We've now been in Louisiana for just over a year. In that year I've painted all the rooms of the house, put in a game room complete with pool table, had the old pool taken out and a new pool installed, landscaped the backyard, built a bar for the pool house and done/doing some consulting work. When the pool was finished my wife wanted me to remodel her bathroom but I told her that the bathroom could wait and I needed to finish the boat project.
I'm having a metal carport installed in a week so I have a place out of the rain to work on the boat but in the meantime I've been doing projects that could be done in the garage.
The boat has the above teak inserts mounted on the deck in a recessed area around the perimeter of the boat as kind of a walk-around. They're more decorative than functional. Originally there was the black rubber gooey stuff in grooves where the white wood is in the above pic. I never liked the look and if you ever tried to sand to refinish you ended up sanding the wood and not reducing the rubber and over the years the teak became "scalloped". In fact they were scalloped so bad that I had to run the boards through my surface planner to get them flat again after I dug out the black crap. My old 52' CPMY had teak and holly floors in the cabin and liking that look decided to do that with these pieces. Not finding any holly I used rock maple. The longest of these teak planks is 8' so I bought a piece of maple 8'6" x 8" wide and ran it through the table saw cutting 1/8" strips. Once they were all cut I ripped these 1/8" x 3/4" strips through my Rockwell Blade Runner and this gave me a lot of smaller strips that were 1/8" x 3/16". I then glued these strips into the grooves in the teak clamping every 10 inches. After everything was dry I ran them through the planner again taking the maple almost down to the teak and then finished with a random-orbital sander. The top picture is the result. This past week I started finishing them with 5 coats of Minwax Helmsman Satin Polyurethane. I like the Minwax product as it is very clear and adds no color to the wood. I used to use Sikkens but never liked the color. Originally the screw holes were plugged with teak but I cut new plugs, glued them in the old holes and re-drilled and countersunk the holes for all new #10 oval head SST screws. I like the exposed screw look and installation is easier.
There is no interior in the boat at all and a few months ago I put the boat in the water and ran it for a bit checking for leaks around the transom. About 18 months ago I changed the Gimbal Housing and Transom Plate and I had never done that before so I had an understandable nervousness about leaks but all is well. The boat ran great and felt really smooth and had plenty of power. Don't know what kind of horsepower the 383 Stroker is making but it sure felt strong and solid.
There is still much to do and so many trim pieces that to have to be re-made but I'm actually seeing some light. This weekend I will be ordering carpet and fabric for the cuddy cushions.
I'll continue to update this thread as work continues for anyone that might be interested.
Shawn
I'm having a metal carport installed in a week so I have a place out of the rain to work on the boat but in the meantime I've been doing projects that could be done in the garage.
The boat has the above teak inserts mounted on the deck in a recessed area around the perimeter of the boat as kind of a walk-around. They're more decorative than functional. Originally there was the black rubber gooey stuff in grooves where the white wood is in the above pic. I never liked the look and if you ever tried to sand to refinish you ended up sanding the wood and not reducing the rubber and over the years the teak became "scalloped". In fact they were scalloped so bad that I had to run the boards through my surface planner to get them flat again after I dug out the black crap. My old 52' CPMY had teak and holly floors in the cabin and liking that look decided to do that with these pieces. Not finding any holly I used rock maple. The longest of these teak planks is 8' so I bought a piece of maple 8'6" x 8" wide and ran it through the table saw cutting 1/8" strips. Once they were all cut I ripped these 1/8" x 3/4" strips through my Rockwell Blade Runner and this gave me a lot of smaller strips that were 1/8" x 3/16". I then glued these strips into the grooves in the teak clamping every 10 inches. After everything was dry I ran them through the planner again taking the maple almost down to the teak and then finished with a random-orbital sander. The top picture is the result. This past week I started finishing them with 5 coats of Minwax Helmsman Satin Polyurethane. I like the Minwax product as it is very clear and adds no color to the wood. I used to use Sikkens but never liked the color. Originally the screw holes were plugged with teak but I cut new plugs, glued them in the old holes and re-drilled and countersunk the holes for all new #10 oval head SST screws. I like the exposed screw look and installation is easier.
There is no interior in the boat at all and a few months ago I put the boat in the water and ran it for a bit checking for leaks around the transom. About 18 months ago I changed the Gimbal Housing and Transom Plate and I had never done that before so I had an understandable nervousness about leaks but all is well. The boat ran great and felt really smooth and had plenty of power. Don't know what kind of horsepower the 383 Stroker is making but it sure felt strong and solid.
There is still much to do and so many trim pieces that to have to be re-made but I'm actually seeing some light. This weekend I will be ordering carpet and fabric for the cuddy cushions.
I'll continue to update this thread as work continues for anyone that might be interested.
Shawn
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