Have the old name sanded off on the port and stern sides. Can't quite get to the starboard side until we get the van finished to move the boat away from the fence. Got the van titled and insured.
We THINK we have isolated the FINAL issue on the van. Got the part. Seems the column ignition switch is the final problem. It must have been borderline becasue when the steering column went back in it has not started since. Everything else in the ignition system checks out. Hopefully tomorrow she runs again. Except for the lights she was running fine.
Finally discovered what the problem with the lights were. It turns out the equivalent of the electrician from H E double hockey sticks must have been the maintenance man on this van, becasue he sure missed his calling as a electrical ax murderer. The wiring harness for trailer light literally fell apart in my hand when I checked it. Can you say MAJOR CORROSION? Had to run all new wiring for just the van. Have not begum to wire for trailer . I don't know who put the fuses in but almost every single one was either burnt, cracked or foggy. The corrosion in the fuse panel was so thick if you could have gotten a knife in it you could have cut off chunks.
Put in a new turning signal harness . Ordered the one for an E 150. You would think it would work After all my title says I have an E 150. Not so . By shear accident my son noticed that an F150 harness was the perfect match to the one we had. Once we ordered that, it fit in just great. The E150 was not only the wrong configuration for the turn signal hole but for the 4 way notch as well. Now minor modifying would have worked except the danged thing was about 1 mm to wide. We both tried every way possible to get it to go in, but it was just not going to happen. Other then that all we have had to do was the fuel pump. It was leaking gas all the way home.
Other then that we replaced a lot of the interior lights. One switch on the panel for inside lights does not seem to work but at this point I'm not going to worry about it. I'm thinking it is for an accessory that is no longer installed as everything works inside. There is a blue wire under the hood that looks like a CB or stereo amp was attached to it so I'm thinking that is what the extra is for.
Got the pop top off and the interior sanded and final coat of primer on. Plan on putting the first coat of paint on her tomorrow and getting the companion way slider sanded and primed. I hate having her sitting out naked in the drive way like that, with only a tarp over her, but it really needed to be done. Once I get the interior finished I'll put her back on and do the exterior in place.
Got the v berth tore out and the flotation foam all put together into one really big chunk. If you notice the bottom portion of the pic you can see I have TONS of extra storage in the aft part of the area under the v berth. I think when I am finished it will be a whopping 2 foot wide all the way across the widest part, which is a LOT of extra storage on a 22 ft boat. Not sure how wide my back side is sitting down, but I can literally sit in it with at least a good hand width on each side so I did good on that. I have been trying to decide what to do with the extra space. Part of the time I think it would be a great spot for water storage. But then who wants to hear water sloshing right under you when your trying to sleep? Part of me thinks it is the perfect place to put groceries. I'm seriously thinking 5 gallon buckets would fit side ways real nice. I just have not taken the time to check it out. Time will decide. Am planning on putting a bulkhead between the new storage area and the flotation material. It will also serve the purpose of supporting the v berth.
I actually got around to measuring the length of the v berth. It is 6 ft. It sure does not look like 6 ft. I can actually lay down in it if I don't mind my feet being a bit cramped.
Got the bow area above the berth inside sanded, primed and ready to paint except for the area right where the fiberglassing will be at. Once I get that done I am installing my clothes storage on the port wall. I have those hanging closet shelves I got from Walmart for my house closet and I think with some industrial strength velcro hung sideways they will make great wall storage. I am thinking about fastening one to the head roof along side the pot. I beats selling them and buying something else.
Have been playing with the idea of glassing the new wood for v berth. Since I'm using poly, I think I'm just going to make a sheet of glass a couple or three layers thick across the top, ( maybe thicker) poly that into place for water proofing and paint the wood on both sides and put it on top. I'm thinking covering an old sheet of foam I have laying around with wax paper should work. I have the old pieces to make the pattern with so I am good to go on that part.
Have the new pieces cut out for the V berth,.
Have the first coat of paint on the see-able portion of the head area. Installed a battery operated LED for light.
Tore out the stand for the porta potti. It was in really sad shape. It took a wonder bar to get it out. The wood supports under the flat board were so wet and rotted I did not have to put much effort into removing them from the horizontal board with my bare hands. The horizontal board was warped so I cut a new board out of 1/2 inch. That faint smell of mildew that I could never quite pinpoint has left.
Got busy with some poly and cloth. Was wanting to try my hand at it and this seemed like a nice safe project. Plus I needed to find a use for that water proof Bondo I got. I'm just NOT ready to try something that is NOT specifically rated for under water use on my rudder. Got the bottom part of the horizontal board done. I am seriously debating if I should go ahead and glass the top of the board or just feather out the edges of the glass and paint it.
Did not know I was supposed to pre-coat the wood with thinned out poly first but it is more or less passable considering it is not ever going to actually be in water ( knock on wood) and no one will ever see it. Considering I'm flying by the seat of my pants on it, I think I did OK for a first try all by myself. It is not perfect by a long shot. Purely an amateur job at best. If it won fourth place in a contest it would be becasue there were only three other contestants. LOL!!! That is why I decided to do the multiple layers of glass as a water proofing for the wood in the v berth instead of glassing the wood.
I am thinking of going a head and play with the thinned poly coat then a coat of not thinned poly, then cloth and more resin on the under sides of the wood for the v berth. It is more of a "play with it on something no one will see if it comes out looking really bad" thing then truly functional, since to be safe, I'm going to do that layer of glass between the hull and the wood, to water proof the bow hull section from the rest of the boat area.
Got a gallon of Rustoleum top coat paint for the above water outside of the hull. Figured out what I am going to do to repair the top of the rudder. Have been slowly sanding out the hair line cracks in the gel coat one area at a time on the port side. .
Have finally got the broken bolt holes in the deck / hull joint filled, sanded and pre-drilled to reinstall bolts and rub rail. Have the hair line crack in the companion way almost finished. It was cracked all the way through the glass, almost all the way across. I finally decided to cut it out completely and fill it all in. I used the stick boat epoxy from Wal-mart to do that. 13 USD a tube but I was to chicken to try the resin yet. Its really solid and now I'm not afraid to let any one step on it. ( once I get it finished of course). I used that same stick epoxy to fill in all those tiny little holes from previous things attached to the hull. The crack turned out to be almost all the way across the companion way. I took out a good 4/5th of that part of the boat.
The bad news is the wood we had all cut for the new lower rudder is trashed. It got wet somehow and is warped and I definitely smelt mold. We are starting form scratch on most of the pieces. The really long part was tightly in the jig I made and had wrapped in the freezer paper stayed perfect.
Other then that she is still a work in progress.
The house is coming along. My saw man and I finally figured out how the corner cabinet was fastened in, so that is out, sanded and ready to re- stain. The hole in the ceiling is fixed. Unless you know where to look you can't tell where it was. The medallions for around the ceiling fans are almost ready to install. And if I ever stop trying to stay focused on the boat long enough I will get the one short wall textured in the living room and painted. Then off the top of my head I'm wanting to say all we have left in living room is the floor.
Take care
Sail safe but sail!!!!
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