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

[BWR1953]

The bow brace is outta there!

I was running around doing other project stuff for most of today, but we finally got the brace out this evening. Tomorrow I'll start the OTF treatment on the wood pieces. Then we wait for it to dry and whatnot.


The boy first did the final touch-up of paint stripping, then removed the plastic drop cloth.

 

[BWR1953]

Sigh. I was "unsupervised" all day today and couldn't get any KF work done. Plus the beginning of the month always keeps me very busy as well. :grumpy:

But later this evening the boy and I went out to "quickly" treat the bow brace wood with OTF. Yeahhhh... that didn't happen. :disturbed:

I actually remembered that I was supposed to cut holes through the plywood near the ends of the brace(s) next to the hull in order to provide wiring loom clearance. (I have 3/4" split wire loom en route.) But the brackets which attach the brace to the hull were in the area I need to cut. Not enough "meat" at the end of the brace to cut the holes. Frustrating.

Figured out that I could cut a relief area at the top end of each brace, which required measuring from the hull sides to the wood. A job for the boy! So he crawled under there and measured the existing gap. Then we needed to know how much more clearance would have to be cut. An excuse to have the boy do some math! Took him a minute but he got the math right. I'm not sure that he fully understands what the clearance is all about, but that will come once the cuts are made and the installation is done.

I'm hoping that my ol' bud Charlie will be available tomorrow morning to be safety monitor so that I can get this small task done. But at least we measured something and did math!

No pix tonight because by the time we were done it was after the boy's bedtime. :sleeping:

 

[BWR1953]

Small tasks. Uh huh. Right. :lol:

A couple days ago I took a look at the bow braces and realized that I need to just go ahead and make some brand new ones. The existing braces are kinda chewed up from being installed and uninstalled during all my experimenting. My ol' buddy needs a favor from me and my truck tomorrow morning. Might be able to get him to be safety monitor for me while I address replacing the braces.

Meanwhile, the only KF thing I've done over the last few days has been to mess around with the logo thing and to acquire more tools and whatnot.

I gave up on the idea of making a port and starboard logo set. After modifying the existing logo with my photo software, it just looked awkward and odd. Lesson learned. Movin' on.


Took a thumb drive with the SC logos over to Office Depot and had them printed out full size. Eight-four cents for one and 53 cents for the other. Cheap!

 

[BWR1953]

I did receive a drill guide a few days ago. Hoping to get that bad boy put to use in the not-too-distant future.

 

[mickyryan]

just bought one myself it works great!

 

[Watermann]

I like both the mock up decals... except for the circled logo, that font with a logo that isn't circled would look great to my eye.

Something like this maybe? :lol:

 

[crankbait cowboy]

nice work BWR, i also purchased one of those drill guides and like, it has come in very handy on my project , i second h20 s thoughts on those decals for what its worth

 

[BWR1953]

I like both the mock up decals... except for the circled logo, that font with a logo that isn't circled would look great to my eye.

Something like this maybe? :lol:


[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/3g8hla.bn.files.1drv.com\/y4m47dirSlbdbWPLA9kYly-8R27qnkMFcnB6oWdvOqxHdIz90QbqydOGkLgDtU6TIkvIbN3LatM3DJSIeepw2mY_vRYQvf09sgBoymYsvmnlRwdLTqyiERwEdjp8uTCXiQ9nvmzQOQGgVU3Sw00GdWSKPvCna2J3stO4Sv_cZz6HajU9Y8SMdyGpR3F3Wnpq4J5X3VmHb1A-lzKR1BN7cAxhQ?width=1024&height=577&cropmode=none"**[/IMG2]

Things that make you go hmmmmm.... :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

The only thing I did related to the KF today was to put the trolling motor for sale on craigslist.

That 28 lb. thrust MotorGuide just isn't quite enough for this boat. I've known that for awhile but time is getting to the point where I need to get a replacement with more thrust pretty soon. Especially since I'll probably have to refinish the replacement too.

I missed out on two different TM replacements when I went on that Chieftain mission a week ago. One was a 54 lb. thrust unit and the other was a 55 lb. unit. Both were 12 volts. Each of them were located along the same route that I took to get the 70HP Merc for the Chief. But one was gone before I returned and it was late on a Sunday when we came back, so I waited on the other until that Monday morning. After breakfast I checked and that second one was gone as well. Dagnabit. :blue:

I'll keep on searching.


The old unit which will be replaced with something with more oomph.

 

[BWR1953]

Been a very busy week for me, but today was the first day of Spring Break for the boy! He has 10 full days off, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to make some serious KF progress during that time.


So I dragged him along with me while I went out doing boat and garage errands. He was okay with it since he had his tablet with him.


Speaking of tablets... earlier this week I came down with yet another side effect from the steroid that I have to take. Treatment for the side effect added still more pills to my daily regimen.

This is my actual daily pill load now. DAILY!! :faint2:


BUT!! I did do something KF related today.


Bought these aluminum trailer guide-ons for it! I'll have the boy do the cleanup on them and probably we'll do some repainting as well. I've been thinking of painting the uprights in a black/white/black/white pattern with 1 foot spacing to help give a better idea of depth when launching.

 

[BWR1953]

And last night I did a little more photo-editing. I'm really liking that modern Split-S logo without the circle. Yeahh... :joyous:

 

[Watermann]

That's the ticket right there! :thumb:

 

[nrf414]

Another vote for this proposed layout.

 

[MD28]

That looks real sharp!

 

[baldwibr]

My wife just told me that she’d like to do that with out boat. That’s a pretty big compliment so it definitely looks awesome!

 

[BWR1953]

Thanks guys! Am looking forward to getting to the point where I can actually paint the thing!

After working on getting the garage in better shape during the day today, the boy and I actually did some KF work after dinner tonight!

The goal was to provide adequate clearance for the 3/4" wire loom that I ordered. It's on a slow boat from China so likely won't show up until the middle of April.

Here's what the clearance issue looked like under the bow. We'd bolt each brace to the bow, then test, then remove and cut, then repeat until it was finally all done for both brace sections. We used an 11/16" socket to simulate the diameter of the wire loom The boy did all the crawling around and test fitting under the bow and whatnot. Then I cut the chamfer to get the needed clearance. Had to do some sanding with my drill sanding drum towards the end.



The only problem that we ran into is that the blades for my jigsaw didn't fit! Wrong type for my machine. So the boy came up with an "operational workaround to a hardware limitation." We used my cheapo HF special miter box to make the cuts. Took a lot longer but we got them done!

 

[BWR1953]

Aaaaand.... no work on the KF today. Got side-tracked with a small road trip to get a TV for my garage, then on the way home my wife insisted that we stop and fish awhile! Who's to argue with that? Not me! :eyebrows:

So we did!



After I got home and fussed with the TV awhile, I was too tired to work on the KF, even though I'd gone to WM earlier and picked up some new blades for my jigsaw. I'll be rested and ready to get at it tomorrow though! :tongue:

 

[BWR1953]

Made progress today. I finally ordered some cotton-pickin' rivets!! :lol:

We did other stuff too.

Traced the bow brace pieces onto the new plywood.


Clamped the new ply into place. Jigsaw with new blade and safety gear on hand.

 

[BWR1953]

Haven't mentioned weather in awhile. We had a warmer than usual spell a couple weeks ago but since then it's been spectacular! Great working-on-boat kinda weather. Too cool for painting but great for being out there doing stuff!

Right now it's in the mid-30s so we'll wait till it warms up a bit before we head back out to continue KF work.

Frost on the Genesis this morning.




Forecast is looking good.

 

[Watermann]

Yeah good painting weather is dry and warm between 70 - 80