Official 1980's Weekender/Sundancer 300 thread

Bottom Paint estimate? I am moving my 87' Sundancer from fresh water to a salt water slip. Boat yard says is will cost $5200 to strip old bottom paint off, prime it and paint it. Does this sound reasonable for a 30' boat?
 
Bottom Paint estimate? I am moving my 87' Sundancer from fresh water to a salt water slip. Boat yard says is will cost $5200 to strip old bottom paint off, prime it and paint it. Does this sound reasonable for a 30' boat?

Sounds expensive to me, but these costs can be very regional. The best bet is to get multiple quotes from the same area.
 
When they say strip are they going to soda blast it?
 
When they say strip are they going to soda blast it?
They are going to take the current ablation paint down to the primer, then add another coat of epoxy primer and 2-3 coats of bottom paint appropriate for San Deigo Bay salt water.
 
Sounds like it might be on the high side. I had Marinemax do my 410 before I took delivery as a condition of sale. They figured the value to be about 5k when we were negotiating the deal to have bottom paint removed, new barrier coat, and new bottoms paint.
You can save a pile of money if you can get the bottom blasted and then do the barrier coat and bottom paint yourself. It’s mostly labor with a lot of waiting between coats.
We just had my Uncle’s 22’ boat blasted in March and the cost for that was $40.00 per foot.
Bigger boats with wider beams are priced higher per foot. Your boat would probably be closer to $1500 to blast the bottom.
I applied 3 coats of the barrier coat (Interlux kit was about $125.00) and followed with 2 coats of Aquagard Ablative bottom paint.
With waiting for manufacturers prescribed drying times between coats of the Interlux and then doing the bottom paint it took me and one other guy about 7 hours to do the 22’ boat. The bottom has to be wiped down before the barrier coat is applied. We used alcohol and that part only took a few minutes.
That’s 14 hours labor.
I used to have a 30’ Sundancer that I bottom painted many times. I would generously figure closer to a total of 20 hours labor because of waiting between coats and double the Interlux kit if I were doing that boat.
If you allowed $2000 for blasting, barrier coat material, bottom paint and associated materials. Then added about 20 man hours to apply the barrier coat and bottom paint at whatever the going labor rate is you could get an idea..
A lot of time is wasted waiting for each coat of the Interlux to dry to the right point of being tacky so it’s not just a matter of continuously painting.
 
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They are going to take the current ablation paint down to the primer, then add another coat of epoxy primer and 2-3 coats of bottom paint appropriate for San Deigo Bay salt water.

Pretty sure you have to remove everything from the bottom before you apply the epoxy barrier coat.
Anyway, that’s what we did. MarineMax did the same with my 410.
The other thing is you probably want the stripped bottom to sit for a number of weeks before applying the new epoxy barrier coat. Again, that’s what MarineMax did with my 410 and we did with the 22’ boat this past March.
Lots of info on this process on the Internet and on the manufacturer’s (Interlux) website. We bought the epoxy at a local store’s annual “tent sale” and there was a rep form Interlux there. Got some good info and tips from him.
 
Just wanted to join up and introduce myself here. Just picked up an 87 weekender 300 a few weeks ago and really enjoying it. Looking forward to replicating some of your projects for updating the cabin.

Started my sea deck floor for the seating area now. Over winter I plan to have the v bunk and dinette cushions re covered. After that I plan to update the flooring in the cabin and just update and clean.
 

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Just wanted to join up and introduce myself here. Just picked up an 87 weekender 300 a few weeks ago and really enjoying it. Looking forward to replicating some of your projects for updating the cabin.

Started my sea deck floor for the seating area now. Over winter I plan to have the v bunk and dinette cushions re covered. After that I plan to update the flooring in the cabin and just update and clean.

Congrats! Be sure to post pics of your work so others can enjoy, appreciate, and learn.
 
Congrats! Be sure to post pics of your work so others can enjoy, appreciate, and learn.
Not planning to go too crazy but I plan on treating this as my long term boat. I’ve been around boats my whole life and always wanted a weekender as I was a kid which drew me to this as my first
 
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I recently shipped my 87 Sundancer 300 from Indiana to California. The boat yard recommended new bottom paint (for salt water)($5200), painting the out drives ($750), replaced all zinks ($350), replace two through hull valves ($1000), labor rate is $95/hour. Ouch! But, I think I'm done, they put it in the water and immediately find a leak through the port out drive/transom into the bilge and it won't go into reverse without killing the engine. They quoted $2700 to disassemble the outdrive and replace seals +$900 if they have to replace the u-joint. I feel like these bills are out of control and I don't understand why they are so expensive. Thoughts?
 
I recently shipped my 87 Sundancer 300 from Indiana to California. The boat yard recommended new bottom paint (for salt water)($5200), painting the out drives ($750), replaced all zinks ($350), replace two through hull valves ($1000), labor rate is $95/hour. Ouch! But, I think I'm done, they put it in the water and immediately find a leak through the port out drive/transom into the bilge and it won't go into reverse without killing the engine. They quoted $2700 to disassemble the outdrive and replace seals +$900 if they have to replace the u-joint. I feel like these bills are out of control and I don't understand why they are so expensive. Thoughts?

Again, costs for services are very regional, but those seem completely out of control. That bottom job rate is very high unless they're correcting some unusual situation that means they can't do a normal lightly sand and repaint. Does replacing the through hulls include a lift out of the water? That's crazy. I would do a good bit of that work myself and so the parts/supplies are stupid cheap in comparison, but if I commissioned someone local to do that some work it would at LEAST be half of most of those charges.
 
The bottom paint required they take off all the old ablating paint and primer, then new epoxy primer and 2 coasts of paint. There was some minor bubbling on one chine, but they said that self corrected before new paint. Also, the drives required significant work to remove growth/buildup before paint.
 
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The bottom paint required they take off all the old ablating paint and primer, then new epoxy primer and 2 coasts of paint. There was some minor bubbling on one chine, but they said that self corrected before new paint. Also, the drives required significant work to remove growth/buildup before paint.
Removing ablative paint is much easier than a hard paint. I just had my 40' x 13' bottom painted. They have to use grinders and many sanders to prepare the surface. New bottom paint applied and they raised the waterline of the paint. Applied new boot striping. $2,000. So that's my context for saying $5,200 is high on a 30' boat.
 
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Wanted to gauge how bad this is or how much I should worry. I have a 1987 weekender 300 and if I push really hard or lean my weight at the top of the transom the very top corner right where the door to the swim platform latches I get a little bit of flex but not anywhere else only when I’m pushing on the very edge. Should I get this checked further? I don’t hear any change in sound when I tap with a ball peen hammer from bottom to top.
 
I recently shipped my 87 Sundancer 300 from Indiana to California. The boat yard recommended new bottom paint (for salt water)($5200), painting the out drives ($750), replaced all zinks ($350), replace two through hull valves ($1000), labor rate is $95/hour. Ouch! But, I think I'm done, they put it in the water and immediately find a leak through the port out drive/transom into the bilge and it won't go into reverse without killing the engine. They quoted $2700 to disassemble the outdrive and replace seals +$900 if they have to replace the u-joint. I feel like these bills are out of control and I don't understand why they are so expensive. Thoughts?

$350 to replace the zincs seems way out of whack, particularly if the boat has already been hauled. I'm not so familiar with your other items, but using that as a yardstick, they seem very expensive, even for the People's Republik of Kalifornia.
 
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Wanted to gauge how bad this is or how much I should worry. I have a 1987 weekender 300 and if I push really hard or lean my weight at the top of the transom the very top corner right where the door to the swim platform latches I get a little bit of flex but not anywhere else only when I’m pushing on the very edge. Should I get this checked further? I don’t hear any change in sound when I tap with a ball peen hammer from bottom to top.

Not sure if you're pushing aft, or to port, and I suspect on way is a little better supported than the other. But in general I don't think this is an area of concern (assuming you're pushing REALLY hard). That specific area of the boat is not under a severe amount of stress.
 
Just got our sea dek style flooring in from orthodek a local company. Looking good and hoping to go out and enjoy it soon. The layout changed and we ended up going all the way under the seats and didn’t cut out for them.
 

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Just got our sea dek style flooring in from orthodek a local company. Looking good and hoping to go out and enjoy it soon. The layout changed and we ended up going all the way under the seats and didn’t cut out for them.

Wow. That's beautiful. I have a 2002 310. I see they list a kit for the 2000 310 which I believe is the same. I just sent them a message to confirm. I'll tell them David sent me :)
 
I don’t have any leaks on my cabin windows but these rubber seals look beat. Do these seal anything or is it more of a guide for the sliding window? Also did anyone have the part number for them?
 

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Taylor calls that track material FLOCKING. It is available from them but is expensive. I got mine there but I think others have gotten it from different sources. Try searching on FLOCKING and WINDOW CHANNEL and see what you find. I may have the part number in old paper work, I'll have yo take a look.
 
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