finally got the hubs on and the axle adjusted, I think I'll need to move it forward another 6 inches, but I'll wait till the boat is back on with the motor and full gas tank.

With the hull flipped, I began sanding the bottom paint with 40 grit, found this was taking way too much time so I took a 3" paint scrapper to the hull and managed to scape most of the bottom paint, this worked pretty well, then hit the hull with 80 grit to take of the last bit of paint and pigmentation that had bled into the gelcoat.

After sanding the whole thing down too gelcoat -- the hull sides had some sort of primer on it from the previous owner so I had to sand that off as well -- I found the hull was in pretty good shape, no real major repair needed except near the bow on the keel where it had been run up on the beach more than once.  I ground down the area and put a layer of cloth for good measure.  

Then I went back over the hull and ground out any bad scrapes, dings, and gouges and filled with 406 then 410.  This went on for two weeks, filling and sanding.  

During this entire time I had to look at the outer transom -- I had filled and faired the transom in June but I was not at all happy with how it looked, to many highs and lows, I had used two types of fairing material and one was harder than the other so when I sanded the harder material I took too much of the other off.  I thought I could live with it but no way.  Sand the whole thing back down, went back and skim coated the whole transom and hand sanded again with a board sander.  After a couple late nights I was finally happy with the transom, much better than before -- not "perfect" but close enough now where I think I can live with it.

Sanded the hull at least 3 times with 80 then 120 grit.  Finally hit the entire hul with 220 today after washing the hull.  Amazing what you find after washing it, more "little" spots to sand and fill.

Here's some pics of the hull, I'm now ready to prime, had hoped to do it this weekend but the wind was blowing too much down here so I'll wait.







In between all this I've been working on filling holes in the console and getting it ready, sanding the casting deck panels, and the rigging trough.  I had to repair the center casting deck hatch, the plywood core had delaminated.  Got that taken care of this past week in between all the sanding.  Right now the hull is ready to shoot, the console needs another few hours, the hatches and trough need some more work.













I need to get some paint on the outer hull if for no other reason than my own sanity.  I did get a spray gun so I'm anxious to use it.  I decide to go the spray route after rolling the inside of the hull with primer, not at all happy with the amount of work and the results.  
 
So, to wrap it up, I'm ready to shoot the hull with primer and then it will be time to pick the topcoat.  I'm a traditionalist so I'm leaning towards oyster white but noone else in the family likes that, they all want some color (yellow, blue, seafoam, etc).  I'm afraid those will just show the imperfections more.  I think inorder to keep peace, I'm leaning towards Awlgrip Ice Blue but have yet to place the oder.  I think it will depend on how the primer looks.

[RickK]

A ton of work done - looking great Mike.

[Marcq]

Great work Mike, I noticed from the pictures that you don't seem to have a waterway at the transom, how are you going to mount the engine bracket since there's to room for the bottom engine bolt ?

Marc..

[MJB]

Marc,

Good question, there is a waterway or trough, but I wanted to try and keep the lower bolts below the deck and out of the water.  The old setup the bolts were in the transom waterway/trough and were in the water more often than not so if possible I wanted the lower bolts below deck.  I measured the motor bracket and space between upper and lower bolts and I have plenty of space to mount the lower bolts below the deck that will be accessible by a square bilge deck hatch.  

This did take some time with measurements and double checking the deck placement before I glassed it in place.

[Marcq]

Thanks Mike, I just realize that you had mention this before but completely forgot about it, I think it's a very good idea having the lower bolts below deck, I don't like the original setup, on mine the bolts are so close to the bottom of the waterway that the washer had to be cut almost in half and a gouge to be made on the waterway to be able to take the bolt in and out of the hole and like you said always in the water

You're doing an awesome job on that boat

Marc..

[compcrasher86]

I agree with you MJB... on My 22-2 my lower bolts for my outboard are literally in the draining channel. No bad has come from it yet but I see future rust/corrosion problems with this setup