It begins

[Watermann]

Looks like you have some work ahead of you on the trailer. Trailer work is a chore for me, just one notch up from paint stripper. Looks cold there still :cold:

My Chief's trailer came with some 3/8" ply covering the inner side of the fenders. No need for carpet if the boat doesn't rub them. This is what I ended up doing, I cut 080 AL to shape, primed, painted and riveted on.

 

[hayko1971]

Yes it's still cold here, wet snow all day today. A bit of work yes in the trailer, I'm thinking of looking for different wheel wells, maybe ones that can be steps also, like yours Waterman.

 

[Watermann]

So do tell Hayko what's the old gal peeking around the left side of the garage?

 

[hayko1971]

That is a little glass 14 footer with a 35hp Viking on it. I don't know much about it, It was given to me by my folks with a condition attached... I never bring it back! Lol
Anyways, hauled it home, got the motor running, then discovered a crack in the hull so there it sits. I don't know what I'm going to do with it...

 

[dozerII]

Looks like you got a little of that yukky weather we had. 1/4"puck board make real good inner fender covers for the trailer, no painting or maintainance needed and just rivet them on. I will check out your trailer photos for bunk ideas when I get back from a business trip later.

 

[dozerII]

I was hoping the trailer frame was a little wider so the boat could sit lower. All the ideas I'm coming up with involve a whole lotta welding and fab work to change to bunks.

 

[hayko1971]

I was hoping the trailer frame was a little wider so the boat could sit lower. All the ideas I'm coming up with involve a whole lotta welding and fab work to change to bunks.

Yeah, I'm still pondering, but likely I'll end up leaving it as rollers. I don't have any issues launching or loading straight, so I'll just leave it alone and put new rollers on... I mean it's worked well enough for 36 or so years.

 

[hayko1971]

Well it warmed up today to a balmy 8 degrees above zero Celsius. (46 for our American brethren). It felt much warmer in the sun, so I decided to try another paint strip test.
I slathered on the gooey safe strip, really heavy coat, let it sit for about 2 hours and it scraped off easy enough. Then I scrubbed it with a brush, then hit it with my pressure washer. There was a little zinc primer left behind, I just scrapped it with the brush again and pressure washed it right off. I think it worked well!





I wonder if these squiggle scratches will buff out well...

 

[hayko1971]

Tracing the swoop... I plan to try and replace it. I'm using a light cover, it's transparent,rigid enough to make a template, and surprisingly rubbery and flexible.

 

[Decker83]

Looks like a great ideal for the swoop.. Can use one pattern for the left and right side..

 

[hayko1971]

that was my plan, as long as I get the curve right, the rest is just straight lines, or close enough that it'll work for me.

 

[Watermann]

I really like the SC swoosh design of those years, way better than the busy mess they have now. Is the plan to buff a shine on bare AL or paint the hull and then the swoosh?

 

[hayko1971]

The reason I've always wanted a tin boat is to have the aluminum look. I'm going to try to keep it bare with the swoosh.
Sanding primer and paint seems like it would be much easier though!
I hope my tin looks half as good as others I've seen on here after a polish, I'd be happy with that.
My bottom is rough and scratched etc... But the sides above the waterline look fairly good to me.
We'll see how it turns out!

 

[dozerII]

Have you tried putting some plastic on the safe strip after you put on a heavy coat, it seems to help.

 

[hayko1971]

Have you tried putting some plastic on the safe strip after you put on a heavy coat, it seems to help.

I didnt try the plastic, but that was my plan for a test tonight... It came off well enough that I'm going to try a bigger test area!

 

[hayko1971]

Stripping continues, the paint comes off well enough, but it seems like a lot of yellow residue is left behind. I assume it's primer, it looks like the color of the pictures of zink chromate primer I've seen.
Maybe I'm not letting the stripper sit long enough? I covered it with poly and let it sit for about 3 hours. Most was mixed with flour, I tried a bit with no flour... It seems to work better without the flour, unless I have my ratio off. I'm mixing about 3-4 stripper to 1 flour.

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Usually you wont get all layers in one shot. Where mine still had the original primer, I either through another thin coat of stipper on it or used that 3m paint stripper brush on the drill.

Eventually I went straight for the drill to save on stripper.

The spots where that primer was already removed from previous paint sanding jobs, the strippers usually got it all the way to the aluminum.

 

[hayko1971]

Yup, kinda what I was thinking... I may give it a quick sanding to get it off

 

[astor]

Yup, kinda what I was thinking... I may give it a quick sanding to get it off

Stripping is certainly a pain,,,, Even after I stripped and stripped some more, there was still some paint residue, then I wound up sanding the hull with 2 grits to get it ready for polish. Started with 300 grit and finished with 600g. There were a few areas that I started with 120grit that were really scratched. But how much aluminum are you willing to remove to get out the deep scratches. Rather than thin the hull too much I just left a lot of scratches and polished it.

 

[hayko1971]

I won't obsess too much over minor scratches, I mean the old gal is almost as old as I am and I have a few scratches too!