Well, here we go again !!  I have a new project. 

 Its a 77 Brendella tunnel.  I picked it up last winter from SoCal and had to drive through the snow (both ways) to get it.  Its in really sad shape, but I just love the way it looks.

 Some pics from its former home

 

 
And one when it got home


 Its got a Jacuzzi pump (WJ), a flat keel, a bow full of foam, a broken bulkhead (3 pieces), no room inside (total int room is 8' long X 43" wide), and it had a Chevy in it.    But its first issue is the paint.  Without getting into the design and color choices  , the paint is cracked like a broken window.


 I started to try to sand it off, didnt work, it turned to gum as soon as the sander touched it.    Some of it was easy to remove with a paint scraper.


 There where 3 paint jobs on it over the original gel. So, eventually I gave up on the sanding and scraping, and moved on to paint stripper.    Its now down to the original gel (mostly) The good news is 90% of the cracking is gone now, most of it was just in the paint.  Theres still some on the deck, but it looks like it stops at the gel and doesn't go into the glass. The bad news is, some crackhead tried to fix some stress cracks by glassing over one of the paint jobs.  So I have a bit of glass work to do.








This where I'm at now.  Next is to get the broken bulkhead and the bow full of foam out of there.  That means I have to take the seat out, so no more sitting there day dreaming and making vroom vroom noises.
Bulkhead/foam.

Yea, the Daytona is on hold.  I just cant get excited about building that big boat right now.  Not sure if the blob is OEM or not, it looks old.  All I know is its not going to be fun getting it out of there, theres almost 9' of foam under there. 

he scared of the daytona

cant wait to see the progress

I Love it! 

Very unique Proppy! 

Now if we can just paint it like some domesticated farm animal.............

Ray

man i dont know whos crazier propless or rays double trouble boat(thats the name i gave it so i call it that) but anyways keep up the good work and look forward to the build thread

Get a couple of those little folding military surplus/camping shovels, bribe a couple neighborhood kids/grandkids, put dust masks on 'em and tell 'em to have at it, and make as big a mess as they want! A couple of 10-12 year olds could have that busted out in no time.

Ray

Looks good proppy..... you tryin to pass me up on my project As far as gettin the foam out just put a nice big juicy t bone steak up front under the bow and turn little Leo loose. He will loosen up alot as he digs his way to his treat

On that Foam Problem try a high power pressure washer with a oticialating (sp) head. They have them at low's or home depot, My pressure washer turned up to 3,500 psi with that head on it will go threw plywood fairly quickly. Man it will be a wet loud torture of a job but it will go pretty quick on a hot day and be clean as can be when done. To bad we don't live close you could use mine...   Roy

 Thats why I love this place !!!   I have a big gas powered pressure washer and I would have never thought about useing it.  I bet thats going to work great, Thanks River Roy.

 Making some good progress   you have any pics of one of these boats Rigged the only one I ever saw was A V-drive and I almost bought it.

Now if we can just paint it like some domesticated farm animal.............

Ray

something about you and farm animals is starting to worry me

Well I didnt make much progress today.  Stupid holidays  .  I got the drivers side sponson section of the bulkhead out though.  I really wanted to get it out in one piece, to use as a pattern for the new one but that didnt happen. I cut the glass around the edge of it and wouldnt move, it was glassed on both sides.  I almost grabbed the sawzall then decided that wasnt a good idea, Id probably cut through the hull.  So I just cut it into small sections and pulled it out (the wood was rotted).  I was right, there was water up there. Most of the foam still looks OK except for the very bottom of it (wet and spongy).  A couple gallons of water drained out of there. 

 I did find a present from someone at Brendella.  There was a hat stuck under the foam, had to have been "lost" durring assembly. 

 

 Then as you can see it started to rain.  But the hull is completly gutted now, still havnt gotten that intake out of there (they did a realy realy good job on this one).
 

 Thanks John.  I just hope someday it turns out as nice as your boat.

  I cut the rest of the bulkhead out tonight.  I brought my air saw home from work and it did the job really well.
 

 I found what I though I was going to find on this side, lots of water and nasty water soaked foam.  Here you can see all the black foam.  As soon as the saw got down to the top of the tunnel, water started coming out of the cut. 
 

 You can see on the back of the wood how high the water level was.  Its no wonder the bow of this thing was sooooo heavy.
 

 Found a broken fuel line on the pressure washer, as soon as I get a chance to fix it I'll see how it does at removing foam. 

Man.. That foam looks straight NASTY! Your garbage mans gonna hate you. One big question.. How did all that nasty water/foam/wood smell when you started cutting into it? Oh.. And how much for the vintage hat?!