2004 250 Project Thread

[hoghead54]

That is some nice work. My Dad is one of the guys like you that can look at something and see in their mind just how it works, but at 92 he's slowing down a bit, so I always appreciate nice fab work.

[Big Block Power]

Just watched your video. Good info there. Any tips on bellows would be nice. I don't think there is any good info on that on utube.

[slideruleracer]

Just watched your video. Good info there. Any tips on bellows would be nice. I don't think there is any good info on that on utube.

I'll try to get it edited and posted - but it focuses on the reassembly of the transom side of the outdrive. When that assembly is on your workbench, the bellows is pretty easy. All told, with the right tools, it's probably only about a 15 minute job when the drive is off - at least for the TSK SX-MHP variant that mine is, where the exhaust bellows is only connected on one side. If you have a variant where the exhaust bellows is connected on both sides, it would be a little trickier.

[slideruleracer]

Tonight's project was to start into the swim platform. When we bought the boat, it was obvious that the swim platform needed a little attention as there was a rust stain on the outside behind the stainless bumper rail. I wetsanded and polished the gel coat at the time and it cleaned up, but I knew something was amiss. As we used the boat, I also noticed that there were small ridges running the width of the swim platform where the gel coat was raised... not spongy at all, but lifted.

I began to suspect that there was some internal steel substructure that had rusted and the rust was forcing the fiberglass apart.

In the fall when I disassembled the hardware from platform, my suspicions were proven correct. A whole section of gel coat/fiberglass was missing inside where the steps go through the platform, allowing significant infiltration of water. Upon more inspection tonight, it now appears that someone attempted to repair this at least once before.. or a repair of a different issue cause this problem to start..

In either case, I wanted to buy some EVA foam swim platform covering this spring but I don' want to apply it to a platform I'll just have to rip apart and repair next year.. So even though I'm running behind my schedule, I decided to crack into the work now..

I began by sanding down the gel coat on the ridges. Eventually, I could see dark strips through the fiberglass coincident with the ridges. Once I broke through, it was clear that the platforms are built with steel cross bars for support that had gotten wet and started to rust. Fortunately, most of the rest of the platform is constructed with honeycomb plastic which had not been affected, other than getting wet and coated with the rust-gook.

Tonight was the first cut. Tomorrow I need to pickup some more blades for my oscillating tool and cut out a little more of the top section of glass and then I'll clean up the steel as best I can and grind back the gel coat/glass to prep for the re-application of fierglass. I'll use some naval jelly or other rust converter to try to keep the rust at bay, and then flip the platform over to go after the issues underneath on Thursday...

[Table Rockin]

Good lord man kudos praises and all around bowing down to you. How the hell you pull this shit off amazes me. So how are you gonna fix the cuts you made? I couldnt imagine how you fix that. Much less blend it all in.

[slideruleracer]

Ha! Maybe we should wait to see what I end up with before you give me too much credit.

In truth, I don't have to worry too much about blending it (though I think I'll do ok) because I plan to cover it with the Aquamarine pads, but I do need to try to make it as sound as possible. It turns out that the plastic honeycombs still have some water in them and they do a pretty good job trapping it in. So the 'perfect' job might be out of my reach on this project given my time and cost appetite, but there won't be any lumps in it and it should be impervious to any new water getting in, and I'll give the steel a fighting chance to go many more years before exhibiting any new problems.

[nolaboater99]

Dude, I'm retired and I don't have the time to do all the stuff that you do. Hats off to you tho....
Shawn

[slideruleracer]

Aaahh.. I'm slacking. A bunch of updates since before we left for vacation.

The day before we left for NC for the week, I hopped in the bilge and started cleaning to prep for a coat of paint. Here's what I started with:

[slideruleracer]

One more before:

[slideruleracer]

After a couple of hours and a lot of bleach (most of this was organic), this is where I was at:

[slideruleracer]

When we got back from vacation, of course I started right back into my boat projects. I made some progress on bits of a lot of sub projects (more to come) and then at the end of the day on Saturday, I put the first coat of paint down. Despite how clean I got it, there were still big rust stains from standing water over metal bits from previous owners. Also, some of the gel coat in the main water 'channels' in the bilge had chipped out and I wanted to clean that up. I faired the chipped gel coat with some West Marine polyester putty and then got ready for the paint. After a fair amount of research, I had decided to use Rustoleum with Valspar hardener. It was budget conscious and by all accounts would be every bit as durable as the marine branded bilge paints short of using Awlgrip.

I mixed the paint with the hardener per the instructions and after the 30 minute activation window, set about laying it down. It generally went as expected until I had to climb out of the boat... you see.. my boat is still shrink wrapped and I've been climbing in and out through a zipper door over the engine bay. I was climbing out OK, but had to get my body pretty much flat with my backside down when I heard a 'clunk'. I looked down and my phone had fallen out of my sweatpants pocket into the paint. I hopped back down, but missed my standing point on the depth finder housing and stubbed my foot into the paint. Grr..

No matter, I retrieved my phone and climbed out. I was already planning on a 2nd coat anyways. Unfortunately, it got quite cold Saturday night and I underestimated the effect the cold would have. Sunday morning I expected to go out to the boat to hardened paint and found that it was still very tacky. I was disappointed because if I couldn't climb in and out easily, then I would be limited in how much more work I could do.. I setup a heater in the bilge and also used the heat gun to help accelerate the hardening manually. By Monday morning, the paint was hardened and glossy, though some spots were a little dirty from my maneuvering in there before it was cured to help it along. I'll have to make sure that when I give it a 2nd coat it is in the morning so that it has all day of the suns warmth to cure it. Here's what it looks like with 1 coat. All the rust stains are covered and the chipped areas are nice and smooth. It should be much easier to keep clean now.

[slideruleracer]

Tonight I swapped out the old fuel vents with flush mount versions. These should be a lot nicer to maintain as the screens can be removed for cleaning and no wax will build up in them. I did have to open up the holes, but that was pretty easy. The harder part was removing the side panels for access from inside. However, I was half way there when I started working on the controller replacement over the weekend and since I wanted the additional access for some of the other work (like the heater ports), then it wasn't too big of a deal.

[ajcampen]

I very much enjoy reading this thread. Thank you

[Big Block Power]

Looks awesome. That's a much larger project then I would have ever takin on. Props to you.
Gatorstep has your templates for marine mat already. Also while your upgrading Colin found some infiniti seagrass carpet already for install in the cockpit fit like $650
It's in a current thread from a member looking for where to get carpet. Just a fyi.
It's cool that your bringing her back to life.

[cmattj]

Amazing work . Nice to see the progress as Im sure your anxious to get her completed.We all want to hear that TUNED GXI idle!!! You'll have to post a "drilling holes in the side of your boat" thread..