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Reply With QuoteExcellent work.
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That is some awesome work. I don't think anyone would notice that it was a little wavy...To much in awe of the rest of the boat...
Proud to have served with and supported the Units I was in: 1st IDF, 9th INF, 558th USAAG (Greece), 7th Transportation Brigade, 6th MEDSOM (Korea), III Corp, 8th IDF, 3rd Armor Div.
1980 Ebbtide Dyna-Trak 160 Evinrude 65 TriumphRojo thanked you for this post
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Unfortunately I have what my friends call "The Evil Eye" I see the wrong in everything, a curse to say the least. My friends and customers all loved it, they would bring their boat and just say "put the evil eye on it". That means fix everything you can find.Originally Posted by Jamesdean
I would see that wave in the side of the patch and kick myself for not fixing it. Knowing the grief I would say to myself I ponied up and fixed it.
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Moving On.....to.....Center Console positioning
I just set the cap back on to see where I can and can't spray additional flotation.
So I have the Center Console sitting on the deck, after lots of measuring, sitting with a folding seat on the Livewell, the final location is scribbed into the deck so no mistaking the location later. My plan is to thru bolt the Console to the deck so I never have to fix it later. Holding on in rough water the console could loosen over time.
Now that the Console location is fixed the Hydraulic Helm, controls, gauges, switches, etc have to be laid out. So I have room to step behind the console but not have to lean way forward to reach the steering wheel the Console layout has to be correct. The back of the Console has to be cut out also. The arrows indicate the cut location so the planned deck hatch has ample clearance to be opened enough to stay open on its' own.
The pictures show the good and bad for the conversion, a bass angler may not see the importance of opening up access to each side but the Crappie angler will know. I need to be able to stow 14ft jig poles inside a protected space. The STBD side inside gunnel will hold 3-4 7ft rods, gunnels 3-4 12-14ft jig poles. Port rod box will have the little 5.5 Ugly Sticks for casting.
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I imagine you would be good at playing chess the way you’re always thinking ahead. Very nice work.
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Very thorough analytics and thought in your build. It is coming along nicely for sure
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Great job
The love for fishing is one of the best gifts you can pass along
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Hey rojoguio, couple of questions for you. I been going back over the build. Back in thread 18 you mentioned using foam for spime reinforcing. Would you elaborate on what type of foam you used please. Also when you were working on the transom, you mentioned using Epoxy. Was this regular fiberglass epoxy, or the polyester type epoxy resin. Thank you for your help. As others have said you do fantastic work. Boat looks fantastic. Eric
Proud to have served with and supported the Units I was in: 1st IDF, 9th INF, 558th USAAG (Greece), 7th Transportation Brigade, 6th MEDSOM (Korea), III Corp, 8th IDF, 3rd Armor Div.
1980 Ebbtide Dyna-Trak 160 Evinrude 65 Triumph
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The foam is a flotation foam we use in Aluminum boats we built to fully fill the entire floor and sides of the boats before topping with 1/8in 5052 Alloy for the deck and 90 Gauge 5052 for the sides. Then we would TIG weld everything to totally seal up. This foam is rigid but not strong, I cut it on a Tablesaw putting a bevel on both sides the full length. After the sawing process was complete I used a rubber sanding block and 80 grit paper to remove all the sharp edges. After putting a layer of 1708 Fiberglass reinforcement down the foam was placed right where the hull skin would deflect under water pressure. The foam is only a form for the fiberglass reinforcement, by putting 2 more layers of 1708 reinforcement fabric over the foam form it created a laminated stiffener bonded to the skin. When the floor was set in strategic areas it makes contact with the stiffeners. You do not want any "Hard Lines" a place where the reinforcement fibers can be fractured against, my stiffener design is fabricated to avoid creating and Hard Lines. Before the stiffeners I could deflect the hull skin easily with my thumb.
I exclusively use West Systems Epoxy, in my professional opinion it is the finest Boat Building Epoxy money can buy. I also exclusively use Epoxy in a transom replacement. Strategic transition points are engineered into my Transom Laminations. I have never even had spider cracks is any I have checked years later. You transition to Vinyl Ester or Polyester resin from Epoxy very cleverly so you are not laminating Polyester over Epoxy.
