Original condition. Faded Orange!

Just as it says. This will look greatly different in 4 months time.

The layout is changing.

Rust and corrosion had got into most of the 'snaps'. Over 1/2 of them needed to be drilled out.

Both pedistal seats were removed. Easy job. The bases and poles will be re-used. They will be cut down a inch or so. They will also be re-painted white ( both base and pole ).

Surprisingly easy job. The chrome caps came off easy and the whole rail pulled off the seated lip. It was glued on, but the contact was old.

Carpet removal and inspection.

Removal of the marine carpet was also quite easy. It just pulled up, with abit of force. Of course it was dirty, smelly and dusty.

All carpet removed.

A full interior inspection was carried out. All was fine....now for the floor.

I drilled numerious holes in the floor with a hole saw for inspection. This was done in various places.

Well, after drilling the floor and inspecting it. The floor is moist, the stringers are moist, the air in the hull is moist. There is NO visible water ( to my surprise ). The floor and stringers are being replaced. They are NOT rotted, but are wet all the same.

A little different looking than it was this morning

Stripped, it gives me a good picture for my new layout. A full back lounge is going there (in the back)

Nice looking hull. Plenty of potential. All in all a very productive day.

Ok, the motor is the next thing to be removed. I am getting a enigine bracket tomorrow.

All the holes needed to be drilled out. This trim is going and not comming back.

All controls are out of the boat. They will be re-conditioned, re-sprayed and re-installed.

As you can see, it was a mess. Typical of an old boat that over time has bits and peices added to it. It all got ripped out, from the batt terminals to the switchbox.

Power saw set to 3/4 inch and away we go. Floor was moist.

I noticed the bow part to the floor was thinner and made of what i think is masonite. This will all be replaced.

Work in progress

Bow shot of the ripped up floor section

Most ripped up. Only a few stringers need to be replaced. I will re-glass the whole floor/hull area, but only replace the bad stringers. Im going to leave 3"s of remaining floor attached to the hull, and replace the rest.

Back to school

This was done with a stiff wire brush on a powered drill.

Mods need to be made to fit the 65Lt under floor fuel tank going in. 1 foot longer, by 5inch's wider. Thankfully the depth is ok.

As you can see all the cross members are removed and all being replaced. The fuel tank area will be rebuilt.

The last thing to come off, just the motor. Have purchased a steel motor mount. Will remove motor this week.

This is the original control box. Covered in greese and grime. It will now be cleaned, sanded, primed, filled and epoxied. WHITE!

Inside pic, for your reference and more important, MINE.

Once I removed the levers, choke, ignition switch and all cables and wiring, these are the 4 outer shell parts that will be refurbished. The black handle, im not sure what im going to do with it yet.

These parts have been cleaned, sanded, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned again.

Primer time. Two coats. Now to come.......spray filler, sand, clean, topcoat, sand, clean final topcoat.

now, time for a little filler.

1st fill and Sand, 1 more to go!

Before photo

Wax and greese remover, with a toothbrush and steels wool. Came up great!

The new 65Lt fuel/gas tank has arrived.

1 more sand and topcoat to go. Ordered new modern Mercury decal for motor and control box.

Finally some of my hardware is arriving.

All the harware, switches, wiring and lines are to be the best quality. A closeup of switchs, in deck rod holders, 40mm reinforced filler line and chromed, stainless filler cap and vent.

Exact size and layout of new white gauges. Of course all holes and old cutouts will be filled.

Finally, the motor is off. Heavy!
The motor stand is great. We made the mount out of scrap hardwood.

This is the motor, original condition.

Soild NO ROT! Lots of holes though. Due to ski hooks, sounder, old motor, auxilary bracket etc....

Well we did it. Cut the deck bow walkthru. Easy cut. Just a circular saw.

New side stringers and in floor fish well cut out and tested.

After the cut.

I like the curves. It will be fully reinforced to the floor and to sides.

That's it, our work place. Everything has been stripped. It's the rebuild stage. Finally, we got there.

The new motor decal set arrived. 2 big ones for either side of the motor, small red one for control box and the black one for the front of the motor. I did'nt want to replace with original scheme, because honestly nothing about this boat is going to be original. The quality is fantastic.

Now the stuff is starting to come in.

Not cheap but will look good.

Cleaned, sanded and cleaned again. Although it looks dirty, it actually is clean as can be. 1st sheet of glassfiber went down no probs, the poly resin being used is just a super product.

Just as it says, just to keep this puppy dry.

My new US made Teleflex white gauge set. Speedo, Tach, Fuel, Volt and Temp.

This is a beauty. Just a fantasic job. Alot of time was taken to do it right though. I have step by step instructions for anyone that needs them. Thanks to 'tinkerer' who helped me on this one.

The finish is like new.

Here it is resined and ready to glass to the hull.

Finally in, not glassed yet.

Getting there. The floor is begining to look like a floor again.

Just a great fit. Not tight, for the expansion of gas tank.

These are in bad condition. But, really, quite an easy job to restore. I will be cutting 2inches off the height of the poles.

After cleaning and sanding then cleaning and removing all traces of dust and grease, I etched it 2 coats.

What a job to cut these 2 babies out. Anyway, they have been resined and ready for install.

The cut came out fine. There will be no drainage here. Dry storage only. Notice the lounge seat base contruction started.

Finally the fun parts start. This was exactly what we had in mind, as far as shape and size goes. Just fits so nice. All guns will be templated and upholstered in matching upholstery.

Stage 1, all joins have been sealed the base sealed and installed. The walkthru walls have been installed and glues. They will now need glassing at the joins and epoxy filled later ie. filleted.

As stated all joind and bottom has bee sealed. Now just to resin and upholster.

I more fill to go. Once done, we will cut out the new gauge layout before painting.

Ok, re-built 2 fuel Pumps, now onto the 3 carbs. Full gasket kits, seat assy. and floats will be installed. I've never done this before so....here goes.

As you can see the butterfly is nowhere near open enough at WOT. I will re-adjust all three, I should be able to get heaps more out of her once completed.

Just as it says. A really fragile peice of the motor. I was warned to be carefull with removal and I was.

Well, 1 1/4 hours to get the 1st carb off. A bigger job than expected.

The carbs were totally stripped down and soaked in cleaner overnight. The needles were sticky, the floats seemed ok, but goo build-up in most crevices and the strainers were full of crap.

Well all three Carbs were pretty bad. The float heights were wrong on all three. Squeeky clean now with new gaskets, seats and floats all adjusted to the right heights.

Gives you an idea. The walls will be carpeted and notice the two hatches. The front one for the anchor and the one at the drivers feet for storage.

Needs to be fitted and glued, screwed and glassed at the joins.

At the moment Im just starting to sand the loins and holes where filler has been or will be applied.

Cut the holes for CD, Radio and Switch panel. All is good, finally getting somewhere.

Non structual filler/fillets. Messy job, with practice, should get a little better at it. Fberglass/epoxy filler was used and applies with a small fillet trowl.

These are the seats and colour scheme in my new boat. The rear lounge and side panels will be matching.

Finally got my gauge holes cut. 54mm holes for the smaller gauges, no problems as I has a hole saw for the job. The 2 bigger gauges needed 86mm holes. I only had a 76mm or 90mm. I had to use the 74mm. The routing to extend the diameter of the hole was done with a flap bit. Just take your time. Go slow and work in circles, apply even pressure to all sides of the circle. Check if the gauge fits evey 1 or 2 revolutions, so that you don't route it out too far. If you don't know what I mean, let me know and I'll explain it too you. Anyway, I'm happy with the result and on a WHITE GLOSSY 2pac paint these gauges will look superb.

Well, I took the plunge and purchased the paint. I can vouch for 'international' brand product, I have used it the whole way through this project. After discussions with various people here is what im going to do. Primer in area's needed (bare). 2 coats od undercoat ( second coat mixed 50/50 with top coat ) and 2-3 thin coats of topcoat.

Final tank fitout. Filler, pickup and dual venting. Also the wires were run from the fuel sender. This visible tank section has a screw down ply plate on top and will be glassed in.

The last sand and fill for this bow walkthru area. Carpeted walls, so doesn't need to be perfect, just the line/curves need to be well defined.

Almost done, just one more light sand and a final coat of gloos epoxy white. The shafts have been cut down.

This is the exact marine carpet that will be fitted to the boat.

Will be mounted under the dash panel.

As you can see, i've alot to deal with here. Bushings, bolts and screws all to be replaced. The holes in the yoke to be patched and sanded flush.

I can't wait to get rid of this sight. Surface preperation is the key here. I will was 3 times, kerosine 2 twice, degreaser 2 times, wash 2 more times and then acetone. Then and only then will I start to sand.

Rusty bolts and nuts galore. All will be replaced. Big job that's for sure.

Replacements needed!

These are the 6 initial cowling parts. The foil decals won't come off.

With a little paint stripper I was able to get the top part of the decals off, but the bottom foil part remained.

After 1/2 a day and more paint stripper and every other chemical under the sun, I finally got the foils off. The trim around the main cowl was left on, but hevily sanded, because there will be a stripe covering it up.

Initial stages of etching primer, 1 coat down, 1 to follow.

Great filler im using. It's quite thick and sprays nicely. Just a sand and clean, then onto the top coats.

The result was yet again, fantasic. It's not my touch, it's the effort and preperation you are willing to put into it. Almost like new. as follows;
2 coats of etch primer
2 coats of undercoat filler
3 coats of 'phantom' black topcoat
3 coats of clearcoat
Total hours - 6 pieces, 12hours total labour. Cost - about $150AUD including the decals. Way cheaper than a new cowl.

The finish is fantastic. Sorry about the fingerprints.

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Finally I gave up on trying to obtain a white leater steering wheel. I decided on a black and blue(match blue carpet) leater wheel. Has a great feel to it. The speakers are marine clarions. Costly but designed for the marine environment and top quality sound.

The sides of hull and top deck have had intial sand and fill. A second fill in some spots was required. Bare as can be.

All the deck hardware holes have been cut. Here is the rear rod holder hole and fuel filler hole. Also cut, gauges, switch panel, cb radio, cd player, speakers, tank vent, cable holes in splashwell.

Sanding has started on the hull to waterline. Below waterline reapirs and sanding will be to follow.

orbital sander with 120grit, then hand sanding with 120grit.

This is the results of the first initial sands, it will be followed up with 240grit by hand.

Old cable pully holes have been repaired. Actually there are 5 of these holes in the splashwell, not needed anymore. Just two now. 1 for the steering and the other for the throttle and shift, fuel and power to motor. That's it. All will be bound with 2 inch black flexi pipe. Nice and neat.

Big Job. 80, 120, 240 grit at the moment. The 80 grit has only been used at the deck join that will be under the rubrail.

It's all about the 'feel'. Use sandpaer in your hands, use your fingers and palm of your hand to shape/feel the curves of your boat.

This is just the begining.

Our home made boat stands. Quite easy to make out of scrap steel and timber. A V was cut to match the keel on both stands. Then the tops of the timber with carpet.

Getting your boat off your trailer isn't a hard as you think. We actually got this one of by just pushing it. If you cant do that, hook it up to your towbar and do it that way.

After about 200 manhours spaning over a few months she is finally ready for paint. I decided to go with primer, undercoat and topcoats. Washed, cleaned with acetone and finally with a tack cloth. Notice the new painting location.

Well, there it is.

This is the original trailer. The restoration will include. New override coupling, levered handbrake, new axle, mechanical disc brakes, jockey wheel, winch overhall, wheels, rollers and lights. And of course will be cut back and sprayed with epoxy paint ( aliminium colour).

I went for a sightly larger roller. I will drop the assys. a little to compensate for the larger roller. Got a great deal on these in bulk, they are a good quality, non marking roller.

This is all the stuff that has come off the trailer and will go into the bin.

Angle grinder was used to cut the coupling off. A fair amount to rust flakes came out of the end of the drawbar. I banged a hammer up and down the frame and all is soild. Apon closer inspection I noticed the last 2 foot of the drawbar has been replaced, so I can only assume the flakes had never been removed from the inside of the frame originaly.

The skeg has been washed, cleaned, sanded and cleaned again. Some gouges and chips filled with epoxy metal putty. They will be sanded and then a final clean and primer. New parts will include all new rubber tilt bushes new LU nuts and bolts.

After filing and sanding the repairs carried out, the motor was high pressure washed and cleaned with acetone. Etch primer was then applied. Picture shows 1st coat, 2 coats in total were applied.

After a light sand the filler/undercoat was applied. This is after the first coat. A 2nd coat will be applied before 2 finals topcoats and 2 clear coats.

The prop. is undergoing a revamp at the same time. The same proceedures apply.

The old coats and rust has been cut back out of the trailer. Im not going to spend weeks on the trailer, just a good soild revamp.

These are the final products of my cowl restoration. Well worth the effort.

This stuff is so much easier to work with than the primer. I thinned it 15% and rolled & TIPPED the whole boat. Took me about 2.5hrs.

I back this paint all the way anyone considering painting their boat consider international paints. I'm really happy with the results so far, take your time though.

As you can see, just a smooth even surface. Roll and Tip takes a bit to get used to, but once you have your technique down, is a peice of cake.

After a 3rd coat of filler/primer, it was a sand and clean, then on with the 1st topcoat.

The First stage of trailer work. One more cutback, then onto the sprayed epoxy paint.

Only 1 more coat to go.

Just clear coats to go.

Well, it's all ready for the top coat tomorrow. Really looking nice. A word of advice. Sand and imperfections out then clean with acetone well. Lastly use a tack cloth before you paint. It adds another 1/2 hour to each coat, but the result is amazing.

The final coat was also rolled and fully tipped. It looks 'wetish' for the first few hours, but dried to a satin ( matt ) finish. A great product this paint, if you feel the surface, you just know it's going to bond to the next coat well. We lightly sanded the whole surface, before applying the Final Coat od Undercoat.

Tomorrow can't come quick enough. It will just look superb with a full bodied, full gloss, top coat. Ive been told this brand of 2 pack gives a excellent, constant 'wet' look. That's what im looking forward to.

The time has come and the results were outstanding.

This coat took alot longer than the undercoats, as i really wanted to take my time. 3 Hours in total.

Looking good.

In order to achive a perfect surface, you must sand out any imperfections before you paint. I have sanded and cleaned in between every coat.

Gloss is the word!

Roll and tip, untill you have done it yourself, you'll really understand what it's all about. Don't be scared of it, if you do it right the results will show.

It looks super. Lot of work once again, but result was great.

I'm glad I did the prop. at the same time looks the part.

Finally the screen is ready. Of course the brown protective paper needs to come off.

WOW! Raeline did a super job. Just fantastic

That's it no more coats. It's done.

They are all sitting flush.

Lightly seated in the boat.

Just as imagined. Installed fairly easy. Only thing to watch out for is the middle gaps and joins. Once all is even, bolt it on.

As you can see, standard support struts are installed. Great to have a walkthru screen. They are adjustable, so that you can make minor chages to screen angles. Nice and soild. All in all we are happy with the end result.

WOW!, this stuff is tough as nails. Really quite difficult to install. We did it, after alot of elbow grease and spent energy. You cannot do this job without 2 people. Beware, If you decide to go with a heavy duty, stiff PVC gunwale like this, be prepared for alot of work. It doesnt just sit on the lip. A rubber mallet comes in handy.

The finish is a glossy pure white colour. It looks great quality and does not mark easily. It will be capped at both ends with stainless steel fittings.

Every roller has been replaced.

Almost done. Brakes installed, roller installed. Just guards to be shifted out 5inches, new wheels and install lights.

The time has come to do the job i've been dreading for so long. It's not that i'm not capable, just I know how time consuming it will be.

As it says. The inside of the gunwales have been carpeted. 90% complete.

The walkthru is carpeted. The edge will have trimming to the screen.

The seats have been positioned so that both will turn 180 degrees to the rear. Note, the only concern I now have is the gap between the seats. I need to make provision for the forward controls on drivers side. The ply base will be epoxied tonight and carpet will be layed over the bases.

Just the trimming to go.

It has been epoxied on and the stainless caps installed.

All the stainless hardware is going on. Everything is being sealed with marine grade sealant.

Carpeting is finished and upholstry is in. Seat Pedistals have been fixed to the floor.

The boss kit, leather wheel, gauges and switch panel are all in. We purchased a SONY HiFi system, Clarion speakers, all new wiring, battery, contectors, switch and fuse panel w/ + and - buss bars.

It's getting there. We are really past the hard bit now. The rest is just downright rewarding. :)

It came up real nice.

Custom decals are being applied.

Finally the motor has been installed. The steering has also been connected. Throttle and shift linkages are covered with PVC piping and all linkages have been totally cleaned and re greased.

Getting closer now.

looks good in the sun, will look better on the water.

Finally got the control box back together. I helps to take pictures when dismatling anything, as I refered to my old pictures on putting it back together. The checker kickplates have also been installed in the walkthru.

Black PVC shrouding installed to finish the job.

Electronics and wiring have been installed. Marine grade wire was used, heatshrink tubing has been used over all joins.

Everthing teszted out fine. What a relief.

Wow! Can't wait to take here out for some night fishing.

(the speedo pickup, speed wheel and sonar sensor have all been istalled. Neat and tidy.

S/S fittings used with marine sealant to finish the job.

Timing, sync and link'ing the motor. She running well, now just for water testing.

The old one had blown cylinder #5. The new motor is a 1998 Mercury 115Hp. NICE!!!!!

After a trailer test all seems well with our new motor.

We are rapt with the end product.

Love it!!

SHE'S BEGGING FOR IT!!!

Feel the power

Hole shot is great.

Clocked 92.5kmh. Thanks 'Deano'

what an ugly looking mut!!!!

Now, that's a boat.

The custom Bimini and Rocket Launcher are in.

Only the front cover to go...........I'm rapt.

MASSIVE!!!!

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