1971 170 Aquasport Rebuild

[Willc]

Rick,

I just got through putting VC performance on my boat. I was really pleased with it. It orange peeled and I had to tip off the air bubbles but it is hard as a rock and slick as snot (has Teflon.). The orange peel can be easily wet sanded smooth but I'm trying not to get that involved because I'd rather be fishing than working on the boat and I've got a lot more to do. As for the part on the sides that sees the sun, I'm hoping that the yellowing won't be that bad. Time will tell.

Does anyone else have some older VC performance on their boats? If so, chime in.

Your rebuild is very cool by the way. Quality stuff!

Will

[Mad Dog]

Rick, on my AS I covered the planing surface with graphite. It's not visible when on the trailer. I used System Three over Sterling primer for the rest of the hull. Got to say the surface is hard and tightly bonded. It has sat in the water many days with no sign of bubbling or peeling. It does have dings and scratches cuz I don't know how to dock it very well. I would paint again with either Steering or EMC.

MD.

[Rickk]

The long board stuff arrived

I bought 40, 80, and 180 grit paper - pricey but I think worth it.

One is rigid and one is flexible and they are both hook and loop 30" x 4 1/2" - requiring special paper - 3M Hookit


Here is the 40 grit attached - a big long board waiting to kick butt


I can tell you that this rigid board is quite the tool, the 40 Grit worked the filler down relatively easy - and that term is used loosely since it kicked my butt. I wish I had a selfie of me in front of the big fan dripping sweat and that was after only a 10 minute exercise (actually only a few minutes - it's in the 80s here already :lolG: ).
So I worked a few minutes, took a break for a few minutes, went back at it, etc. I did this for about 2 hours and made good progress. This is the left side and the largest area - maybe 5ft x 3 ftwide.


The right side of the boat hook area is less area than the long board length so it is easy to survey what is happening, low and high, as you work the board. As you can see there is some filler needed.


The length of the tool is sweet in that it spans a lot of area which shows everything as you sand. It spans areas that you thought were low but actually the outer edges were too high.
I laid my level across the areas in multiple spots and everything looks to be nice and flat ('cept the areas I need a little more filler in).
I did all this on one piece of 40 grit paper.
I hope I can move my arms tomorrow. :shocked:

[Rickk]

Some boring progress. Spent about an hour on the long board on the right side of the hull today and then mixed up some filler and spread it on the lows I found




And started heavy on the transom - getting it mostly flat.




Next weekend is the campout, so I'll get a well deserved break.

- Fast forward a couple weeks -

I have lost 25lbs, lost 3 inches from my waist and gained 2 inches in my arms using this fairing board set and I'm still on the first piece of sandpaper

Well, the only truth in the above statement is that I'm still on the first piece of 40 grit sandpaper Man is this stuff tough. The first piece still looks brand new.

I long boarded the left side and only have some spot filling left. I'm thinking about going back to my auto body roots and use some glazing putty to fill the small holes.


Then I attacked the transom grinding all the CSM semi flat and then mixed up some resin, Cabosil and chopped fibers and filled in where necessary. Then I ground that flat and have to admit I am getting pretty good with a 7" grinder and a flap sandpaper wheel. I can get everything very close to flat with the grinder :great02: And I ran the long board over it for a while too.
Then I needed to add a little fairing filler - hopefully I'll only need one more coat after this

[jacquesmm]

Thank you for the report, nice progress.
Soon, she will look like a new boat.

Yes, those long board sheets last a long time. They aren't cheap but you don't need many.

[Rickk]

I spent this weekend building my upper body strength some more (aka long boarding) and I think I just about have it now.
I spent the lion share of the time on the transom and it's looking nice and flat and I have just a little bit of time left to work on the transom top edge.


I spent the last bit of time on the right side of the hull and have a little more time to spent on it and it'll be done.


I also filled back in the holes I drilled for the jack plate as they were not quite right - were angled a little. Not sure how that happened as I'm using a portable drill press. Maybe it's not square? Anyway, I drilled into a slug of thickened epoxy - so I refilled them with more epoxy and will drill next weekend.


All in all a mundane task all weekend. Oh and I am still on the first piece of 40 grit paper on the longboard and it still looks new. :shocked: I still have 9 more . Anyone want to rent some paper? :lolG:

[jacquesmm]

Those long board sheets last forever. We did a whole GF16 with only 1 sheet.
Maybe you can put it on craigslist: "Gently used sand paper, half price".

I have to make a note on the description at BoatBuilderCentral.com and state that they last much longer than home improvement store sandpaper. It's professional quality stuff.

[Rickk]

I think it is ready
Everything is faired down to 180 grit. (Still on the first sheet of everything)


I used an air DA to sand the hullsides (Imron) with 220 grit.








I did find some dings in the hull that I filled and will have to fair those spots but otherwise it's ready for primer.

I know, I know, you're saying to yourself "Rick it looks the same as it has for the past month or so" - I can say that at 50 feet it looks the same but at 5 feet it looks and feels good.

[Rickk]

Washed the boat down early this morning along with the console. I planned on trying to prime the bottom today. They dried pretty quick and then it rained all of a sudden :badday: So much for priming.
So I came back out a little while later and glued together a few pieces of epoxy lamination scraps I had together and then cut them into 2"Hx3"Wx 7/16"T "pads" that I mounted on the lower portion of the transom to mount my FF transducer so I'm not drilling into my new transom core.
I drilled a hole in the middle and lightly drilled into the transom skin and put a pretty short screw in to hold the 5min epoxy until it hardened. I scruffed up the area under each of the pads.


You can get the idea of the mounting here - and that is with the transducer about 1/4" proud of the bottom


I put one on each side in case I have to move it to the other side for some reason. I also mounted them in 10" from where the chine starts in case I need 9" tabs in the future.


I'll put the screws a little later today, mix up some thickened epoxy and fill the holes.
Maybe tomorrow will be a priming day?

[Rickk]

I used a countersink bit and made the holes bigger and then dug out any resin left from the bit. I ground out enough around the pads and also cleaned them up with a 2" drill mounted round sandpaper (60 grit - Harbor Freight).


On this pic you can see the screw holes from where the transducer had been mounted.


I can never mix a tiny portion of epoxy - the measuring cups don't usually go into small enough increments. The pumps (and I have them) would have pumped too much also for this. I only needed about a quarter in size, maybe a half dollar size, to fill the holes and pack it in good. The smallest I could mix was 3 oz. then added cabosil and figured I would try a fillet to help secure them and also make it look better. I ended up with about half or more of what I mixed




I'll take a dowel tomorrow and wrap some sandpaper around it and smooth the fillets down a bit so the pads look like they were planned instead of last minute, like they were.
Hopefully the weather will leave me alone tomorrow,