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1974 Checkmate TRV-17 Restoration
This is her, as recieved. You can see the bunkboards need to be replaced and the trailer needs a paint job. The top side of the hull is severely oxidized. I will get a better pic of her when I can get her outside.
The drivers chair is not missing. I do have it. The box it is mounted to has been broken and is starting to decay. Passenger side box is in good shape. The vinyl on the captains chairs will be replaced. The wood for the two captains chairs was fiberglassed and is in great shape.
Better photo of the decayed box. It is fiberglass over wood. Wood has almost completely rotted away.
I found a product called ColorBond leather and vinyl restorer. If it works I might be able to save the original vinyl trim.
May be able to use the color bond on this seat back also.
I placed the old bow hatch back in the boat to get a feel for how it fit.
When I crawled back to inspect the bilge and gas tank area I felt some soft spots in the rear floor and the area I was kneeling on almost gave way. Looks like my original assumption of not needing to replace the floor was wrong.
Removed the carpet and interior trim. You can see the area where my foot went through the floor.
There is a small area of the floor beneath where the bow seats sat that needs to be replaced also.
I decided to rip out all of the old floor. There was not much left of the stringer and foam was completely wet.
Floor, foam and everything rotten removed. I found a spot in the hull that is soft. It is a small area where the balsa core needs to be replaced.
I have never replaced balsa core in a fiberglass hull before. I was a little worried. I found instructions on a forum board and talked to a few guys who had done it. Here is a link to instructions and my thread on the checkmate - boats forum : http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3343
The larger area marked with a sharpie is the area to be cut out. You can see the center hole I made in order to determine the condition of the balsa core.
I cut out the rotten balsa. Cleaned and sanded the inner skin of the hull. Cut my balsa and fiberglass. I then laminated them to the hull. Here is a photo of weights on top of the repair while the resin sets up. Sorry, I forgot to take pics of the rotten balsa and cleaned up inner skin.
This is a photo of the almost finished balsa patch. I put down threa more layers of fiberglase roven woving cloth in order to blend it in with the rest of the inner hull.
Center and rear stringers glassed in. The center bow stringer is in.
I cut drain holes in the bottom corner of the stringers to allow for water to drain to the bilge.