Project Carla: 74' CV-16SS Restoration

[awc105]

Well I suppose it's about time for another weekly update. It's been hard to get any fairing done this week due to the low temperatures, however yesterday I was able to get a second pass at filling in pin holes. This is my last pass at fairing before sanding and spraying the barrier coat, any remaining pinholes I'll fill with 3M acrylifiller after the barrier coat.

I received the rub rail vinyl  quite quickly from Eagle so that was nice to see! I bought a large bag of the appropriate size pop-rivets for reattaching the rub rail aluminum, just trying to get everything ordered that I will need for reassembly after the paint is done. Earlier this week I went around and drilled out all the old rivets, when I removed the rub-rail I used a chisel to break the rivet heads off, this allow me to remove the rail but it left the rest of the rivet there...it took quite a while as there is about 100 or so of them.

I have decided to paint the inside of the boat with white gelcoat first before painting the outside, originally I was worried about overspray, but I think the risk of spilling white gelcoat on the pretty new paint is higher than getting overspray on the inside gelcoat, I'll just use copious amounts of plastic!
I also plan to pour the floatation foam in the stern before painting as well.

In other news I got some upholstery vinyl samples, 4 of which I am trying to choose from. Of course the easy option is to go with blue, but I'm torn because the brown and light gray look good too...I've always felt that the stock look was just a bit too much blue...

Anyways thats all for now!

-Andrew

[Hyperacme]

Glastron started using screws to attach deck to hull and rub rail

[awc105]

@Hyperacme Hey! Thanks for that detail! Screws are definitely way easier to remove...

Well, it has been a few weeks and things are progressing nicely! The weather this past week has been warm enough to allow me to paint the inside of the boat, plain white gelcoat from US Composites, really happy with how clean it made everything look! It took two coats to get the proper coverage.

In parallel I have also been doing quite a bit of work refurbishing all the metal hardware. I have elected to go with a brushed finish for all the metal parts, so lots of sanding and scotchbrite/0000 steel wool. Once I get the finish I'm looking for, I seal it with a product called protectaclear to prevent oxidation. Some of the pieces, the rub rail extrusion for example, appeared to originally have been coated with a clear anodize. This coating was in pretty bad shape so I sanded it all off which a bigger chore than expected. Other pieces I have been working on include the steering wheel hub, bow badge, dash bracketry..

The original cast aluminum stern rub rail corners and bow tip were kind rough with some pretty heavy scratching in them, fearing trying to sand them out would remove too much material I compromised, knowing they are already 50 years old and I'm not going for a 100% brand new restoration, I elected to clean them up and coat them and move on. From a distance you cant tell they're there any way!

My original bow badge was in rough shape, so I ended up having one made, drew it up in CAD and had it CNC'd by one of those offshore CNC services, similar to what I did for the steering wheel hub, the results turned out great!

In other news the bow surface is finally smooth and ripple free, the barrier coat I used on the hull requires an 80 grit scratch, so I will be going over the cap with 80 grit to prepare for that, once the barrier coat is on, I can fill the smaller pin holes and prep for finish primer, after that we're ready for topcoat! One step before barrier coat though is I want to pour the flotation foam in the stern on each side of the engine, I've calculated each side should get roughly 3 cubic feet of foam.

I'm excited because it feels like things are beginning to come together! Trying to get all the hardware prepped to be reinstalled once the paint is done. Once she looks like a CV16 again, I can begin installing the wiring, drive system, etc...which personally is my favorite part, paint/fiberglass work is ok but I much prefer the mechanical/electrical stuff.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for more!

-Andrew

[Hyperacme]

Great progress !

"  I seal it with a product called protectaclear to prevent oxidation "

Please let us know how this held up for you, and I'll add it to rub rail section.

[Fatlenny]

I am curious as well on that protectaclear. My jet drive is in really rough shape and although it would be much easer to hit it with a thick primer, sand, topcoat, I had always thought that the polished or brushed raw aluminum look on jet drives is very cool.

[awc105]

Well it's been a busy few weeks, but I've finally made some more progress. Lately it has been very windy here in southwest Michigan, most days have been 10mph and up. About a week ago I tried to attempt painting the cap with barrier coat, however the wind ripped off all my masking before I could even break out the spray gun! I suppose that was sign it was to windy to paint...so I waited until the wind died down which turned out to be this past weekend. I was able to re-mask the hull and deck in order to spray the barrier coat. Also took the time to get some of my other boats out of winter storage.

Hoping to get started on sanding the barrier coat tomorrow, the awlgrip 545 finish primer requires a 180grit scratch. Once the sanding is done, I can spray the finish primer, sand to 320grit, and then we'll be ready for topcoat! Won't be able to use my fathers shop to paint this time as his sea ray is in there still, so I've been thinking about getting one of these inflatable spray booths: https://www.vevor.com/inflatable-paint-booth-c_10313/vevor-inflatable-paint-booth-23x13x8-5ft-inflatable-spray-booth-high-powerful-480w-750w-blowers-spray-booth-tent-car-paint-tent-air-filter-system-for-car-parking-tent-workstation-motorcycle-garage-p_010693190050

They seem to be pretty positively reviewed online.

@Fatlenny, @Hyperacme thanks for the comments guys! Yeah, I found the protectaclear stuff when I was doing the windshield frame. I can't yet comment for myself on it's durability, but this article is what convinced me to try it: https://blog.shinium.co.uk/2014/04/everbrite-protectaclear-metal-finishing.html
I think a polished/brushed jet drive would be really cool!

Anyways, that's all for now.

[awc105]

Minor update time! So the past couple of weeks have been eventful, a couple of tornados ran through SW Michigan last week and their path was only a few miles from where the boat is stored...got lucky! NWS classified them as EF2. First time this area in particular has had a tornado since 1980.

Anyways, work has been continuing with the barrier coat, I have it all sanded to 180 grit, and now have a clear view where all the pin holes are thanks to the use of copious amounts of guide coat powder. Now I can go ahead and fill 'em in with the glazing putty. Once that is done I am ready to apply the 545 finish primer! The process is going so much faster this time since I know exactly what to do and when, hoping to get that primer on next weekend. Might have the hole paint job done by the fourth of July, hoping so anyway.

I did end up purchasing one of those vevor inflatable spray booths, I got the 20x13x8 size. Haven't actually set it up yet, but the quality of the fabric and the blowers is impressive, they had a sale so I ended up getting it for $450. Which is fine because I can think of a bunch of uses for it. Will have to wait until the wind dies down again to try it. My biggest concern is losing power when the paint is wet, causing it to deflate and touch the paint, I recently picked up a solar power generator (very handy for camping) capable of 1800W. It has a UPS mode so I run the inflation blower through that, if the power goes out the battery will kick in, I figure that will be able to keep the blower going long enough to pull the boat back out before it deflates LOL

All for now,
Andrew

[awc105]

Well another weekend, another bit of progress. Spent a few days locating and filling pinholes with the 3m glazing putty, I finally finished spotting them today, the filler dries very fast (about 10 mins), so after that I was able to sand off all the excess. Lot's of pinholes, some from the fairing compound, which is rather coarse, and some from the original gelcoat. Anyways, we are now ready for finish primer!

I took a stock of the paint supplies I have left from doing the hull, looks like I'll need to order some more primer and clear coat...

Stay tuned, soon we should be able to get the inflatable spray booth setup and start shooting primer!

I hope everyone has a nice and safe memorial day weekend, my wife and I are planning on spending the day out on the lake with our other boat.

-Andrew

[awc105]

I've been able to do some small tasks every day after work, mostly additional rounds of pinhole filling, think I've finally got them all. At a stand-still now waiting for the finish primer to arrive.

Something interesting I've noticed with the molding of the hull and cap is that it appears air bubbles are present in the base fiberglass under the original gelcoat on nearly every edge, especially around the engine cover flange in the stern, I have to be careful when sanding because if you go any more than needed filling exposed air bubbles, you end up opening up more air bubbles...perhaps that wasn't on the QC radar back in '74...

Now that it is a bit warmer I think I will shift gears and pour the stern flotation foam while I wait for paint to arrive.

-Andrew

[awc105]

I know it's been a lot of sanding/fairing/priming lately... Not to worry though, I'm sure the thread will be more interesting once I get that topcoat finished and start reassembly. In fact while I wait for the finish primer and some other supplies to arrive, I figured I'd tackle some other tasks that have been on the list. The first one was flotation foam in the stern. I measured and calculated that I would need about 1.5 cuft of foam on each side, enough to fill the cavity up to the edge where the pass-through holes are that the vent tubing, steering cable, etc... go. Based on the foam kit I purchased, the expansion is roughly 27.5X liquid volume, doing some more math and conversion, that gave me 1500mL of foam mixed per side. In order to pour the foam into the cavities I made some funnels out of some 2 liter bottles I had, and then made sure the area around the vent holes was masked off. I poured half the mix in the front funnel, and the other half in the rear funnel, after about 5 minutes the foam rose like a loaf of bread to pretty much the exact height I was hoping for. I then repeated the task on the other side, a few minutes later the rain started...

The second task on the list was to install the bilge drain, the first reassembly item! Anyways, I opted for a cast brass garboard style drain instead of the original crimped style. I like the idea of using a threaded plug instead of one of those flip-type rubber plugs. I also did some mods to it to prevent me from losing the plug as I lose one at least once a season on our other boats...
For the sealant I typically use 3M 4200, but I was at our local west marine and saw they have 3M 4000UV which is apparently almost identical to 4200 but more sun friendly, so I picked up a small tube of it.
After I installed the drain flange with sealer and screwed it in, I threaded in the  plug and then drilled and tapped a hole in the center of it, I purchased some bead chain (#10 size) and the necessary screw mount pieces. I installed the chain just long enough to allow me to remove the plug, but short enough that it wont sit below the hull when installed. I tapped the hole enough to sufficiently thread the screw in, but not enough to fully seat against the chain so that it will allow the plug to rotate with twisting the chain. Very happy with how it all turned out.

And finally I reinstalled the bow hook. Up until now the boat has just been sitting on the trailer, this often made me nervous because sometimes I pull it around the yard to different spots, and I worry about it slipping off. Got it tightened up and sealed, not very fun climbing way up in the bow...

All for now.

-Andrew

[awc105]

More pics

[thedeuceman]

Looks great, so many little details


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[Glastronjohn18]

I like the way you did the drain plug.

[Plugcheck]

Gar board drain.   I put one on the Intimidator to pull the oil drain hose out