Chrome is happening

I dropped off my aluminum parts to the guys in the picture.

That's Buddy on the far right and he assured me they would take good care of the parts.

I'm having the original bow handle chromed, the steering wheel bracket, and the Windshield brackets that I ordered from :Lake Shore Aluminum Castings -

31817 Poplar Street
PO Box 59
Erie, PA 16512-0059
Phone:800-458-0463
Fax: 814-453-4293

I'll post pictures when I get the parts back.
E-mail: info@sisigns.com

3rd, 4th and fifth coats of varnish... WRINKLES!

Ok, so in the past 10 days, or however long it has been, I have traveled for work, had an unlicensed and uninsured taxi cab run into my new car, and managed to apply 3 coats of varnish.

First picture there is of Franklin the Wunderspaniel. He's old, but looking forward to getting this boat out on the water.

Second picture is a terrible attempt to capture the "wrinkles" that appeared in a very few spots on the boat.

last two pictures are just showing the overall shiny-ness of the new varnish.

Second coat of varnish...

Second coat of Epifanes CV varnish went on this afternoon. With the thinning again... it said, thin 25%, I'm there one way or another.

SO the second coat is drying now, and it looks good. You can actually see some of a reflection in the finish.

In addition to the top I varnished the boards that run along the side - on my boat they are screwed in at the point where the white paint and the red paint meet. What's the name for these boards? I have no clue - for now, they are side boards.

These are the side boards, they are screwed in where the red and white paint meet... What's the real name?

First coat of varnish.

The first coat of Epifanes CV Varnish, thinned 50% has been applied. Some of the cedar really sucked the varnish!

I was impressed at how easy it was to get a nice even coat of the thinned varnish on.

The directions on the varnish said to thin it 50%. Now, is that 1 part varnish to 1 part thinner? Or is that 2 parts varnish to 1 part thinner? I'm not telling what I did, in case I did it wrong.

6 coats of varnish to go.

Also, I got the fuel tube in from Amazon. I am rebuilding a gas can for the boat - it's a nice metal gas can that has a gooey sludge buildup on the inside bottom. I've tried several things to clean the crap out of the tank, and so far nothing has worked 100%. I'm getting close.

Supplies arrived!

The orders arrived today from Jamestown Distributors. Thanks to Jamro and Nathan for doing such a fine job packing the orders - I have 3 weeks worth of newspapers to read and recycle! But seriously, the order arrived in great shape.

I'll be painting everything below the water line with Interlux Brightside "Fire Red". The above-the-water-line-sides will be painted with Brightside "Blue-Glo White". Essentially maintaining the existing color scheme.

The unpainted wood on the topside will be finished in Epifanes (is that 'eppie-fah-nay-z' or 'eppie-fae-ns'?)

CV clear varnish.

There is still a little bit of sanding left to do, but there is potential to have the first coat of varnish on by Saturday.

Outboard cart, motor Carrier, whatever you call it

Friday I took the 25hp Evinrude off of the boat. I thought I would store it clamped onto the heavy duty handtruck that I have... I was wrong, it does not fit.

I searched the internet and found several different carts specifically designed to handle an outboard motor, but the prices were pretty similar and one was available locally. I bought a Trac Outboard Cart from Bass Pro shops.

Assembly was very straightforward, in 100% English (rare, I know). It took a 10mm wrench, a Phillips screw driver and a 10mm socket on a driver handle, and about 15 minutes. I stole the pictures from somewhere on the interwebs because the Bass Pro picture is flash.

Here's the link to Bass Pro, 79.99.

Distractions from Boat restoration: 1963 VW Beetle

1963 VW Beetle. What fun.

Have you seen this logo?

I'm looking for a high quality copy of this data tag/ logo.

Nothing on Google... shocking, right!

Sanded like Hell!

Well folks, the title says it best. I sanded like hell all afternoon. The Cedar strips (the darker ones) are quite a bit softer than the fir strips, and so i may have gouged them in a few places.

The Varnish should arrive next Tuesday from Jamestown Distributors.

I'm not sure of the order of operations. Do I varnish, then tape off the varnished areas and paint, or do I paint, then varnish? I'll come up with a plan.

Also, I found a cut in the fiberglass covering the hull. It look like a quick hit with some sandpaper and a small patch of cloth and resin will fix it up nicely... but my last escapade with fiberglass didn't end so well.

What do you think about Deck Seaming? It appears this boat has never had the deck seamed- but why not? Would it look bad? I think it might add some character. I don't have to decide for a while - that comes much later, after 5 coats (or is it 7) of varnish.

Sanding has started.

I have started sanding the boat. I bought some 120 and 220 sanding discs for my 5" random orbital sander and after using the 120 to cut through the old varnish... I'm headed back to Home Depot to buy some 80.

The wood under the old varnish is pretty, and thick. Thick is good because I can sand out most of the scratches and gouges that come from 58 years of service.

I have decided that I really want a Fein Multimaster. These things are cool, but are they $300 cool? I don't know.

Dryer fixed! Paint Ordered.

So, according to "The Appliance Guy" and his website there are 4 things that usually go out on a dryer, and it's worth replacing all four while you are in there: the igniter, the gas valve coils, the flame sensor, and the overtemp fusible link. The website I ordered from was out of the fusible link, so I put three of the four parts in and the dryer works. Now, on to the boat.

Today I chatted online with 'Jack' at Jamestown Distributors. Based on his recommendations I ordered some finishes for my boat. 1 quart of Fire Red Interlux Brightside, one quart of Blue-glo White Brightside, and one quart of Epifanes CV1000 gloss varnish for the topside. Oh, and a few other things.

Now it's up to UPS.

Pedal the Cause is coming up in 9 days or so. I'm riding the 25 mile route so I have been preparing. I took the bike out for a 12 mile ride today - the bugs were disgusting and are what caused me to cut the ride short. Maybe tomorrow I'll go earlier in the day or something.

Pictures of the interior construction.

Pictures of the interior. No progress. Still collecting info.

The tasks at hand: Boat, dryer

So the few things that need to be done to this boat are mostly cosmetic. The bottom and sides need to be sanded and painted and the top needs to be re-varnished. I went poking around the internet and found the website of a highly recommended supplier, Jamestown Distributors. They have way too many paints to choose from ranging in price from 20 dollars to 200 dollars a gallon.

I suspect I will need 3 different finishes - 1 for the fiberglassed bottom, one for the wooden sides, and clear varnish for the top. I sent Jamestown an e-mail asking for recommendations. Advice is welcomed.

I'm trying to join the Wooden Boat forums, at forum.woodenboat.com, but it seems I am waiting for some unknown person to approve my account.

Not much boat work will get done this week, but I will order supplies.

Oh, the clothes dryer went out. New coils, flame sensor and igniter are on the way. Another project.

Boat Acquired!

Yesterday I bought a boat. You probably do not remember that I built a cajun pirogue last year- it turned out pretty good and was a nice looking plywood boat. I then proceeded to try and fiberglass the boat and all hell broke loose. It got cold over the weekend I was working and the epoxy didn't set up for almost a week. The cloth refused to lay down over the edges and would pop up while sitting there waiting for the epoxy to dry. It was a mess. A 12 year old girl and her father adopted the boat with the plan to sand off most of the fiberglass and try again with a very light cloth that might match the contours better. I never heard back from them... I never lost the itch for a wooden boat either.

So yesterday, Saturday September 25th, 2010, I adopted a factory built wooden boat. It's a 1952 TonkaCraft double cockpit Runabout built by Minnetonka Boat Works in Wayzata, MN. It is currently sporting a modern 25hp Evinrude, but maybe in the future I'll repower with a engine of the correct vintage? But maybe not, this thing has electric start, choke, prime, etc.

The boat has had a West System glass bottom put on it, painted red, and the sides of the boat are painted white. The eye catching (and redeeming) part of this boat is the top side. The deck is planked longitudinally with alternating strips of what appears to be light and dark fir. It's looks very cool.

The trailer... well, I dragged it home 40 miles without any issues! The two new tires that are on it are easily worth more than the rest of the trailer and it was never intended for this boat so it was about 18 inches wider than needed (that's right, *was*, I fixed it with a reciprocating saw). It needs a few bits welded and adjusted, but hey - the price was right.

Amazingly I got all three titles for the equipment and will be going to visit the tax man this week - just to keep it all legal.

More pictures to follow. For now, I need to get sanding.