Thanks for the compliments guys. I apprectiate it. Makes me wanna get back at it but that's gotta wait for the weekend

Just something to think about.

The boat looks great, way better than anything I've done lately. But I noticed you wetsanded the primer with a 400 grit.

There's a give and take when it comes to sanding primer. The finer sand paper you use, or wetsanding, then the glossier the panit will be with the least amount of orange peel. But if you used 320 grit without wetsand, then the paint would hold to the primer a little stronger, but will have a final outcome of more orange peel.

Like I said it's a give and take, you get shiny, easier to buff paint, but not as strong.

Or stronger paint that's more difficult to wetsand and buff.
Just throwing it out there.

You are doing a bitchin job and doesn't look cheap by any means, I wish I could do something like that!

I really appreciate the advice. I havent done this stuff for 15 years and EVERYTHING has changed. When I was told to wetsand the primer with 400 I did a big gulp too. Seems awfully smooth. I remember the days with you did 220 to scuff it up and call it good. I'll talk to some peeps about the 400 and get back with you. Once again, thanks for the advice......John

Thanks Bob. Man would I love that but jezus if you guys could do something about making California a bit shorter, that would help a bunch of us out. Did a road trip down there this summer checking out the beach and by the time we gotdone with all the sightseeing and driving back, it was almost 4,000 miles...........

Thanks again......John

Continued..
With a new pump, new interior and a new shiny  blower motor, the paint was gonna be an issue for me. I was bitching about it when my wife walked into the shop and said “if it’s gonna bother you, why don’t you paint it?”. That did it, that was noon on Sunday and by 4pm it was off the trailer and on a dolly I had just built.




I picked up some 4” razor blades and proceeded to take the paint off. It was pretty easy since there were a number of different paint jobs stacked on top of each other.




Thru this I did find shadows of license numbers from Nevada and Montana so this boat has been bounced around a bit. Wish this thing could talk and tell me of the fun it had back in the day.

I carefully pulled the rubrail off only to find that this boat was seamed so nice that you couldn’t even see a seam at first. The thing looked so sexy that I made the decision it wasn’t going back on.

Here's a closeup picture of the seam where the deck meets the hull. It was this way almost everywhere on the boat.



Through the advice of a number of folks on this board and others, I came up with a plan on how to cap it for good. I used West System epoxy for the entire project and though spendy, it’s really nice stuff.

I took my 4” grinder with a 80 grit flapper wheel and ground into the seam and out approx 2” to 3”. Then I took my little air angle grinder and fine tuned it a bit with a 40 grit speed lock and then finished it with 40”grit on my DA. Right about now is when my wife had to hide the guns cause I just took a cool looking boat and ground the shit out of it……..

Wiped everything down real good with acetone and then wetted the seam out. I followed that with some narrow fiberglass tape and  laid that into the seam. They suggest all kinds of tricks to work the bubbles out but I found  my finger did the best.  I followed that with multiple layers of epoxy mixed with some Colloidal Silica and wider runs of tape till I had only a slight groove left. I filled this in with some epoxy mixed with microballons and smoothed that out. Hot Damn! That looks good.

Ignore my hands in the picture. I put them there so get some contrast so you could see the shape. As far as the ripples, thats just water. This thing is smooooooth.





I also filled the thru the transom exhaust holes, decked the boat of the stern and bow light, fixed some slight cracking on the deck , filled a notch in the gunnel that they had cut to clear the old exhaust and a bunch of miscellaneous holes on the dash..




Cont.....

Okay Sweetpea, you and Josh have had enough time to get that thing in the water. How bout an update.........

ps.........the Miller looks bitchin.......congrats

Atta boy Tommy. Good to see this post over here ("iff'n you know what I mean  )

Best of luck and keep after it. I think you're going to start 8 months later than I have and finish 8 months earlier......

Seeya and say hi to Rhonda and Josh for us......John