1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Yep^^^^ tanker for sure!!!

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Update:

Ok, i cut all the rear stringer portions out from the aft cabin bulkhead back....

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

As seen here, the outer stringers were all white meat, but i took them out anyway, because of one small 3 inch section they left unglassed towards the rear.

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

I started grinding out the transom and keyhole area, to give it a final check....




most of the grime sanded off, exposing blond wood, except for a few spots.

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

So i poked whatever was still dark, and found some rot..



So the transom is coming out...

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Wow! zool...I have just gotten through your thread and you must have a serious case of double vision...like you said, no sooner do you get one side done, then its time to start on the other...whew!
You are definitely taking it to the next level by replacing all the wood substructure, looks like a mammoth job...
Awesome project and its gonna be a beautiful boat when you get it done...and a heck of a lot more powerful with a pair of 5.7's in the back...
Can't wait to see how your new cabin comes out...any plans on hanging a plasma TV with satellite reception for those long weekend outings...?
Best regards and have fun!
GT1M

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Can't wait to see how your new cabin comes out...any plans on hanging a plasma TV with satellite reception for those long weekend outings...

Hey GT, you hit on one of the questions i have about tv mounting. I kinda plan on putting a tv.dvd at the cone of the vberth, which gets the brunt of the beating in a pounding sea, but for logistical purposes, thats the best spot...

I wish i was there now tho

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Hey GT, you hit on one of the questions i have about tv mounting.

Good point, I never really thought much about it...I have seen lots of boats with TV's in the cabin, and they get their share of pounding out on the big waters, so I can only guess that the electronics and screens on TV's are capable of taking the pounding as long as they are properly and solidly mounted...

I guess it is pretty commonplace because while thinking about this, I made a search on the web for mounting a television in a boat, and came up with this...
Installing a television in a boat
and saw this...
How to Install Satellite TV on Your Boat | Boating Magazine
and this...
LCD TV Mounts - LCD TVs - Products
So there you go...piece of cake......well it will be after everything you are going through to rebuild this boat...

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Ive had my eye on this little unit, to mount on a fabricated board at the bow....I think it should be ok, cuz if things get hairy, i could always disconnect it and stow in safely...maybe using wing nuts to attach to bracket.

19 Widescreen DC Television w/Digital Tuner & DVD NTD1952

Either way, its hard to think electronics, while sitting in a pile of fibreflour

My main goal right now is to get the under deck glassing all done, and get the self bailing cockpit back together...theres enough headroom and access panels to do the systems with the deck back in...Im thinking now that it may be best to get the hull body work done after the decking, and just spot prime the repair areas, then do the cabin interior, then work out from there....getting in and out with the interior work, will just have me redoing the paint work.

I can probably work over the winter on the cabin, if i get the heat pump in, and run dockside power from a barn....

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

In figuring out my options for the transom replacement, ive got a few options...

One would be to remove all of it from the cap down, but the downside to that is that the deck sides attached to the backer board where the cap attaches to the hull would have to be cut out, and would make it more challenging to get the deck seams solid, even with the gridding i plan to add. The other downside is I would have to lap the ply strategically between the keyholes on one lap, and past the outer edges of the keyholes on the other laps, to make up the 10' wide beam...and im not sure if its at or under 4' from the drain hole to the cap where the transom wood stops.

Another option I have is to cut out the thicker center portion and expand its size to allow a 4" lap on both sides and the top, after removing the skin. Then I could use solid pieces of ply and gain the added size, plus the lap, clamped and epoxied or tbIII'd, then layered up with 1700 45 and built up to the original skin thickness, keeping a linear plane throughout.




here you can see the side decking around the tiedowns

excuse the shaky hand, must be the ISO's

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

I'm not sure that I understand all of the issues, but it sounds like you have your hands full! I hadn't thought of having to deal with a 10' wide hull, I wonder if they actually used a 10' piece of plywood on it originally. I have seen a few oversized sheet goods like that, but mainly OSB and MDF.

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

I'm not sure that I understand all of the issues, but it sounds like you have your hands full! I hadn't thought of having to deal with a 10' wide hull, I wonder if they actually used a 10' piece of plywood on it originally. I have seen a few oversized sheet goods like that, but mainly OSB and MDF.

When I removed the firewall bulkhead, it was one single sheet of 3/4 just under 10'..so i assume they used the same in the transom...I can only seem to find 8' and 8.5' marine abx and by special order only. What i think im gonna do is remove the transom skin, and see how it was laid up, if it was a full sheet layup, and the wood is good, ill prolly just remove the thick keyhole area and lap it over the remaining transom, and save myself some grief...

my hands are full alright, full of gouges from the unguarded flap disk, that chit hurts:twitch:

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Update:

Ok, so figuring what to do today, i decided it was best to assemble something on this great day in US history, as opposed to destroying.....well, umm. it was too hot to sit in the bilge and grind

So i decided to work on the tank since it has to go back in before i glass in the bulkhead and motor mount. so i took the Winnebego and set it on some horses where i new it would be shady..



It was covered in grime, surface rust and corrosion, (especially under the neoprene strips, fyi), waxed poly resin, ect.

So I degreased it and cleaned it down some with 120 on a electric makita disk sander.





this is where the neoprene strips where adhered to the bottom of the tank, theres pitting in some areas of the lower sides and bottom, but most everything came back pretty good.



What i plan to do is clean it all up again with 180, then prep and etch the whole exterior of the tank, then fill and skim the pitting with rust inhibited aluminum filler, then seal it up with por15 silver and be done with the exterior.

The inside dosent look bad, no visible gunk , but some spotted surface rust. I washed out the inside, now im gonna put a bunch of Xylene and let it soak, turning it every hour or so, for any invisible varnish. Im gonna add Metal Ready to etch the inside, then US Standard fuel tank sealer.

I have on hand the phosphoric acid dx533 and chrmic acid dx503, and i have the metal to metal filler. I just need to order Por15 silver and thinner, metal ready, and the US Standard sealer.

All said and done it will prolly cost a little over 200 to redo the tank, as opposed to i bet about a grand for a new custom built.

Tommorow ill try to get the skin off the transom...

Happy 4th!

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)



Its all cleaned up and back to bare aluminum, i gotta pick up some 180 in 6" for the d/a and maybe the por15 and sealer will be in by next week. The smaller makita let me grind into some of the pitting, and level out the seams a bit while i was there. The tank was welded in three sections when built. I still gotta take out the vent fittings and polish them up, and hand sand that area some more.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Looking good, bud!!! Happy 4th!!!!

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Looking good, bud!!! Happy 4th!!!!

Thanks wood, hope u had a good holiday

The tank looked alot worse than it was, after i cleaned it all up. If it wasnt for the pitting, i could have probably just trizacted it shiny and just seeled the inside for insurance.

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Update:

So i started removing the skin on the transom, to see where the nastyness goes..





so i took it up a little further, still some darkness on the surface


from what i could tell, it looks like they scabbed 8' sheets, then expanded out the keyhole area to thickness.

I could see the remnants of other keyhole bolt holes for smaller Merc openings, so this may have been built with Mercs, then altered for a volvo power package at some point in the build.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

Yeah, I'm bettin lammin up som 8'ers with epoxy will be just fine for the transom. How thick is it?

 

[zool]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

overall its just over 2" at the keyhole area..2.07 on the digital caliper..

Outer glass skin is 1/4"
Inner skin was 3/16" + gel
the rest was ply.

Im gonna probably make it all one thickness, possibly 2 layers of 15/32 and one 23/32, then build the inner skin back to spec.

Getting the 10' piece back in will be a bit tricky, but i measured and with some twisting and fiddling, i think it will go in ok..

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 1988 Imperial 280sf engine swap and restoration (pics)

glad you are making great progress! Funny that you are retrofitting a retro-fit! lol!