Avenger Bass Boat Restoration

[reekhavuk]

Oh forgot to add. I wanted to let whoever is following this to know material usage so it can help someone. I had to mix 6 batches of PB to place a bed and to fillet those 4 stringers, they are 6'6" long. Each batch was 1/2 a quart, so a total of 3 quarts of resin, and about a quart of 1/4" strands plus a half a gallon of fumed silica. I have about a 1/4 inch at least of PB bedding, prob 3/8 in a lot of places.

Also, i used 3/4" AC Fir (exterior) cause thats the best grade they had in my area. The transom is glued and clamped up with TB3.

I cant believe how strong PB is. I havent even wrapped the stringers with cloth yet and they are very strong. They dont flex at all if you grab one try to move it.

 

[gm280]

It looks pretty good there. Seems you are coming along very nicely. Bravo sir Bravo. :thumb:

 

[gm280]

I just subscribed to your thread. I like your progress thus far and want to watch your build, if that is okay... :thumb:

 

[reekhavuk]

Yes, thanks I really appreciate other peoples interest and comments especially =)

Ive got a problem / lesson learned scenario. I did a lot of PB on my stringers and I was not as clean as I should have been. I got quite a few places where I left what i thought was small spots of PB on the sides of the stringers when I was learning how to get a good fillet and when I laid my glass today, I noticed that it will not lay down around those places without air pockets. So rookie mistake learned. I have to grind a bunch of spots now and patch them. Some are about the size of a quarter, a couple are about 2" or so. I will grind them lightly until the white area is gone and cut some patches the size of the removed material with about 3" overlap around.

It got dark on me so no pics. Good thing is I've learned how important it is to keep your material clean from "splatter / mess" so I wont have this problem on the 2 center stringers in the front or the 4 short back stringers. Also learned that some of my fillet radius's were too small.

 

[Woodonglass]

Another thing about PB a little goes a long way. Your fillets don't need to be very big. Just enough of a cove to allow the fabric to make the corner.

 

[sphelps]

I have found with the fillets that a 24 grit sanding disk bent to a tight curve works well for knocking down the little nubs of your fillets before you start tabbing ..
Wipe with acetone to clean up the dust before glass ..

 

[gm280]

Don't worry, everybody goes through that learning curve. And what you've learned with this PB filleting attempt will carry forward with your next. So as you progress forward, better ideas and ways to do thing will show up. It is how we all learned such things. Keep progressing and posting pictures. And if you do have questions, post them. Nice thing about fiber-glassing is you can always grind things out and redo if need be. But most of the time, a little sanding fixes things. Keep posting.

 

[Slager]

I'll follow along too if you don't mind. I'm going to be learning how to glass in stringers and transom too in a couple months once it warms up here in Michigan.

 

[88evinrude]

Nice to see a bass rig getting a second life.I see its coming along but here is a bit of info. You mention that you havent seen a transom like that its common as others have said and for another manufacturer with that layout t Stratos does.

 

[reekhavuk]

Thanks, nice to have you aboard on my project.

I havent had much time to work, prob be this weekend before i can get some work done...

I have been trying to figure out how im going to re build my llivewell system, here is what i have from the factory. The 2 levers were destroyed during demolition as well as the thru hull fittings and valves. They were all dry rotted and brittle. Im doing away with the front livewell when i put the top back on the boat, there will only be the rear livewell.

The original system would pump in lake water and disperse it into the livewell tank thru a pipe with holes in it to aerate. No pump out or recirc. To empty you would move the lever from close to open at the console.

My current plan is to implement a system that will allow me to 1) be able to pump in / fill the tank with lakewater 2) recirculate the water after the tank is filled and dump it from the top via a pipe with holes to aerate. I dont have to have a pump out, a manual plug i can remove when done is fine. So starting from scratch looks like a good simple way to do this would be 1 new pump hooked to a switch dedicated for recirc duties (plumbed in to livewell at bottom and top) 1 new dedicated pump hooked to transom hooked to a switch for pump in / fill duty (transom to livewell top) and then finally a drain hose running to transom with a manual plug or hand valve to empty the livewell and of course the overflow hose that runs out the side of the boat.

Is this a good plan or is there a better way to accomplish this?

 

[reekhavuk]

New livewell system idea:

 

[gm280]

Reekhavuk. if you are going to install a pump, why not only install just one? If you were to install the fill pump straight to the spray bar and let it both fill the live well and aerate the water at selected intervals. A recirculation pump only circulates the water in the live well and it gets both warm and pretty slimy crappy during a day of fishing. Fresh water from the lake or river you are fishing is a nicer method to keep the fish fresh and alive. But that is just my opinion. The overflow outlet will maintain the water level when pumping fresh water in. So just set your over flor outlet to where you want the level. You can even make a stand pipe at teh drain and let it control teh water leel as well. And that way you only have to wire and setup one pump as well. JMHO

 

[reekhavuk]

Thank for your input GM280! Well, the reason i want a recirc pump is that here in Louisiana it gets hot for a long time in our warm months. I fish a lot of tournaments (usually in my coanglers boat since its nicer) and what we do is in the morning we dump some ice in the filled livewell and add a bit of additive to keep the ammonia and slime out. Then we put it on recirc, which keeps the water cool all day. Pumpin lake water in will heat it back up, since the surface water is always hotter than the deeper water.

This guy has a good video on how we do it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqcvUaZHJJY

 

[reekhavuk]

Made a little progress... got a sick kid right now. Hoping to get a full day tomorrow in.

 

[reekhavuk]

I got my $4 timer in from ebay. FRM01. You can hook it up to anything up to 10amps and set the timer that anything (pump) runs and how long it stays off before running again and it saves that information. Im gonna test it out see how well it works then order another one. Put one on a rocker switch so i can each of the pumps on manual or auto. Will post review information once I get into it. If it works out will be nice to have 2 seperate timers for a total of 8$ =)

Heres a pic of it.

 

[gm280]

Seem you have the hull cleaned out nicely. Looks very good.

I made my own aerator timer setup. There are very cheap to build, but are also available everywhere. I have a panel mounted variable knob to adjust the time. But anything that allows the fish to live and be fresh is a good thing in my book. :thumb:

 

[reekhavuk]

Some stringer work done today. Put some csm on the transom.

 

[reekhavuk]

another stringer view

 

[reekhavuk]

Can anyone point me to a link for these? They are so bad gone that i cant tell how they are suppose to be originally...

Also those like like 2x4's on the flat?

 

[Pusher]

Nice idea on the timer. I'm interested in how it works out.

If that not a 90? channel bolted to the verticle leg?