2004 250 Project Thread

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I asked Ashley for the 'boards' to run side-to-side. I prefer that look and would like the added protection over my repairs (no seams). I'll post the proofs when she sends them.

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I owe some updates... On Saturday I started working in earnest on the toilet. I pitched the pump-out porta pottie. My kids invariably decide that they have to go whenever we're out on the boat and with the added nighttime accessories I'm adding this year, I figured that would only get worse. The portapottie had only a 2,5 gallon holding tank that wouldn't empty when pumped out, so it always had an odor in the bathroom. I determined that I could fit a 9 gallon holding tank in the bow ahead of the ski locker (much more if I wanted to splurge for a custom tank, but I figured 9 gal was plenty for our uses.

So, I opened up the hole where the hoses route to fit the new plumbing and added an extra hole for the power connector (it's electric flush). The tank is partially installed - I'll post some pictures of that as soon as its finished this week.

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I also made some wiring harnesses this week for the RGB LED lights. I made a harness for each side of the boat with plugs for each light fixture that will plug in. It means that all the RGB LED lights will be the same color throughout the boat, but this was an effect we saw on the Ski Nautique at the boat show that we liked and since it made the install a little bit easier then I'm going with it.

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On Saturday afternoon I added the 2nd coat of bilge paint, but it wasn't cured by Sunday morning and it was raining to boot, so yesterday I stayed out of the boat. I took the time to crack into the swim platform some more. I cut away the skin on the underneath to get access to the bulging and rust stained areas. What I found was not pretty, but strangely interesting. Between the salt water, the chemicals and salts in the original polyester resin and the metals, it almost looks like it was starting to form some geode-like crystals - which is interesting for sure - just not when it's happening inside your swim platform!

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Here's where the swim platform is now. I've decided that I'm going to cut out and replace all the metal pieces. Then, I'll sufficiently seal coat each metal piece with epoxy and lay the new fiberglass back up with epoxy resin to make this as good as new. I won't worry about perfecting the non-slip surface because I'm just covering it with the Aquamarine Deck anyways.

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While I was at it, I started with my modification to the glove box. I'm switching out to a 'black box' style head unit, so I'm going to rework the glove box a bit to accommodate that change and hopefully get a little extra storage space.

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Lots of progress! The toilet and tank are done, heater box , switch and duct work is finished, all speaker wiring routing is done, the wires for the O2 guage, sonar/depth finder, and transom lights relay wire are routed and the underwater lights are mounted.

But what you really want are pictures, so here you go!

First, the toilet tank. It's mounted and clamped down using a cross brace that I added with holds to keep it from moving around. The long cantilevered been is held down at the end via a post the pushes against the deck above it.

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Here are the subwoofer cutouts. The 10" Wetsounds subwoofers fit nicely in these kitty corner spots.

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I added the gps sonar and underwater lights. For the underwater lights, I first drilled the hole out oversize, then filled it in with epoxy, then drilled the smaller hole to route the wire and sealed it with 4200. Here's the basic sequence (the pics may not show in order)

1. Drill large hole
2. Fill with epoxy filler
3. Tape over so epoxy doesn't run out

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4. Remove tape
5. Sand epoxy flush
6. Drill smaller hole, sized for whatever your putting through

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6. Run wire /bolt/etc with sealant

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Here's with the new sonar. I ran the wire through the top of the outdrive area as opposed to the factory routing. The factory pitot tube and temp sensor go through the rear of the transom, right through the core. My new wire goes through the top, where there is no core. It eliminates the possibility of wated getting into the foam and makes wire routing cleaner.

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And with the underwater lights.

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With all the wires routed, I could now add the heater hose ducts. I also went and cutout the steel bars and the other metal plates in the swim platform. All 3 steel 'beams' were rusted, the 2 on the lower platform badly. I'm gladd I'm replacing them. There was even still water trapped in the upper step!

The other metal plates confuse me. First off it appears that the factory screwed mine up because the main mounting plate for the steps was positioned at the wrong angle and one of the holes wasn't fully inside of the plate. But it now also apoears that the aluminum plates were coated in some kind of dielectric grease at the layup stage? I'm not a chemist, but I can't understand why this was considered a good idea. Everything I've learned about polyester resins says that they don't like being contaminated with other chemicals.. In any case , I'm just about done with the tear down stage and can start the rebuild stage. I just need to pickup the right metal stock to start to rebuild.

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Last thing of note from this weekend - I milled some grooves into the cup holders for the rgb lights.

I can't wait to see how these all look lit up!

[Big Block Power]

Nice job thanks for sharing.