Had another productive weekend!
Long read, sorry...
Sanded my primer touch-ups quickly with 220 grit, filled the remaining pinholes (not many) using the 3M glazing putty, then did the 320 grit finish sanding. The last steps before topcoat are a scuff with 400 grit equivalent scotch-brite pad (the gray one), a quick rinse with water and dry, solvent wipe with T0170, and finally a tack rag.
One thing I learned when spraying the 545 primer is that it lays out much easier when using the reducer (duh), but when I initially put it on it seemed quite thin by itself so I sprayed without it, it laid down fine, but the orange peel was more pronounced. Anyways from here on out I would recommend thinning at 25% because it laid out like a dream. I also removed the internal screen on the 3M PPS cup.
Labor day weekend is coming up and I am targeting that as the perfect time to get the topcoat finished. I'm going to need 3 days to complete the spraying process. This upcoming friday will be setup, finishing the hull prep, taping, and then laying down the white on the entire hull. Then sunday after letting the white sit for around 48 hours I then tape it off to spray the blue for the classic glastron design. Before I did any work on the hull bottom I made templates of the paint lines, so I will use those to layout the tape for the blue region. Once the tape is laid out it is recommend that the fresh paint is scuffed with the red scotch-brite then I can apply the metallic blue. Once the blue is done I remove the tape as soon as possible, re-tape the whole hull, then spray clear over the white and blue (awlcraft SE is a basecoat clearcoat system, unlike awlcraft 2000). I am planning on then letting it sit undisturbed for 7 days. After that I can finally start thinking about flipping it and putting it back on the trailer.
In other news I don't think I ever shared any pictures of the restored dash. I spent quite a while a few winters ago getting it repaired. I had several cracks, the glove box door was broken, and some of the gauge flanges were broken. The best thing I found to repair the cracks was oatey black ABS cement, the solvent in it melts the cement into the original ABS plastic to form a bond that I wouldn't be surprised is stronger than the original plastic. To hold pieces of dash in the right location I found masking tape to work quite well. I found an old V174 dash on ebay that I got some gauge mounting flanges from to replace the ones that were missing. I glued a piece of 3/4" plywood underneath the hole for the ignition switch to beef it up a bit. For the glove box door I had a 3/8" piece of delrin sheet on the shelf so I went about shaping that to match the old one. Once done I painted the whole assembly with dark gray plastidip rubberized coating. During the restoration process I had sanded off a lot of the original texture that was on the plastic, so the plastidip helped get some of that texture back. I replaced all the toggle switches and indicator lights, and bought a set of Sierra Heavy Duty series gauges (I really liked the simplistic look of them). I also refurbished the original horn assembly as well.
And finally I have been disappointed to find that there aren't a lot of options for marine performance exhaust for the small block ford, and I am set on keeping the 302 for this boat. Specifically for me I want to get away from the cast iron and get a set of cast aluminum manifolds. After some comparing I have found that the port spacing for an LS chevy is almost the same as the small block ford, so I am going about designing an adapter plate since there are many options for aluminum manifolds for the LS. I have been 3D printing some prototypes, I'm on revision 3 now, the biggest fitment problem is clearance for the spark plug, but I think I now have that solved. Some people may say it's a waste of time, but I rather enjoy it
I'm looking at using these nice IMCO manifolds :
https://www.hardin-marine.com/p-110372-imco-powerflow-ls-chevy-kit-with-stainless-riser-and-polished-manifolds.aspxI am also looking at upgrading to fuel injection at some point, most likely the Holley Sniper 2. The manifolds above already have a built in bung for an O2 sensor.
Anyways enough rambling, enjoy what's left of summer! Hopefully my next post will have some glorious pics of a completely painted hull bottom and perhaps even be back on the trailer!
-Andrew
