She was going well but the movement in the floor was becoming as noticeable as rolf harris's, "tie me kangaroo down sport" wobble board. time for a make over . many thanks to Javelin one of your members, i found shareaproject my saviour . and out came the floor.

I cut an inspection hole big enough to stick my head and a torch into establish where to make my outer cuts. I drew some lines , set my saw to about 7mm , suited up, i was prepared to cut. once the floor was out I gave it a hose , stood back grabbed a beer and had a good look.

You can see the keel and stringer's have rotted right out. Off to the hardware to get grinding disk's and cutting wheel's.

Whilst cutting out the bunks I found there was a lot of room under the bunks, so I cut some hatches in and will modify the bunk fronts for storage.

I was very unsure about how far to grind, although it became self explanatory as I went along. My concern was that I would go threw the hull. my decision was that I had to have a good clean surface for the best adhesion of new product, which sometimes meant grinding into glass matting to remove old flaky resin. In parts this made the hull quite flimsy. To fix this I decided to reglass the entire inside hull.

End of the day feb18 after cutting and grinding all day.i was washing down the fiberglass dust with a couple of coldys, went to cool of in the pool, slipped, ouch 10 staples in the head. Might have to take the rest of the week off.

While I was unconscious I was having dreams about the good old day's in the boat before restoration began.

Back into it this week 11th march staples are out and I'm looking forward to getting back on the grinder."yeh right". I'm not sure weather to keep grinding in these areas. it looks like the stain from the rotten stringer has seeped into the layers of glass, I've already ground off a lot of thickness. but i am going to re glass the entire floor. So a little more grinding and this baby is ready to be put back together.

fractures on the outside of the hull caused by the hull being soft (rotten stringers). when I thicken the floor, a little double bias and a bit of chop strand, that will fix it.

blown out vacuumed out wiped out acetone, ready for glass.

I jacked the hull up of the trailer, put a level over the floor so as the hull hung nicely in shape

suspended the hull on a simple frame made from 75/35 pine. this stiffened every thing up.

out with the old bung hole, in with the new.

set up ready to go

I've got a helper. no helpers when the dirty work has to be done, no.

could not have done it without help and Don and and my 2 boys came through with the goods

one layer of 450g chop strand mat, then a strip of oz double bias down each side where the stringers go, and a strip of oz double bias down the center where the keel goes then another layer of 450g chop strand over the top. I used the entire 20kg's of resin. I reckon the floor is more sturdy then the day it left the factory 32 years a go.

this stuff is great. it lifts even the resin of your hands, and much kinder than acetone.

I found a sheet of ply .2440x1220x25mm, a perfect width for the keel and stringer's, though a bit Xe #*~@$180.00 a nice piece of ply.

I cut every thing over size and then slowly sized it bit at a time, till it was a perfect fit

I glassed the keel in first and then used it to shape the stringers.

I took the wedges out and then filled in the gaps. the keel stringer and floor were stuck down with pro-bond.

Gel coated the wet areas

I put a coat of 450g chopstran mat on the underside of the floor and soaked the edges of the 12mm ply with resin before predrilling the holes and screwing it down.

manufactured by Powers Fasteners.

the floor is in ready for glass

1 coats of 450g, then double bias arond the edges and over the seat mounting blocks, then 2x 450g over the top.

rebuilding the bunks and adding the battery boxes.
just 1 coat of glass over this.

A lick of flow-coat makes all the DIFFERENCE. i also added 2 inspection ports in the floor thinking that they could be left open after a trip to allow air flow under the floor and keep it nice and dry under there.

So do you like my new seats that I purchased from Whitworth's Boat & Leisure. (Seats poles and slider)

CAN'T WAIT..

the new bait board mount and battery box lid's glassed and flow-coat.

there she be looks like a pro built it.

Got to fix this mess up.

This was the day I picked the old girl up.

bubble bubble toil and trouble I couldn't be happier with the end result. There is a lot of satisfaction in doing the job yourself.
" HAPPY DAYS"

lovein it

makes it all worth while

and then we fished.......................