Well I think this might be the last update on the project before the boat is done and at the show on Saturday! The boat is pretty much done minus a few little small things, a cleaning and engine tuning. I dont have any pictures of the project as a whole but I do have some of little things I did.
I went to clean up the hand rails for the roof and the OE aluminum thin wall tubes were very corroded to the point where I could not properly clean them up so I went to buy new 7/8" tubes. At the metal shop I found that solid 7/8" diameter 6061 extruded bars were 1/3 of the price of drawn tubes! The finish on the extruded bars was not the great compared to the drawn tubes. So.... I bought the solid bar, checked it up to the lathe and did a sanding and scotch-brite buffing then cut it to length. I ended up with a great satin finish and the solid bar gives a nice feel mounted to the roof.
The raw extruded finish...
The final finish...
Up close..
Next was the drain tubes for the splash well. After looking at the plans for the flairing tool and the local outboard shop wanting $25 a day to rent theirs I decided to make my own, again cue lathe. I used a 1/2" nut bolt, 2 fender washers, and then turned the flairing portion out of some scrap 1018 steel (not stainless :cold
I put the tubes in and cut them to length put some 5200 in the holes, put the tool in and hit it once with the air ratchet- result was pretty professional looking IMO. ANd now I have a tool for the next project!
The flaired ends:
