Ol' Girl gets a new Ol' Girl

[Toni]

The busted bow before -

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And after -

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The chunked out hull above the bow eye before -

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[Toni]

After -

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The port bow before -

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And after - some more sanding and shaping was done prior to gelcoat but that is the last pic I got.
I, Toni, took the old numbers off and got new numbers to put on later.

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Three nice heavy coats of gelcoat, the final coat with a shot of finishing wax so it will cure out nice and hard. That will make it easy to sand out the orange peel and buff to a nice shine. I could've let this wait until the last step, however doing it now serves many purposes, mostly helps me put off sanding the floor down to prep it for gelcoat - so not looking forward to that, but it's rapidly coming.

Next step is level the seam in the floor, sand out the edges that form the fish box and bilge, put the shelves back in along the length of the hull and roll on some gelcoat to finish the floor. Getting closer, getting closer.

[Rosann G]

this is going to be an awesome boat for you Toni, so cool that you are doing so much of it!

[Toni]

this is going to be an awesome boat for you Toni, so cool that you are doing so much of it!

I have really done very little. Heat gun with a razor and the numbers came off in 10 minutes. Then 5 minutes on each side with goof off to get the goo gone.

[kokanee_slayer]

Very Nice and some AWESOME workmanship!!! So is it safe to say that the rig will be ready by Spring?

[Steve Ericsson]

Very safe!!

[Toni]

Very safe!!

Steve he means spring 2014. First day of spring is March 21. I am really anticipating the first time I get to go out in it.

[Steve Ericsson]

Very safe!!

Steve he means spring 2014. First day of spring is March 21. I am really anticipating the first time I get to go out in it.

Oh, spring of THIS YEAR???

[kokanee_slayer]

Steve,
You do fantastic work!!! If I ever need some pointers on boat repairs, I know who to talk to.

[Toni]

UPDATE:
A fair bit of work has happened last few weeks, time for an update.

I bonded the seat pads and DR mount pads down to the floor with resin/peanut butter, to make sure a good bond was had all the way across, I loaded them with as much weight as I could find laying around. Don't worry, the toolbox is not sitting directly on the batteries, there is a piece of plywood between them!!

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Once set, they were glassed over.

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I set them a bit farther apart than I wanted, but there will be plenty of room between the seat boxes to scramble after popped dowriggers! Next came the anchor locker, pretty much the last open spot to the under floor area and it needed to be sealed. First, the cavity was filled with 2 part foam, and leveled off.

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[Toni]

Then it was glassed over with two layers, first layer of chop strand mat, then the second layer with the high strength triax mat.

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This pretty much completed the glass work, with the exception of mounting the side shelves. For the next steps, mounting the shelves and gelcoating the floor, I have secured the use of a heated warehouse/shop space to do this in, so the trailer needed some attention next. The trailer originally came with the red boat, we traded them out because this trailer is far more stout. It was a roller trailer with only 6 rollers, two of which punched through the hull on the red boat and we don't want that, plus I am a huge fan of bunks instead of rollers especially when launching/retrieving solo, so we decided to convert it to bunks. The first step was to address the tongue and where the legs attached, which is way too far from the hitch and the tongue was bowing over the years, which you can see in the photo.

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I decided to move the mounting point of the legs as far forward as I could, to just behind the winch stand, as it is on my trailer.

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[Toni]

This will alleviate the stress on the tongue and make the trailer much more stable. I haven't decided yet whether or not to cut off the excess tonge between the legs, I most likely will so the bow won't hit it during loading. I also needed the legs longer to mount the 8' bunks. Since the legs were moved 3' forward on the tongue, the back of the legs needed to be lengthened 3' to compensate. Some 3x3 steel was donated by Kokanee Kid, two 36" lengths for this purpose.

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Then the axle was relocated back 3' as well.

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[Toni]

I made a plywood template of the bottom of the transom so I could see where the strakes would fall, which was right over the legs of the trailer. I decided to mount the bunks to the outside of the strakes, and cut some 1.5x3" steel also donated by KK to mount the bunks, and verified the locations with the template.

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After looking at this for awhile, I wasn't sure that the bunks being so far outside would be the best location. I was not too sure of this plan, as it looked to me that six bunk supports welded to the outside of the trailer legs would look quite redneck!! I also checked the location of my bunks, they are inboard of the strakes, so I made the call to abandon this idea and go with four bunks, two per side straddling the strakes. This would give far more support and the boat will sit much better on the trailer. So, I cut some more of the 1.5x3" steel into six bunk rocker supports. I decided to 45 the bottoms to make them look better, after all if your going to build something, make it look as good as possible. I also cut holes and welded steel pipe through to make sleeves for 5/8" bolts, thinking it would be best to have 2" width riding on the bolts rather than the edges of the steel, which would cut into the bolts and this way the rockers would be water tight. With steel, that would be a good thing as they wouldn't last too long especially in salt water. Then some pads on either end with holes for lag bolts to mount the bunks. I coated them with a good coat of primer then a couple of coats of spray on truck bed liner, I figure that should be far better than just paint.

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After that, I cut mounting tabs for the bunk rockers from some 3" wide 1/4" thick plate steel. Holes were drilled for 5/8" bolts, and they were welded to the trailer legs.

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[Toni]

Most trailers I see with quad bunks have two rockers per side, I decided to put three for extra support.

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In the mean time, I kept finding large spots of rust under the old paint, as I would find them I sanded them out and primed and painted them.

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I welded in a cross member to the back of the trailer to put mounts for a transom saver later, and possible a roller if needed.

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[Toni]

Next I got the bunk rockers mounted with 5/8" stainless bolts and hardware.

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Next was to mount the bunks. Two of them were free on the classifieds here that were removed from a trailer and two I made. The bunks are mounted with 1/4" galvanized lag bolts and washers, 12 ea. per bunk, they aren't going anywhere!!

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I had to replace a bit of carpet on the ends of the used bunks, the rest of the carpet is in great shape.

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[Toni]

And there we have it, a bunk trailer with quad rocker bunks! WAAAAY overkill for this little boat, but the way I look at it the boat will be on the trailer for 95% of it's life, it might as well be comfortable on there! One of the lights was bad, so two new submersible light fixtures were mounted on the back and new wiring installed.

So the next step was to drag the trailer over to Trent's and get the boat on it. I jacked the cradle and boat up to the level of the bunks and backed the trailer up until the bunks hit the cradle. Then simply cranked it on with the winch. It pulled on amazingly easily, I easily cranked on with one hand, could've been with one finger! She's pretty light without that monster motor hanging on the back.

MILESTONE MOMENT

So in honor of Valentine's Day, or as I like to call it - Single's Awareness Day, the boat and trailer were married together for the final time. The cradle is finished, it has served it's purpose well and is no longer needed. The axle most likely will be moved back a bit farther once the motor is hanging on the transom, we'll have to see what the tongue weight is once the motor is on.

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Trent even took some video to commemorate this momentous occasion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3QfdfGkHkE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Here you can see the bunks mate to the hull very nicely, straddles the strakes exactly as I hoped.

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The winch stand will need to be reworked a bit as it was built for a different boat, but that is not going to be a big deal, pretty easy really. Other than that, and some transom strap pick points on the back, the trailer is a finished product. The free bunks came with side guides as well, so those will go on eventually too, but that's a last thing type of deal.

I hauled the boat the long way to the new shop, nothing like a nice cruise for a few exits down the freeway to blow all the fiberglass sanding dust out of the boat!! Here she is in her new home, a nice new heated warehouse/shop where the next phase of work will happen, gel coating the floor.

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Getting close to a water test!!

[Idstud]

Shes coming along very nice. You have given me some ideas with my trailer. A thought on the extra tongue under the nose of the boat you might add a roller there. That way it will always line up on the nose rest even if the trailer isnt just right in the water at the launch.

[ResQ]

Toni, I have been enjoying this thread since it has started and have continued to be impressed by your glass work and everything encompassing this build. Very cool and it is giving me the confidence to do my own fiberglassing! Thank you and keep posting! haha

[ptfletcher]

Toni, you truly are an inspiration. My wife, Linda, and I so enjoyed meeting you at the Puyallup Sportmens' show. She got the fishing and camping bug there, and we plan to get a boat this year for sure. Maybe we'll see you on the water!

[Steve Ericsson]

Shes coming along very nice. You have given me some ideas with my trailer. A thought on the extra tongue under the nose of the boat you might add a roller there. That way it will always line up on the nose rest even if the trailer isnt just right in the water at the launch.

Idstud, I have thought about that, I'm going to lengthen the tongue about a foot back out so when backing around sharp corners the corners of the bow won't bust the back window out of her Explorer! The rest I most likely will cut off, or I might weld a couple of the old trailer rollers on here to center the boat as it comes on. Hmm, that's a pretty darned good idea!!