I have returned... with a Starcraft this time!

[BWR1953]

Hi guys. I've mostly just been relaxing and resting for the last couple of days. Although yesterday I did run errands including getting copies of my medical records from the commercial ER where I went the other day, then took those over to my VA doc. And today the VA called and we set up an appointment for me to have a sonogram done on my kidneys next week.

I really do want to get this boat finished but I'm getting a lot of push-back from my wife. She'd rather that I just sell it as it is right now and be done with the thing. Dunno about that!

Ooh, my wife had one of those this summer. She was in tears begging for something stronger for the pain! Steroids aren't much fun either. Hang in there!

The finished bow support looks nice and clean. If the wife had makeup on, I'm sure it still would have held both of them no problem

Yeah, the pain was excruciating all right!

And that cross brace is strong enough to even hold my massive bulk! But I best not climb up there to prove it, lest I get a frying pan upside my head! :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Got a question for you folks.

Anyone used the paint stripper method without using a pressure washer? That is, apply the stripper then scrape?

The boy and I worked for an hour today to get the pressure washer going but no joy. :grumpy:

 

[BWR1953]

Stripper picture! :lol:




I found this video of using stripper without a power washer. And he also used flour mixed in with the stripper to help hold it onto the sides of the hull. I did a test spot on the KF using his method tonight. It worked pretty well!

The discolored area is where we glopped on the stripper mix.



We let it sit for 15 minutes (per the directions) and started scraping. It was very cool to see the paint just peeling off! I'm a happy camper. :joyous:

 

[BWR1953]

No work on the boat yesterday. Had to cut the grass and do other house stuff. And I had to run more home stuff errands this morning.

But! I did do a little more paint stripping this afternoon. I figure it's better to do a little at a time rather than just stopping and trying to get a lot done at a later date. Especially since I'll be gone much of tomorrow.

QUESTION: What kind of pressure washer did y'all use when using it to blast the paint stripper off your hull? My broken one is a 120v electric unit producing 1600 PSI. It was only a hundred bucks when I bought it a couple years ago and I've seen similar units for sale now for only $80. But then I did a little checking on craigslist and found a few used gas powered units which had much higher pressure ratings for about a hundred bucks again. Dunno if I should consider getting a used gas one or a new electric one. Thoughts? :noidea:

TIPS: If you're reading this at some much later date, take heed.

• The Jasco Paint & Epoxy remover is strong stuff! My 5mil Nitrile gloves were not a very good match with this chemical stripper. I splashed a tiny bit on my right pinky and that finger started burning within a minute or two. And later, after scraping the gunk off the hull for a bit, I started feeling it burning through the gloves at the palm. Had to stop, remove and trash the gloves, wipe my hands and then put on new gloves before restarting.
• Have several plastic scrapers available. I noticed that I wasn't making great progress while scraping when I started this afternoon but then switched to a brand new scraper and that did the trick! The paint started peeling off nicely after that.

Second batch of stripper/flour paste applied and after 20 minutes, scraping started.




After about 5 minutes of scraping. Progress.

 

[Watermann]

Been gone for a week and come back to see you're not letting anything get in your way.

Paint stripping isn't much fun especially scraping it off but one thing that will come in handy is a 3M scrub pad with handle to finish off the remnants of paint and primer, especially around the rivets and seams.

 

[BWR1953]

Been gone for a week and come back to see you're not letting anything get in your way.

Paint stripping isn't much fun especially scraping it off but one thing that will come in handy is a 3M scrub pad with handle to finish off the remnants of paint and primer, especially around the rivets and seams.

Thanks WM! I'm keeping on, keepin' on! :lol:

Tell me about your pressure washer. Gas or electric? Pressure rating?

My old buddy came over and helped me get the box blade for my tractor hooked up with the new holes I drilled. It has a nice angle now, so I started cutting into the grade on the west side of the garage. Gonna flatten it out so I can park stuff there. Maybe the KF when I start working on the Chief. After I quit grading, I'll go in and do a little more stripping on the KF.


These are the first coupla passes with the now-angled box blade. Works great!






Break time's over. Heading back out!

 

[Watermann]

I have a gas powered washer, something about water and electricity that makes me apprehensive. :lol:

I have a 2700 psi Homelite with a Honda motor.

 

[BWR1953]

I have a gas powered washer, something about water and electricity that makes me apprehensive. :lol:

I have a 2700 psi Homelite with a Honda motor.

Thanks WM. I'm going to see if I can borrow a gas powered unit from my buddy. Rentals are over $75 a day so not really cost effective.

 

[BWR1953]

Made a bit more progress this evening. Just scraping by. Nyuk, nyuk!

I mentioned to the boy that I was thinking of just leaving the bottom as bare aluminum from the splash rail rivet line on down. He replied "that would be ugly" to which I replied "it would mean less painting" and he immediately shot back, "I think that'll look great unpainted!" :lol:

Temperature was "down" to only 85 when we went out to the garage this evening. Humidity is only 50% though; that helps, so we got a little more done.

 

[BWR1953]

I also made more progress with the grading at the side of the garage. Not done, but getting there! The tractor now sits level along most of the side space. Supposed to get down to 65 degrees tomorrow morning, so I'll hit it again then.

 

[Pusher]

I had a couple musing if you care.

My dad bought a gas powered pressure washer and it would never keep the pressure engaged. You would have to shake the hose or hit the throttle to re-engage it. There was plenty of explitives when project times doubled! That said, my dad tends to cheap out on the "smaller" purchases so he probably bought the low quality model. It also sounds like WM has had good results with his gas washer so experience likely varies based on $ input.

The leveled lot along the shop looks great. I want to build something similar someday. If you've never used it, "ground clear" does wonders for killing everything green for 1-2 years. I don't know how it interacts with water tables and private wells since I'm on city, but you wouldn't be mowing anything on the side lot for at least year if you sprayed it.

 

[Watermann]

Hey ask the boy if he thinks this bare bottom looks ugly.

 

[BWR1953]

Hey ask the boy if he thinks this bare bottom looks ugly.

Yah, he liked that one for sure!

 

[BWR1953]

So I've been doing doctor stuff and more grading around the garage over the last couple of days.

The little tractor did a fine job of getting things leveled out.

The new frame holes allowed me to angle the box blade. Worked great!


It took hours and hours, but it came out fine.





Moved a LOT of dirt!









Yep, the tractor performed well... right up until IT CAUGHT ON FIRE!! :flame:


I'd pretty much finished grading when my wife called me in for lunch. I pulled the tractor over to a shady spot to park. When I shut it down, it backfired. POW!! I saw smoke but the boy saw FLAMES and yelled FIRE! I immediately EJECTED from the tractor seat and started throwing sand on the fire. The boy ran for the garden hose, I got it and drenched the flames. Whew!

At that point, I was done for the day! :lol:

I'll check its condition tomorrow.

 

[Watermann]

Oh man that's not good, hope the tractor didn't get roasted too bad. Other than that air filter and box any damage from the event?

 

[BWR1953]

Dunno yet. Just now pushed it into the garage. Will disassemble and take a look after breakfast. Superficially doesn't look to bad on the outside of the air filter box. Hopefully, it won't be too bad.

The boy is out there cleaning up the work space from all the sand that was in there yesterday.

 

[BWR1953]

Tractor's running again!

Couple burned hoses and some superficial damage, but otherwise okay. More details later. I'm late for nap time! :sleeping:

 

[Watermann]

One thing I learned on my small motors if after working them hard you should let the motor idle not under a load for a few minutes before shutting down it will keep them from wanting to run on or backfire.

 

[BWR1953]

One thing I learned on my small motors if after working them hard you should let the motor idle not under a load for a few minutes before shutting down it will keep them from wanting to run on or backfire.

Yeah, I normally do but was in a rush. My bad. I'd worked that little tractor really hard. Should have known better. :facepalm: :nono:

I need to find a manual to see if there's an idle mixture adjustment for the engine.

Anyway, in addition to some superficial damage and burned insulation on a wire, there were only a couple of burned lines. The fuel line from the pump and the PVC line. Got everything cleaned up and installed new insulation and fuel lines.

It "fired" right up and ran okay for a minute or so and we shut it down. Saw no leaks but did see some smoke coming off the engine. Double checked everything and didn't see anything untoward.

So we started it again. I drove it around a little and brought it back and let it idle for 10 minutes. When I shut it off there was no more smoke. The prior smoke was likely from the carb cleaner and WD-40 leftovers from when we cleaned the engine.

Then I started it again to move it out of the garage; backed it up and it sputtered and stopped running. Out of gas! D'oh!

Anyway, it seems to be okay. Hopefully, it'll stay that way for the long term. :joyous:


It's pretty lucky that we have a yard full of sand so that I could immediately start throwing it on the fire. Made cleanup a bit of a mess though.

 

[BWR1953]

Finally! A tiny bit more boat stripping progress! Been very busy doing doctor and home stuff again. But I really wanted to do SOMETHING. Ya know?

Got the flour/Jasco mixed up and glopped it on the hull as usual about 5:20 this evening. About that time my wife came home from work and visited us in the garage while we were waiting for the stripper to do its job. Once we started scraping she was totally amazed at how well it worked. Yah. Good stuff!

Then she wanted to jump in and start helping! Had to stop her quick. She's not been trained with the chemical stuff like the boy has. But I'll get her trained and let her help this coming weekend! :lol:

Oh yeah, just as we were finishing up scraping around the rivets and whatnot, the boy said "I wish we could just use a drill." Well, duh! :facepalm: Out of the mouths of babes...

I had him grab the cordless drill and the bathtub cleaning wheel. The Jasco was mostly dried but it cleaned up around the rivets pretty well!

I still have to get some 3M pads though.

Small progress. But progress!