my new old 1988 ss20v

[ab59]

I like the idea of Aluminum for the deck but the cost of the material is a little up there. Gotta think that if I had a boat that I intended to keep I would find some on CL maybe for a little less than retail and put it in though .

 

[Watermann]

Decker and waterman I see on another's post that you do not recommend 3/4" marine ply for the deck and go on to say that the 1/2 " is all you need and it is in fact what Starcraft uses exclusively . You guys are the first ones that I ever heard of using 1/2 and not regretting it in a couple of years. I am curious as to how you braced it up to not have it sag under your feet or begin to break down under use .
I put back what I found in my Starcraft which was the 3/4 " mainly because after 27 years of abuse it still had about a little over half of good ply and the top two layers were rotted from exposure.
I did look at the 1/2" but decided to stay with what was in there from the factory but would have much rather kept the weight down with the thinner ply it I thought it would have held up.
I guess we are not bracing up the deck rite out here . Is there a structural diagram for bracing the deck anywhere ?

My base deck is 5 layer 1/2" fir ply on my SS with 5/8" for the raised decks. All you have to do for extra bracing is add some angle tabs to the deck supports and then rivet some 1/8" thick angle AL on the the tabs to span between them. Put in your deck panels and walk on them to see where else you need the supports.

If your gauging if 1/2" will last as long as 3/4" when leaving the boat out to the elements to rot out then no it's not as thick so it won't last as long.

The V5 model has 4 deck supports, 2 shorter ones on the outside of the main beams so it has some great support for the deck pieces that are cut to lay in length ways rather than across. Below you can see a support I added that is a semi-boxed piece of AL and the foam is laid in to add support as well. No it doesn't squeak when walked on, it's just solid.

 

[Watermann]

Very solid deck for being 1/2" ply but it's good quality stuff too being 5 layer.

 

[ab59]

I may just try this method but with 5/8 on my next venture . your probably right about 1/2 being enough along with bracing and the foam packed tightly underneath but I like the idea of extra strength on the deck . Seems like the biggest killer of boats out here is a great many people are parking the boat outside for the winter with or without a cover and never looking at it again till next season.When they go out and look they find their boat full of water with plenty of rotting vegetation waiting for them. The deck and the upholstery seems to always be bad for said reasons guess that s why I lean towards the thicker ply for a deck.

 

[ab59]

Memorial done today no more distractions for a while hopefully.
A question for those who know. I have primered my windshield frames 2+ times . Waiting at least 24 hrs between coats I wet sanded after they were dry. Most of the corners and seams seem to sand back to Aluminum while doing the between coats sanding. How should I deal with this problem ? should I primer one more time and not sand ? Should I just paint over it ? What you think ? I was using 800 grit sandpaper to wet sand the frames.

 

[Watermann]

Ugg sanding, not for me...

I shoot SE primer, wait half hour, shoot regular primer, wait 1 hour, shoot first coat of paint, looks good, wait one hour and shoot top coat... done. Chemical bond forms between all the layers not relying on adhesion to a dried layer that has to be sanded.

 

[ab59]

Dang , could have used that bit of knowledge a long time ago . Too late for the window frames with the primer but will shoot the top coats accordingly with your methods.
I bought this touch up gun to shoot these frames with( and other smaller jobs ) but have never used it , don't suppose that you have used this type before and have any advice for me on that. Otherwise I'll just go back to the ol' trial and error ways.
It has a 1.4 tip .

 

[Watermann]

Not used one of those before, only gravity feed HVLP guns.

 

[Decker83]

Do a google search on conventional spray guns. Have a lot of good info and look at you tube.. These guns work well but have more over spray..

 

[ab59]

I looked through youtube the day I bought it but never really found anything on this particular model . I guess it's like the old air house painting siphon guns . I used to do ok with those but been 20 years ago. went to airless and never bought another one till this little touch up gun.
think i'll go surfin for some info again on the internet.

 

[ab59]

Too funny, who said God doesn't have a sense of humor . I finally got to the point of shooting the top coats on my little windshield frame project and the wind started to come up. I got most everything out and ready but each time the wind quit I would go out and start to get my concoctions of paint , hardener , thinner and tac cloth and the wind would gust and steadily blow at about 15 mph. After a couple of times of this it was to late to paint so I shut everything down for the night and just did some more research on using this new siphon touch up gun. This morning everything looked great . Once again I uncovered my work table and drug all my stuff out of the shop to get started. Perfect cool morning but when I poured two cups of paint into the into my mix bucket out of nowhere comes a 15 to 20 mph wind ! I was a little agitated for a little bit but then just shut everything down , bagged up my paint and am sitting here waiting for the wind to lay down . Too bad my nice cool morning is gone and if the wind does quit I will be working in 100* weather not the cool 75 like this morning.
It's like God is testing me or just having a good laugh while we play " now we got it , Now we don't " work days.
Don't care if it is 100 as long as the wind quits and I can finally get some paint on these frames today. Waiting to see and I hope he has had his joke for now , lol.

 

[Watermann]

Oh man you guys trying to paint right now are having a tough go of it.

 

[ab59]

ya , BWR is having his woes as well and I feel for him. A lot incommon. For me it's almost comical for the amount of stuff that keeps popping up that is derailing my efforts. Laugh or cry and i don't feel like snivelin' . Tomorrow is another day and maybe we will get a good run at things. will see.

 

[ab59]

Hallelujah , Hallelujah , the first coat is down !!!! Going to shoot two more an hour apart and hope for the best .
My work table is made from my old deck , made a nice 11 ft table top.

 

[ab59]

Ok , I'm stopping at two coats , starting to pile up a little here and there so good enough. Hopeful to install tomorrow. That should be interesting as I do not believe that the consoles are anywhere near equally lined up.

 

[Watermann]

Lookin good, glad that worked out for you this time. :encouragement:

 

[BWR1953]

So how does the paint look? Wasn't the temperature high when you painted? Any blushing?

 

[ab59]

BW - the paint looks pretty good in the areas that I did not screw up the primer . Thought that I had the runs sanded out really good but many showed through. I had the glass out of one side and from wrestling the the glass back into the frame and gaskets I seriously rubbed the paint off in several places as it was still fairly soft being less than 24 hrs after painting. Looks like I have to repaint that one, mabe both if I find many runs on the other one.
I had a couple of spots where I got the paint piled up a little but this paint seems to flow well and by this morning most of it had flowed out smooth so I got lucky there.
This new 12 dollar touch up siphon gun works pretty dang good for what it is. I pinched it down to a 3 inch fan at 6 inches away with the air pinched down as well to give me a stingy amount to spray and I had total control over the thickness of the paint for the most part.
Don't know about you but I'm gettin pretty blind and black is impossible to see unless I can get into a position to where I can see the wet of the paint . If I can't get that position then that is when I really screw things up.

 

[BWR1953]

Vision... ah, yes.

When spraying I wear the respirator as required which puts my eyeglasses well above the normal level and that means that I'm trying to see through my bifocals while spraying! Makes walking around the garage "interesting" too.

While painting I'm also not completely stable on my feet, which causes a rocking motion as I move, which then gets translated onto the paint job. Getting old... sigh. :lol:

 

[ab59]

ya gettin old is not much fun sometimes , especially when you get old enough to realize that youth is wasted on the young :joyous: . Born in 55 I'm no spring chicken either . Sometimes I think about the ol attage of " if I* had of known I would ever live this long I would have taken better care of myself " but in reflection I really don't think I would have. Candles were always made to burn at both ends that's why the wick runs all the way through. Got to say though if it weren't for all these damn serious illnesses I might not be so bad off but then again I digress.