Page 2
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| Polishing the Pieces |
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| Here is some before and after examples of some of the hardware we removed from the boat to polish. Much of the hardware on the boat is stainless steel, but Boston Whaler used a material called Marinium for such items as these cleats, hawsepipes and endcaps for the rubrail. A product called Flitz helped them shine again. |
| A Clean Bottom |
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| The first big project to tackle was the bottom. Old bottom paint was sanded down, and damage to the keel from trailer encounters or beachings was repaired with MarineTek. Then everything was given three coats of black ablative bottom paint. The boat was looking better already. You see here the rubrail has been removed, and the holes from its installation patched. That's the wiring for the navigation lights hanging down. The wiring runs inside the rubrail receiver track. |
| What Kind of Boat is That? |
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| A new set of 28-inch Boston Whaler logo decals for port and starboard was a nice improvement as well. A heat gun helped remove the faded old decals. |
| A Hole in the Floor |
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| Because Mike was trying to beat the winter cool-down, one of the very first projects he tackled was the teak gunwales. A belt sander, a random orbit sander and a detail sander were used to take down the badly weathered wood to good wood. Then nine coats of Interlux Schooner varnish went on. All the other wood was to be finished inside the shop, but removing and reinstalling the gunwales would have been too difficult. So it was decided to refinish them in place, outside -- hence, the rush to beat the cold weather. The hole in the deck is there because the cover to the bait well was removed for repair. There was some rot to deal with on the underside, where the floor piece is backed by plywood. Mike used a product called Git Rot and some sawdust to form a paste that filled in where the small area of rot was found. When the bait well cover was reinstalled, the floor was very firm. |
| There's the Name |
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| A local sign shop made the name decals, and now everyone will know the boat is called Sweet Samantha. We changed out the black striping, which was not in good shape, with red vinyl striping to coordinate with the name and Boston Whaler logos. We ordered new model name decals from Twin Cities Marine, our favorite parts supplier, when we ordered the new Whaler logos. |
| A Big Improvement |
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| The boat is looking better every day. With the new bottom paint and graphics and newly installed rubrail, she's finally looking like our boat. That's a new horn on the starboard side, and the new anchor pulpit can be seen as well. |
| The New Pulpit |
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| You'll recall we considered saving the old pulpit, but it was determined it wasn't worth saving. There were cracks in the wood and a general design weakness (too thin where it attached to the hull) that made us nervous. All the old hardware, including anchor roller, was utilized for the new pulpit, which Mike fashioned from teak. The drawing by Larry Goltz of the Boston Whaler teak pulpit that was available on certain Outrage models, and which is available on Joe Kriz's site, was the starting point for this pulpit. |
| A New Dash |
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| We settled on Faria gauges, including a System Check tachometer to interface with our 1998 Evinrude, and a Navman 3100 fuel flow computer. Mike fashioned new instrument panels from black King Starboard material. The Bombardier dual binnacle control was purchased in an eBay auction. The left control will be for the main engine, and the right control will eventually be used for an auxiliary motor. |
| A Chair for the Captain |
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| We're discarding the original seats, which were in sad shape, in favor of new ladderback-style helm seats from Todd. The nice armrests seen in this picture had to go, because the cockpit isn't wide enough at the helm to accommodate them. You can see more of the refinished teak trim going back into place. |
| Rigging Tunnel Rope |
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| The blue rope tied to the steering wheel goes into the rigging tunnel. Mike was using the rope to pull control cables, a new Evirnrude instrument harness and other things through the tunnel. Say good-bye to those armrests. |
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Contents (c) 2005 Mike Brantley This page was created on Sunday, February 27, 2005. 
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