And the project continues....

[jfrprops]

My old engine is going to be sitting pretty in that ride!

John from Va.

[Peter M Jardine]

What a great color..... and nice job.

[quitchabitchin]

Got the top half painted today and needless to say, I am very happy with the way it turned out. Part of this project is to prove that you can build a excellent user quality boat on a shoestring budget. While you could spend thousands to get a paint job like this, I have lots of time, but only around $500 in this job.

More to come...interior vinyl will be ordered this week. I have researched several trim shops locally and have gotten a quote that I can live with from a guy with decades of experience. He is going to make the covers from my current seats and I will install them and wrap all of the flat pieces myself.

Here are the pics of the top half...

[jfrprops]

wow! really POPS! great job......will follow your interior work with interest as I face same job on Argentine boat soon .....

John in Va.

[quitchabitchin]

Well, the boat is going to finally see the light of day this weekend. I am going to put her back on the trailer and bring her home so I can finish up there. I dropped the interior off today and should have it back by the end of next week. I will keep you posted on her progress.

[Episode VI]

Impressive...keep it coming!

[jfrprops]

Do keep us posted! Really looks impressive.

John in Va.

[Chad Durren]

Looks great. Can't wait to see it with the new upholstery and the Q dropped in.

[quitchabitchin]

Got my front seat covers back today...they look great. The seat back plywood is delaminating so I need to cut a new piece for it before I can install them. How many hours are in a day? I need each day to be around 36.

[quitchabitchin]

Here is a shot of the engine cover. This is just temporarily laying over the foam, the finished installation will be much tighter without the wrinkles. I got all the pieces back today and just need to start wrapping the old foam.

[quitchabitchin]

I keep plugging away, taking care of some small, tedious tasks such as cleaning up old exhaust pipes, polishing the Hull ID Tag, and tackling the interior a piece at a time. I have been painting the plywood base of each piece of interior before putting on the upholstery cover, so the process takes a while with paint drying time (2-3 coats min.) A slow process, but I have put off the scheduled finish until Spring, so I can take my time and address some things that I know will bug me if I don't do them such as painting the bilge, painting all of the wooden seat frames,etc, cleaning up the outside and probably painting the fuel tank, and the list goes on. I have very little free time right now, so I sometimes spend late night hours in the garage "destressing" from the rest of the world around me. Here are a few pics of the progress.

[quitchabitchin]

I am slowly moving along here, my life is pretty insane right now. My wife has been to California for training twice in 3 months for 10 days at a time, leaving me with all 3 little ones to care for. I get very small blocks of time, usually late at night, to sneak in a little garage time, so progress is being made, albeit very much slower than I would like. I have a line on some teak boards that I plan to have resawn and use for flooring, it is currently held up in receivership, but should settle soon and I have a good inside track on obtaining it, keeping my fingers crossed. Here are a couple of quick shots.

I decided to have a little fun with the otherwise boring and ugly galvanized fuel tank.

[Peter M Jardine]

Ahhh perfect, a guy polishing his exhaust pipes. We are brothers.

This is the stuff our wives look at dumbfounded amazement

Love the upholstery pattern.

[quitchabitchin]

Thanks Peter. My thought is "If it can be shiny, it should." I polished the brass straps for the exhaust pipes the other day. I hate to put something together that is covered in overspray or years of grime.

[Chad Durren]

Looking good. I cleaned my cooper pipes last week using the toilet bowl cleaner trick as well. I will never sand another piece of copper again.

[Peter M Jardine]

I had not hear that tip before... going to use it...

[quitchabitchin]

I was in the chemical sales business for several years. We always demo'd the toilet bowl cleaner by shining up a dirty penny. The industrial ones are the best, although also the most potent. Most contain some type of acid, quality determines the concentration, so I suggest diluting the stronger ones, especially if using them on brass/bronze. Copper is pretty tough, just be sure to rinse well as to stop the chemical cleaning process. I actually rinse with an akaline solution to neutralize any acidic residue. Just mix a genral purpose cleaner with water for this step.