Billythepokerkid
Seaman
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2012
- Messages
- 74
I have been looking over the forum, googling, and looking on other websites, I just can't find exact answers to what I am looking for. This is my first foray into boat repairs, I have been working on cars my entire life, so feel free to talk to me like I am 6. Some of these questions may be beaten to death, but I haven't found straight up answers and the ones I have found are totally foreign language to me. So here we go and thank you in advance for anything you can tell me!!
Little info first the boat in question is a 20 foot 1976 Aquasport Center Console Open Fish. The hull is solid and was repainted recently, it looks like semi-gloss wall paint. The deck, also solid as well as the stringers. The transom is like concrete and was obviously redone recently. The motor is a 1985 90 HP Evinrude with VRO, which the previous owner plugged, why I may never know. I have time on my hands to do this right, so I am not trying to take short cuts. There were a multitude of things screwed to the top side of this boat, which I removed, leaving tons of screw holes. This is an older boat, so the gel-coat has taken a beating, has spiderweb cracks all over. Mostly on the sides, where it would rub or bang against a dock as you can see in the pictures. Now here are the questions...
1. I want to fill all the holes and cracks and then gel-goat them when I gel-coat the rest of the boat. What is the best way to fill these holes and cracks?
2. The deck is ugly as sin, I had the finish and there is one soft spot, it's a an area of about one square foot. The rest of the deck is rock solid, but it's ugly. I tested the stringers by using techniques I found here, so thanks guys for that. The foam in the stringers is dry as a bone, so I am not messing with them. What I am thinking about doing is epoxying treated plywood and then screwing and gluing it down right over the old deck and then fiberglassing and painting that. Of course I would cut out the crappy area of deck so the rot doesn't continue it's ways. Is this feasible or would it be easier to cut out the soft and patch it in? I also have a big compartment in the floor that I would like to just cover, or perhaps stow the gas tank under deck. The cover for the compartment is large and is very soft and falling apart. If covering the deck is not a bad thing, how would I go about this? If I have the proper fuel tank for under deck, is there any downfall to having the fuel tank down there? I don't plan on keeping the boat forever, so I am assuming the tank would last while I had the boat. Also, there is a chase way for the controls in the floor. If I was to do the plywood over the deck I would be burying the controls, again is there any problem with this, as everything works properly? What kind of paint should be used on a deck? I have little kids, so I don't want them sliding around and getting hurt if the deck gets wet.
3. Obviously if the fuel tank is moved below the deck I would have to hook up the VRO again, which I would like to do anyways. Does anyone have an insight on how exactly to get this going again? I found the tank and sending unit on Ebay, but I haven't been able to find the spark arrestor.
4. I need to repaint the outboard, it looks really bad as you can see from the picture, what is the best way to do this?
5. If I decide to repaint the hull, do I have to sand off the paint they used when they painted it? I am not sure it is gel-coat, they did a real crappy job, so I really have no idea. What's the best way to repaint it?
6. There were teak boards on the side of the boat from the stern to about mid ship. They were destroyed. I don't think I have enough money to buy teak, so what I am thinking about doing is making the boars out of plywood and then fiberglassing them when I do the deck. Has anyone done this and how did it come out?
Little info first the boat in question is a 20 foot 1976 Aquasport Center Console Open Fish. The hull is solid and was repainted recently, it looks like semi-gloss wall paint. The deck, also solid as well as the stringers. The transom is like concrete and was obviously redone recently. The motor is a 1985 90 HP Evinrude with VRO, which the previous owner plugged, why I may never know. I have time on my hands to do this right, so I am not trying to take short cuts. There were a multitude of things screwed to the top side of this boat, which I removed, leaving tons of screw holes. This is an older boat, so the gel-coat has taken a beating, has spiderweb cracks all over. Mostly on the sides, where it would rub or bang against a dock as you can see in the pictures. Now here are the questions...
1. I want to fill all the holes and cracks and then gel-goat them when I gel-coat the rest of the boat. What is the best way to fill these holes and cracks?
2. The deck is ugly as sin, I had the finish and there is one soft spot, it's a an area of about one square foot. The rest of the deck is rock solid, but it's ugly. I tested the stringers by using techniques I found here, so thanks guys for that. The foam in the stringers is dry as a bone, so I am not messing with them. What I am thinking about doing is epoxying treated plywood and then screwing and gluing it down right over the old deck and then fiberglassing and painting that. Of course I would cut out the crappy area of deck so the rot doesn't continue it's ways. Is this feasible or would it be easier to cut out the soft and patch it in? I also have a big compartment in the floor that I would like to just cover, or perhaps stow the gas tank under deck. The cover for the compartment is large and is very soft and falling apart. If covering the deck is not a bad thing, how would I go about this? If I have the proper fuel tank for under deck, is there any downfall to having the fuel tank down there? I don't plan on keeping the boat forever, so I am assuming the tank would last while I had the boat. Also, there is a chase way for the controls in the floor. If I was to do the plywood over the deck I would be burying the controls, again is there any problem with this, as everything works properly? What kind of paint should be used on a deck? I have little kids, so I don't want them sliding around and getting hurt if the deck gets wet.
3. Obviously if the fuel tank is moved below the deck I would have to hook up the VRO again, which I would like to do anyways. Does anyone have an insight on how exactly to get this going again? I found the tank and sending unit on Ebay, but I haven't been able to find the spark arrestor.
4. I need to repaint the outboard, it looks really bad as you can see from the picture, what is the best way to do this?
5. If I decide to repaint the hull, do I have to sand off the paint they used when they painted it? I am not sure it is gel-coat, they did a real crappy job, so I really have no idea. What's the best way to repaint it?
6. There were teak boards on the side of the boat from the stern to about mid ship. They were destroyed. I don't think I have enough money to buy teak, so what I am thinking about doing is making the boars out of plywood and then fiberglassing them when I do the deck. Has anyone done this and how did it come out?
