Hello All,
I'm finally neck deep in my restoration project I started back in the spring of 2016. It was much bigger than I thought it was and I had to make many decisions along the way; mostly about expense. Did I want to just partially restore this boat for an "era aged" family boat or take this on as a full blown restoration close to factory perfect.
Well it started out as the former with me sanding and wet sanding the finish to get rid of the splotches in the gel-coat/clear-coat. I went down and down and the splotches stayed. I found out they went all the way down to the metal flakes themselves. I worked on this finish part-time for three springs and early summers. I spent the warmer months on the lake in my other boat, a 1981 Baja 16ss.
Well this past summer I decided to bite the bullet and have the boat re-painted as close to original as I possibly could. The photos tell the partial story. Right now I am in the process of fixing a spongy spot in the floor, replacing the carpet, and putting the interior and odds and ends back on the boat. This is my winter project. I will post along as I go but wanted to start a new post. (I started a post back in 2016 but it died along the way.)
I definitely have plans for running this boat this summer with new carpet, new engine paint, and partial re-work of the upholstery, I will do a full interior restoration later since the cost is so high. I will post new pics as they are taken along the way.
Chip