I decided that today would be a good day to share some of the progress on the BB16 to date. It was unbearable trying to work outside in the heat we had today. This is a great excuse for me to sit on the couch, grab a beer, and crank the A/C...
First, a little history for those of you new to the club. The boat has changed hands a few times since the original restoration was done by Rod Frisell back in 2003. From there, it was owned by Mike Radder, Marty Loken, and finally by me.
Here are a few pictures shortly after the original restoration when Mike owned it:
And here's another while it was in Marty's fleet:
Looking at those pictures you might think I've lost my mind tearing apart a perfectly good boat. You might even be right. My better half would probably agree with you.
What you don't see in those pictures are the numerous spider cracks, faded paint, and even bare fiberglass in some spots. The boat has been used and enjoyed so the wear is really starting to show. What a great excuse for me to refresh the topside paint is what I told myself. And so it began...
First step was to remove all of the hardware from the boat. The original plan was to just fix the top deck (famous last words). As I removed the hardware and really started taking a good look at everything it became apparent to me that if I repainted the top, the bottom would just not look right. It too, had its fair share of fading, cracks, and dimples. So off came the motor, rub rail and all hardware from the bottom of the boat. Now, I was committed. Everything else just snowballed from there...
The good news, now I have a bare shell that I can make my own.
Here are a few pics after it was stripped and the upper windshield was removed:
Notice how wavy the fiberglass panels are in the pictures. This will be fixed before the new paint is applied. The goal is to make it look better than it did when it was new in 56. The new paint will be a closer match to the original green gelcoat.
Next step is to start sanding! I used my air compressor and DA sander to do the initial sanding. I started out with 120 grit but ended up going down to 80 grit to remove the old paint quicker.
Here are a few pics after the DA sanding:
Now it's time to take care of the obvious problems on the hull. Cracks, holes, and all other noticeable imperfections are taken care of in this step. I ground all of the spider crack edges with my air dremel to give the fiberglass reinforced filler something to adhere to and to stop the cracks from getting bigger.
I hand sanded at this point to make sure I didn't over sand the filler. Sand too far and you're right back where you started. I used a combination of rigid and flexible sanding pads depending on whether it was a flat or curved surface, starting with 60 grit and finishing with 120 grit sandpaper.
Unfortunately, I somehow forgot to take pictures of sanding the filler before priming. Pretty basic though, lots of elbow grease and patience to get it right.
And about this time, the project snowballed again...
I picked up another project boat (BB18) from Marty and decided the existing Honda 50 will be used on the bigger boat instead of being placed back on the BB16. Now I had to figure out what to put back on the smaller boat. After some research I decided to go with a pair of vintage 57 Johnson's. To do this I had to modify the transom to fit both motors.
Transom before modification:
Notice the extension Marty installed to accommodate the long shaft Honda (nice job by the way). It's gotta go in order to fit the smaller Johnson's. Out comes the trusty reciprocating saw...
Transom being trimmed to fit short shaft twins:
A bit rough but I'll smooth it out once I figure out how much more trimming is needed.
Transom Re-glassed and sanded:
The pictures make it look quick and easy. Actually took me a few days to get it right... Wear gloves when working with fiberglass!!
Fiberglass reinforced filler to smooth everything out:
And finally, sanding and prime:
To be continued...
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