Cruiser restoration and wheelchair adaption

I have been spending a bit of time stripping the engine you may know I like my engines clean and shiny

Still a bit of water in the oil so another good clean and more new oil.




Sanding it all down I found the original green paint so I went with that.




Thats better.

Today I cleaned out the fuel tank and yep thats the diesel that came out of the bottom :eek:




I also got some of the flooring done and coated in epoxy.







Nothing is fixed down yet as I still have the heating and some wiring to do but it's nice to have somewhere to stand instead of walking on beams all the time.




I had a surprise visit from JamesM and his donation is sure to keep me pointed in the right direction very much appreciated, I do like the old school you can never trust that electrified stuff

I do love a bit of bargain hunting got a nice bit of rubber back carpet.

Not a lot to show this week as I had some running around to do. To mark out the wall I hung some wallpaper backing paper then holding the level rule level with a pencil in the hole at the end I followed the shape of the hull with the other end of the level and transferred the shape to the backing paper I then cut it out and checked it in place before marking it out on the plywood.




Im not sure yet where I want the wall to finish so I left it a bit longer, I should have spent a bit more time levelling the boat while she was on the crane as I'm a bit off level in both directions making things tricky to get right as I have to measure from point to point, not to worry nothing is level for long when it's on the water.



Cut out the framing for the bunkbeds they are just dry fitted for now as I still have to do the insulation and need to get at the rub rail bolts. There is not much head room in the bottom bunk as I need the top bunk low enough that I can wash and change the young lad.

A bit of this and a bit of that this week

Marked out to fit a fuel gauge sender as there was only a dip stick for checking the level.







When drilling out the holes I used a magnet to catch the fillings I will leave it stuck to the bottom of the tank and it should collect any bits that are in the tank.


Job done.



Next I cut out some of the bulkhead I plan to have a good bit of storage behind it so it wont be fixed inlace till I cut out the doors or cubby holes.




Next job was to tackle the head I had to give it a good power wash before I was going in there.




Toilet has to go as it was cracked at the base there was also some movement in the mount so I will have to check that out.



Removed the wall panels to find more rotting timber I hope this is caused by the shower and not the bad aim of the last owner








The plywood in the walls were also a bit on the soft side



So I removed the laminate and glued it onto some new plywood.



After removing the toilet platform it was plain to see why it was so soft, I had to cut off the fibreglass to get the rotten wood out and will glass in a new piece I might even glass the ends so this job will never have to be done again

This week I finished off the head, I used white car wrapping to coat the walls and fitted an electric toilet.






With the rapping that was leftover I did under the windows.





Played around with the hoist that will lift Kyle from the wheelchair to the bed, I used gate hangers to mount it on this way I can have two more in the main cabin and just lift the hoist off and move it.





And finally I picked up the doors and gave them a few coats of epoxy.

Well that was my last week working on the boat with Kyle on his summer hols I wont be getting much done over the next two months except what I can do from home.

This week I put new plywood on both sides.






Fitted the doors and made a curved doorstop for the top.




And the side fillers.




Gave them a few coats of epoxy and fibetglased them in place, I also gave the place a lick of paint just to tidy it up it will all be covered up later so no yellow submarine jokes



Put down some of the insulation.






Covered with plywood.




I was hoping to get more work done on the outside but the weather said NO at least I was able to find all the leaks it would be nice to have the outside finished before winter then I can just potter around inside when the weather turns, maybe I could hire some young lad to sand the whole boat for me there is a hell of lot of square footage in the top,bottom and sides of a 30 foot boat.



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Making a new dash with some old mahogany and ash inlay glued onto half inch ply.






There is something very satisfying about sanding old wood and bring it back to it's former glory.



I put a rim around it just a few mm proud and then filled it with epoxy resin and let it level out.




Now for any of you into the technical side of things My GPS from the other boat has a built in engine management system that runs off a NMEA 2000 backbone so with this I can do away with all the gauges and run every thing off this although I might just piggyback off the old gauges and keep them where the fuse panel is as a backup and to help calibrate the new ones, my only problem it that the NMEA runs off a digital signal sort of plug and play with all modern engines these days and my old BMC has analogue switches as digital wasn't even thought of back then to get around this I using an AlbaCombi to convert the signal http://www.albacombi.com/ with this I can read everything on the boat and add more if needed like water and waste tank levels.

VisionaryP wrote: »

Beautiful. What do use to get that finish? Just varnish or something else?

It's just epoxy resin poured on it levels out on it's own then I use a heat gun to burst any bubbles.





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VisionaryP wrote: »

Amazing, I didn't know epoxy resin could give that finish. Just watched this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQrRVUarzPc

I'll try it out next week.

If you are thinking of doing a table or something for outdoor use you will have to varnish it as the epoxy has very little UV protection, you can still get a mirror finish on the varnish with a bit of work.


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insebayguy wrote: »

Is this the one you refurbished a few years back Fergal? https://www.donedeal.ie/boats-for-sale/sims-super-v/12729013

Yep I bought it for the engine and trailer to use on the Malahini I was building at the time, I didn't do any work to the boat just a spit and polish and sold it on without the engine for a few quid more than I paid for it

insebayguy wrote: »

Haha, RESULT Nice when you have a little victory like that once in a while. She looks well in your pic...

I think he just squirted water over it to try and get the same look



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Nothing very interesting to show again this week, I removed all the timber and fittings it was a hell of job as all the screws and bolts were steal and rusted to bits
The start of the sanding it's slow going but I hope to get a few helping hands on Saturday the 6th to get a push on, feel free to drop by and give a hand or some moral support




With the help of few extra bodies I'm hoping to get back cut off something like this.

Back off.

Tow wrote: »

Also took a few years off her (the boats) style!

How strong is the roof, if someone stands at the back edge etc?
I would always expect a boat's roof to have no problem taking the weight of several hefty men. It would worry me that someone could just step on to the roof to give a hand at a lock etc.

It's over half an inch thick and the door frame is taking all of the load, it takes my weight no problem but I might add in some ribs for those hefty lock keepers




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Not very exciting this week just cutting out holes to take the 6x2 timbers that will hold the swim platform, the timbers will be fibreglassed to the sides and will run under the door frame so it will act as a counter balance and hold them down.



I removed all the stringers from the transom and sanded it flat so it would take the plywood.




The plywood was done in two sheets of 1/2 inch one at a time to make it easy for it to conform to the curve, I used screws and washers on the outside to pull it in tight as there was plenty of old screw holes.






That should be strong enough to stop any spreading of the doorway I might also cut some stainless steel plate to be sure to be sure.