Boat Restoration Story (with pix in photo gallery)

MAXUM · 10-11-2005, 04:23 PM

Hi All,

Well it's been some time since I've posted last. Most of that is my own fault as I've been pretty darn busy the past few months, especially on this one particular project. So now that it has been put down till spring, figured I'd share some pictures and the story along with it for all to enjoy. Please note that I just submitted a bunch of pictures of this restoration to my photo album which need to be approved before all can see.

Anyways on with the story. See this starts way back when I was a young lad, (not that I'm that old now) but anyways, I grew up fortunatly having access to spend a couple of weeks each summer at my Uncle's place. One of the great things about spending time there was the fact that he also had this sailboat (1970 O'Day daysailer) which we as a family used to tool around the lake in. Great memories for sure, and as a youngster I always wanted to own that boat. Well as time wore on over the years the boat aged and began to really show her age. The finish of the interior mahogany wood weathered, the hull became dull, chalky and well down right ugly. The trailer rusted to all get out and due to nothing other than being ignored was in very poor condition as well.

A year ago I was talking to my uncle about all sorts of things in life when we got on the subject of said boat. He had bought himself a powerboat and the sailboat just sat behind the house and had not seen the water in about 6 years or so. Anyways he was telling me he thought it was about time to get rid of her. Well I quickly jumped on the opportunity to ask him if I could buy it from him since there was no way I was about to let this little piece of my childhood end up probably in the dump for all I knew. So I asked, he sweetened the deal by giving it to me and that was that.

I spent the past year restoring all the woodwork, which I don't have any pictures of yet and doing a massive amount of research in pricing how much it'd cost me to restore it, and the best way to do so. Needless to say paying somebody to do it was way to expensive I'll get to the cost later on, so this was going to be a task I would take on as a labor of love.

Once I got all my research done I pulled her back to my place and started in on refinishing the hull (by now all the woodwork is done and ready to go). First I completely tore the trailer apart, rebuilt or replaced everything that was needed, sandblasted it, rebunked it and finally gave it a fresh new coat of paint. After several coats, it got all new lights and wiring, wheels, tires, bearing buddies, coupler etc... Whew - what a job that was.

Now on to the hull, it was in ok shape, but had some minor structural problems that needed to be addressed. Some areas needed to be re-glassed, the interior got completely stripped repaired where needed then one coating of resin, paint, then a top coating of resin. The exterior was sanded areas needing repair were filled, even had some slight blistering below the water line that needed to be repaired, after a good solid 2 weeks of prep work she was ready to take shape. The bottom got primered and coated with 2 coats of bottom paint, the water line changed color from red to white, painted on as well. The top part was also painted with 3 coats of a much darker blue as well. Took another 2.5 weeks to finish the paint work as this kind of thing cannot be rushed. The final product however blew me away so much I just had to share the story and pix.

In the end I never imagined that the job would come out looking this nice. The boat looks like new now, come spring time once all the wood is installed she is going to really look nice, especially once in the water. Believe it or not, the tools used were nothing special, and this was a whole lot easier than I originally thought. It was also pretty inexpensive all things considered.

OK - here is the final tally. I spent probably a total of 2 months of dedicated time to do it all between the hull, wood and trailer. 1 month in prep work and 1 month finishing work. Total cost was just shy of $600.00 , the majority of that was paint, wood finish and fiberglass. For those that are interested in the hull finish.... here is what I used.

Interlux 202 prep/cleaning solvent
Interlux Brightside Dark Blue (topside paint) 2 quarts (3 coats)
Interlux Bilgekote Gloss White (waterline/boot strap) 1 pint (with tons left over) (4 coats)
West Marine Black Bottom Paint (non ablatitive) (2 coats)

Application method (no kidding) 3" closed cell foam roller for the top side (dark blue) part. Used a 2" expensive or high quality brush for the waterline, and a cheapo throw away brush for the bottom paint.

Trailer was painted with rustolieum primer, then 3 coats of gloss navy blue paint.

This was far easier than I originally thought. Can't wait till spring to put the wood in and get her back on the water. I do have some minor repair work to do on the rigging, but that's minor considering what has already been done. Not bad for the $$, albeit labor was free. I did ask around to see what it would cost to have this professionally done, lowest price quote exceeded 5K

!

** disclaimer **

I'm not trying to promote anything here, only listing what I used. No my powerboat is not forsale, (that's a 1994 Maxum BTW) and no neither is the sailboat. Finally hell no I'm not interested in restoring your boat for you, although I'll be more than happy to provide any additional technical details for those who ask or answer any specific questions for those pondering the same type of project.

Silver Duck · 10-11-2005, 07:02 PM

Maxum

Congratulations on bringing a great boat back into shape! I had a DS of about that vintage (Hull No. 1187, if I remember correctly), and raced her for years back in the mid to late 80's.

Out of curiosity, what number is yours? By the way, the early ones used to carry a premium price back in those days, as they were known to be faster hulls than the later models.

Silver Duck

MAXUM · 10-12-2005, 04:56 AM

You know I'm not 100% sure what the hull number is. The only identification for the boat is a little plate that is mounted in the cuddy cabin. There are two numbers listed there the first being 19706 the second being 3606. Being that it's a 1970 I assume the first represents that mine is the 6th boat manufactured for the model year and the second is labeled as it's "class". Another interesting factoid is that the sails are original and do not have a number like it seems others do. Quite strange, of course this boat pre-dates having a HIN stamped into the transom. I have the original sales slip for the boat from 1970 as well, but that does not provide any additional data.

Silver Duck · 10-12-2005, 06:03 PM

Maxum

I agree; she's probably No. 3606. Once again, good on you for bringing her back into shape, and I hope you have lots of fun with her! I still miss mine sometimes, but I'm getting too old for hiking out!

Silver Duck

fatlazyless · 10-13-2005, 08:31 AM

Hi, thanks for sharing all your restoration info with the forum.

Here's my question. I have a 1974 Starcraft Starchief which was a salt water boat for the 1st 15 years of its' life. The aluminum hull is painted with dark blue interlux above the water line and dull red bottom paint below the water line. Now, I keep this boat on a boatlift so it is totally out of the lake almost all the time. What I want to do is to paint the hull all white, both above and below the waterline.

In the past I have simply sanded an aluminum boat with #50 grit sandpaper on a finish sander, and then brushed on one coat of Rustoleum white primer, followed by one coat of semi gloss white. Rustoleum paints run about $8.00/qt and are traditional oil paint. What's the big difference between brushing on traditional oil paint and using the Interlux or Pettit brands, which I believe are not the same, at all. Is it correct to say that they are two-part paints, sort of like an epoxy, which need to be combined and then applied within a limited time?

MAXUM · 10-13-2005, 12:40 PM

Very good question. This was a question that I asked seriously asked of several sources. In short there is a big difference, and not just in price either.

First thing I did was narrow down what brand I was going to use, while I did ask about other brands it seemed like Interlux was the most common name recommended so I honed in on thier stuff. I also had a fairly lenghty conversation with a guy who had just done a restoration on a similar boat who used the Interlux product line.

Interlux offers several paints that all seem geared to specific areas of your boat. What I did find interesting is that NONE of thier paints were recommended for below the waterline reason being is they are not designed to be immersed in water for extended periods of time. This is why I opted for bottom paint on my project. For the hull above the waterline they had two choices, one was a two part epoxy paint mix with teflon the other was a one part paint, with teflon. The price gap between the two was about 20 bucks per quart. They claim that the finish of the two part will come out better than the one part, but in looking at the over all ratings of both paints they seemed to be identical, other than the fact the two part was more of a pain to deal with. Personally I did not want to deal with making sure the paint was mixed properly so I went with the one part paint. I had enough things to worry about, the paint mixture was the last thing I wanted to question.

Now that being said the guy I talked to who had already done his boat used the two part and painted below the waterline. He claims that it's not given him any problem and his boat spends the season in the water. I cannot say either way if that was the right thing to do as I stuck to the directions.

Since yours sits out of the water I would think that painting the entire hull is a non issue.

There is a noticable visable difference between rustoleum and the Interlux paint. Both are oil based, but the Interlux has teflon in it. It also applies differently, flows differently and quite frankly the finish you get with the Interlux is amazing. Clearly Interlux is a marine grade paint, rustoleum is, well just paint. Just seeing the two products side by side you can tell the makeup of the paint is totally different. The finish is also different as the Interlux feels much more durable once dried and cured (like a factory paint job on a car) I did look at a powerboat that had been painted 5 years prior with Interlux and it looked like new, which is a testament to it's longevity.

The Interlux can be applied with either a good quality brush or closed cell roller. I suggest using the roller as the results are far better and more uniform, but you'll still need a brush to do the hard to get areas. It's applied in multiple VERY thin coats as it runs very easily if you go to heavy but is also a reason why you get such a high quality shine and finish. It took 3 coats to do mine and I was not really changing the color to much. You'll notice that I changed the red waterline to white, that took 4 coats.

I think what it really comes down to is how fussy you are about the way the boat is going to look and the durability of the paint in general. I wanted my boat to look good when it was done and now that some pix in my gallery are available, I'll let you be the judge. Now the interior I used rustoleum but it was applied to a fresh coat of fiberglass resin then after the paint dried another coating of resin was used to "lock in" the color as I was afraid that if the paint was left exposed to water or just being knocked around it would not last long at all being subject to peeling and chipping.

Far as price goes, yep good ole rusty is $8.00, Interlux is considerably more and I used what they recommended for primer and prep solvent. The one part top side paint ran $50.00 per quart, two part about $80.00, primer about the same $50.00, solvent was about $30.00 for a quart (which was way more than I needed). Bottom paint runs about $30.00 as well per quart.

If you do opt to use something like Interlux or any other marine paint make sure you read up on painting aluminum as the process is slightly different. I cannot stess enough also that surface prep makes or breaks the paint job. This stuff will show any and all imperfections so if you have any deep scratches that don't sand out they will show through. Since you've previously painted the hull if you don't remove all the old paint that is not only going to show through, but may effect the durability of the new paint.

The cool thing, at least for me, was seeing the final product. That made it all worth while and cosidering the cost I thought that the return was well worth it... unless you overprice your own labor rates!

MAXUM · 10-13-2005, 12:44 PM

more pix...

Sunset Bob · 10-13-2005, 05:25 PM

Great job MAXUM. That boat really shines.Your bow numbers(1701) are the same as the star ship Enterprise on Star Trek are you Capt. Kirk?

Dave R · 10-14-2005, 12:03 PM

Gorgeous!

Can you post some photos of the cockpit?

DRH · 10-14-2005, 03:52 PM

Outstanding job, MAXUM. Bet you can't wait for your first sail next season!

MAXUM · 10-15-2005, 09:15 PM

I have a couple of pix of the cockpit but to really appreciate the interior all the refinished original mahagony woodwork needs to be re-installed and that won't happen still spring. The couple shots I have didn't really come out so hot. What I'll do is post a followup to this come spring time when she hits the water with everything back in place. In the mean time she's laid up for the winter.

Honestly I've never sailed this boat before, only been a passenger, so I'm looking forward to my maiden voyage at the helm. Certainly will be a wee bit different than tooling around in my powerboat that's for sure!

I have toyed with the idea of sailing it out on Winni as it's home waters happen to be Lake Wentworth. We'll see just how well I can handle this thing the first few times out.

Dave R · 10-17-2005, 09:22 AM

Those Daysailers are fun and forgiving to sail. I have been sailing one of those on and off since 1989 or so. Get sorta hiked out with the lee gunwale in the water and the keel visible below and you will be having some fun. You'll need a tiller extension handle and a good grip on the main sheet.

If you need to reduce sail area, don't take down the jib. It won't turn at all.

ApS · 10-18-2005, 06:32 AM

Another way to keep the lee rail dry is to instruct a kid in sailing!

(After you get your sea legs, that is

).

Misty Blue · 10-21-2005, 08:54 AM

Maxim:

Thanks a bunch. I have a similar project going on at my place and you have shamed me into doing it right instead of just good enough. 'Like my life is not full enough!

One thing though. My rub rail is shot to all HECK. I have been on the day sailor website but have not been able to find a replacement for it. Any ideas?

Misty Blue

MAXUM · 10-24-2005, 01:41 PM

You know I was quite astonished at the results. I had no idea it was going to come out looking as nice as it did. Anyways, what the heck go for it, I'm convinced that the price I paid for the paint was worth every penny. Remember that the prep work is what will make or break the final paint job.

As for your rub rail, I'm not to surprised. The rubrail on this boat has taken a little bit of a beating too, but not so much that it needs replacement just yet. The best place I have found that has every part your boat needs (assuming it's an O'Day/Pearson) is D&R Marine. They are located down in MA. Quick check of thier web site shows that they do stock the rubrail. It looks like the price is $1.45 per foot.

http://www.drmarine.com

Good luck with your project and do post some pictures when you're done!

ApS · 11-06-2005, 08:21 AM

I've had some boating repair "fun" too.

(Wish I'd spent the money for the proper paint you used, though).

Here's a very different restoration: One of my sailing-catamaran hulls got split open in a dock-lift error.

To properly repair the split hull, it would need to be repaired from the inside. A proper repair also requires aggressive sanding of the surfaces, including each layer of repair.

The hull in this 20-foot boat — made of West® epoxy — is only 1/8-inch thick, and the topside access plates are too small — and are located too far — from the damaged area.

For access, I cut two 4-inch circles out on either side of the damaged area — saving the 4-inch "plug" removed. The sander, too large to pass through the hole, was disassembled — then re-assembled — inside the hull. Several layers of epoxy cloth and resin — sanding between each layer — were built up over the split and bonded to the centerboard trunk (the vertical structure seen in the middle of the photo).

In the photograph of the right-side-up hull, the old damaged splits can be seen in the lower right and left quadrants of the picture — prior to the repair.

Both of the circular holes that were cut can be seen mid-way up the hull's sides. Using arched wooden jigs, the 4-inch holes were bonded from the inside — using the plugs previously removed by the hole saw — and then faired-in from the outside . (This photograph of the hull's interior was taken through the ¾-inch drain-plug hole!)

The paint I used was described as

Quote:

"...for the topside, unless the boat was removed from the water daily".

(Which mine always was). Needless to say, the paint @ $20/quart, began to blister where it contacted the water within a few weeks.

Another lesson learned.

Each of these 20-foot epoxy hulls only weighs about 110 pounds. Except for "comfort", I don't know why lightweight epoxy hulls aren't seen in powerboats.

Losing weight is like adding horsepower!

fatlazyless · 11-06-2005, 09:47 AM

Losing weight is lke gaining horsepower. Makes sense to me. Anyway, I'm in the middle of repainting a twenty year old 12' C&L Echo sailboat. First coat of bottom paint went on yesterday. It was a $7.70 quart of X-O Rust light grey primer. What a day for painting, it was, yesterday. And today, hopefully, it will get a 1st coat of XO Rust light blue. Methinks the 2nd coat of light blue will be next April. Would post a photo except I don't have a computer and haven't figured out how to post photos w/ my msn-tv+

The Ash Hardware store in Ashland NH is absoluely the best hardware store around due to it's incredible organization and neatness, depth of inventory, reasonable prices, plus it's a family business. It is about one mile off exit 26, in between the original Common Man restaurant and Bob's Shurfine super market in beatifull downtown Ashland and worth the short trip. From hot tub chemicals to paint to Amsoil four-stroke outboard oil to fishing to lawn & garden to plumbing to hardware & stainless steel fasteners to a lot of other stuff like glass window and screen repair. And, the prices are very decent and it's on the way to the Plymouth Super Wal-Mart from Moultonboro-Centre Harbor-Meredith.

MAXUM · 04-17-2006, 03:12 PM

Final update, after laying up the hull over the winter time I got started on refinishing all the wood work, repairing and re-rigging the mast, going through the sails and weather cover.

Couple weeks ago I pulled the boat back to my house and finally got started on the re-assembly. Now the final product turned out far better than I had even hoped it would. She looks essentially brand new and I never figured that considering this was my first crack at restoring something like this. All the repair work came out great (can't even notice where I had to fix things) and the full FG coated cockpit turned out beautiful. Now all I have to do is wait for the registration to come in and my new sails to show up and that's pretty much it. Whew, lots of work, but it's great to see the final product.

MAXUM · 04-17-2006, 03:17 PM

Couple more pix.....

trfour · 04-17-2006, 03:29 PM

MAXUM,

Great work, she does look like new!! I've always enjoyed restoring and rebuilding. It is a lot of work but well worth the outcome.
Thanks for the pics.

Skip · 04-17-2006, 03:53 PM

Thanks for sharing your story (and pictures), hopefully it will serve as a great inspiration to many of us weekend sailors getting ready to tackle small (and large) restoration/repair projects.

You should be mighty proud of your craftsmanship!

Skip

Silver Duck · 04-17-2006, 06:31 PM

Maxum

She's beautiful! You should, indeed, be very proud of what you've accomplished!

Silver Duck

Sunbeam lodge · 04-17-2006, 07:02 PM

Great job!
How about a before and after picture?

RI Swamp Yankee · 04-17-2006, 09:00 PM

Now That is a boat. She is beautiful. Fantastic job MAXUM

Dave R · 04-18-2006, 07:46 AM

She came out spectacular! Ought to give another 36+ years of good fun. Looking forward to seeing her on the lake.

MAXUM · 04-18-2006, 10:25 AM

I wish I had more "before" shots, unfortuantly I lost a bunch of them due to a computer crash at home and it's shameful that me a computer geek by trade did not bother to have any backups running. Anyways, to give you an idea, the hull was faded to chalky pale blue, the interior was missing most of the sprayed in speckle coating which over time and use chipped off. The wood was pretty much missing all of it's finish and sun faded to grey. A bunch of the floor boards were coming apart, the side trim boards were split and faded. The molded seats on one side were split and the fiberglass was de-laminateing. Most of the rigging on the mast was trashed, all but two cables need to be replaced and many of the mounting brackets were missing rivets. The trailer was all rusted, the only thing that was worth keeping was the frame axle and leaf springs, everything had to be replaced and the stuff I kept was all sandblasted primed and painted. She's by no means perfect more work could have been done had I chosen to be really fussy but after all it's going to be used not put on display in a museum. Other thing to was I set a budget for this project and believe it or not the total cost spent including new sails ended up just shy of $1500.00.

I'll probably take her out on Winni a little bit, but truth be told her home port is over on Lake Wentworth.

10-11-2005, 04:23 PM	#1
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	Boat Restoration Story (with pix in photo gallery) Hi All, Well it's been some time since I've posted last. Most of that is my own fault as I've been pretty darn busy the past few months, especially on this one particular project. So now that it has been put down till spring, figured I'd share some pictures and the story along with it for all to enjoy. Please note that I just submitted a bunch of pictures of this restoration to my photo album which need to be approved before all can see. Anyways on with the story. See this starts way back when I was a young lad, (not that I'm that old now) but anyways, I grew up fortunatly having access to spend a couple of weeks each summer at my Uncle's place. One of the great things about spending time there was the fact that he also had this sailboat (1970 O'Day daysailer) which we as a family used to tool around the lake in. Great memories for sure, and as a youngster I always wanted to own that boat. Well as time wore on over the years the boat aged and began to really show her age. The finish of the interior mahogany wood weathered, the hull became dull, chalky and well down right ugly. The trailer rusted to all get out and due to nothing other than being ignored was in very poor condition as well. A year ago I was talking to my uncle about all sorts of things in life when we got on the subject of said boat. He had bought himself a powerboat and the sailboat just sat behind the house and had not seen the water in about 6 years or so. Anyways he was telling me he thought it was about time to get rid of her. Well I quickly jumped on the opportunity to ask him if I could buy it from him since there was no way I was about to let this little piece of my childhood end up probably in the dump for all I knew. So I asked, he sweetened the deal by giving it to me and that was that. I spent the past year restoring all the woodwork, which I don't have any pictures of yet and doing a massive amount of research in pricing how much it'd cost me to restore it, and the best way to do so. Needless to say paying somebody to do it was way to expensive I'll get to the cost later on, so this was going to be a task I would take on as a labor of love. Once I got all my research done I pulled her back to my place and started in on refinishing the hull (by now all the woodwork is done and ready to go). First I completely tore the trailer apart, rebuilt or replaced everything that was needed, sandblasted it, rebunked it and finally gave it a fresh new coat of paint. After several coats, it got all new lights and wiring, wheels, tires, bearing buddies, coupler etc... Whew - what a job that was. Now on to the hull, it was in ok shape, but had some minor structural problems that needed to be addressed. Some areas needed to be re-glassed, the interior got completely stripped repaired where needed then one coating of resin, paint, then a top coating of resin. The exterior was sanded areas needing repair were filled, even had some slight blistering below the water line that needed to be repaired, after a good solid 2 weeks of prep work she was ready to take shape. The bottom got primered and coated with 2 coats of bottom paint, the water line changed color from red to white, painted on as well. The top part was also painted with 3 coats of a much darker blue as well. Took another 2.5 weeks to finish the paint work as this kind of thing cannot be rushed. The final product however blew me away so much I just had to share the story and pix. In the end I never imagined that the job would come out looking this nice. The boat looks like new now, come spring time once all the wood is installed she is going to really look nice, especially once in the water. Believe it or not, the tools used were nothing special, and this was a whole lot easier than I originally thought. It was also pretty inexpensive all things considered. OK - here is the final tally. I spent probably a total of 2 months of dedicated time to do it all between the hull, wood and trailer. 1 month in prep work and 1 month finishing work. Total cost was just shy of $600.00 , the majority of that was paint, wood finish and fiberglass. For those that are interested in the hull finish.... here is what I used. Interlux 202 prep/cleaning solvent Interlux Brightside Dark Blue (topside paint) 2 quarts (3 coats) Interlux Bilgekote Gloss White (waterline/boot strap) 1 pint (with tons left over) (4 coats) West Marine Black Bottom Paint (non ablatitive) (2 coats) Application method (no kidding) 3" closed cell foam roller for the top side (dark blue) part. Used a 2" expensive or high quality brush for the waterline, and a cheapo throw away brush for the bottom paint. Trailer was painted with rustolieum primer, then 3 coats of gloss navy blue paint. This was far easier than I originally thought. Can't wait till spring to put the wood in and get her back on the water. I do have some minor repair work to do on the rigging, but that's minor considering what has already been done. Not bad for the $$, albeit labor was free. I did ask around to see what it would cost to have this professionally done, lowest price quote exceeded 5K ! disclaimer I'm not trying to promote anything here, only listing what I used. No my powerboat is not forsale, (that's a 1994 Maxum BTW) and no neither is the sailboat. Finally hell no I'm not interested in restoring your boat for you, although I'll be more than happy to provide any additional technical details for those who ask or answer any specific questions for those pondering the same type of project.

10-13-2005, 12:40 PM	#6
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	Very good question. This was a question that I asked seriously asked of several sources. In short there is a big difference, and not just in price either. First thing I did was narrow down what brand I was going to use, while I did ask about other brands it seemed like Interlux was the most common name recommended so I honed in on thier stuff. I also had a fairly lenghty conversation with a guy who had just done a restoration on a similar boat who used the Interlux product line. Interlux offers several paints that all seem geared to specific areas of your boat. What I did find interesting is that NONE of thier paints were recommended for below the waterline reason being is they are not designed to be immersed in water for extended periods of time. This is why I opted for bottom paint on my project. For the hull above the waterline they had two choices, one was a two part epoxy paint mix with teflon the other was a one part paint, with teflon. The price gap between the two was about 20 bucks per quart. They claim that the finish of the two part will come out better than the one part, but in looking at the over all ratings of both paints they seemed to be identical, other than the fact the two part was more of a pain to deal with. Personally I did not want to deal with making sure the paint was mixed properly so I went with the one part paint. I had enough things to worry about, the paint mixture was the last thing I wanted to question. Now that being said the guy I talked to who had already done his boat used the two part and painted below the waterline. He claims that it's not given him any problem and his boat spends the season in the water. I cannot say either way if that was the right thing to do as I stuck to the directions. Since yours sits out of the water I would think that painting the entire hull is a non issue. There is a noticable visable difference between rustoleum and the Interlux paint. Both are oil based, but the Interlux has teflon in it. It also applies differently, flows differently and quite frankly the finish you get with the Interlux is amazing. Clearly Interlux is a marine grade paint, rustoleum is, well just paint. Just seeing the two products side by side you can tell the makeup of the paint is totally different. The finish is also different as the Interlux feels much more durable once dried and cured (like a factory paint job on a car) I did look at a powerboat that had been painted 5 years prior with Interlux and it looked like new, which is a testament to it's longevity. The Interlux can be applied with either a good quality brush or closed cell roller. I suggest using the roller as the results are far better and more uniform, but you'll still need a brush to do the hard to get areas. It's applied in multiple VERY thin coats as it runs very easily if you go to heavy but is also a reason why you get such a high quality shine and finish. It took 3 coats to do mine and I was not really changing the color to much. You'll notice that I changed the red waterline to white, that took 4 coats. I think what it really comes down to is how fussy you are about the way the boat is going to look and the durability of the paint in general. I wanted my boat to look good when it was done and now that some pix in my gallery are available, I'll let you be the judge. Now the interior I used rustoleum but it was applied to a fresh coat of fiberglass resin then after the paint dried another coating of resin was used to "lock in" the color as I was afraid that if the paint was left exposed to water or just being knocked around it would not last long at all being subject to peeling and chipping. Far as price goes, yep good ole rusty is $8.00, Interlux is considerably more and I used what they recommended for primer and prep solvent. The one part top side paint ran $50.00 per quart, two part about $80.00, primer about the same $50.00, solvent was about $30.00 for a quart (which was way more than I needed). Bottom paint runs about $30.00 as well per quart. If you do opt to use something like Interlux or any other marine paint make sure you read up on painting aluminum as the process is slightly different. I cannot stess enough also that surface prep makes or breaks the paint job. This stuff will show any and all imperfections so if you have any deep scratches that don't sand out they will show through. Since you've previously painted the hull if you don't remove all the old paint that is not only going to show through, but may effect the durability of the new paint. The cool thing, at least for me, was seeing the final product. That made it all worth while and cosidering the cost I thought that the return was well worth it... unless you overprice your own labor rates! Attached Images

10-13-2005, 12:44 PM	#7
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	more pix... Attached Images

10-13-2005, 05:25 PM	#8
Sunset Bob Deceased Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 1,701 Thanks: 115 Thanked 25 Times in 13 Posts	Great job Great job MAXUM. That boat really shines.Your bow numbers(1701) are the same as the star ship Enterprise on Star Trek are you Capt. Kirk? Last edited by Sunset Bob; 10-13-2005 at 05:26 PM. Reason: add bow #

10-14-2005, 03:52 PM	#10
DRH Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Meredith Posts: 1,670 Thanks: 1,183 Thanked 655 Times in 173 Posts	Outstanding job, MAXUM. Bet you can't wait for your first sail next season! __________________ DRH

10-11-2005, 07:02 PM	#2
Silver Duck Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Billerica, MA Posts: 364 Thanks: 40 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Maxum Congratulations on bringing a great boat back into shape! I had a DS of about that vintage (Hull No. 1187, if I remember correctly), and raced her for years back in the mid to late 80's. Out of curiosity, what number is yours? By the way, the early ones used to carry a premium price back in those days, as they were known to be faster hulls than the later models. Silver Duck

10-12-2005, 04:56 AM	#3
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	You know I'm not 100% sure what the hull number is. The only identification for the boat is a little plate that is mounted in the cuddy cabin. There are two numbers listed there the first being 19706 the second being 3606. Being that it's a 1970 I assume the first represents that mine is the 6th boat manufactured for the model year and the second is labeled as it's "class". Another interesting factoid is that the sails are original and do not have a number like it seems others do. Quite strange, of course this boat pre-dates having a HIN stamped into the transom. I have the original sales slip for the boat from 1970 as well, but that does not provide any additional data.

10-12-2005, 06:03 PM	#4
Silver Duck Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Billerica, MA Posts: 364 Thanks: 40 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Maxum I agree; she's probably No. 3606. Once again, good on you for bringing her back into shape, and I hope you have lots of fun with her! I still miss mine sometimes, but I'm getting too old for hiking out! Silver Duck

10-13-2005, 08:31 AM	#5
fatlazyless Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 8,526 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 295 Thanked 957 Times in 698 Posts	Hi, thanks for sharing all your restoration info with the forum. Here's my question. I have a 1974 Starcraft Starchief which was a salt water boat for the 1st 15 years of its' life. The aluminum hull is painted with dark blue interlux above the water line and dull red bottom paint below the water line. Now, I keep this boat on a boatlift so it is totally out of the lake almost all the time. What I want to do is to paint the hull all white, both above and below the waterline. In the past I have simply sanded an aluminum boat with #50 grit sandpaper on a finish sander, and then brushed on one coat of Rustoleum white primer, followed by one coat of semi gloss white. Rustoleum paints run about $8.00/qt and are traditional oil paint. What's the big difference between brushing on traditional oil paint and using the Interlux or Pettit brands, which I believe are not the same, at all. Is it correct to say that they are two-part paints, sort of like an epoxy, which need to be combined and then applied within a limited time?

10-14-2005, 12:03 PM	#9
Dave R Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2,974 Thanks: 246 Thanked 736 Times in 438 Posts	Gorgeous! Can you post some photos of the cockpit?

10-15-2005, 09:15 PM	#11
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	I have a couple of pix of the cockpit but to really appreciate the interior all the refinished original mahagony woodwork needs to be re-installed and that won't happen still spring. The couple shots I have didn't really come out so hot. What I'll do is post a followup to this come spring time when she hits the water with everything back in place. In the mean time she's laid up for the winter. Honestly I've never sailed this boat before, only been a passenger, so I'm looking forward to my maiden voyage at the helm. Certainly will be a wee bit different than tooling around in my powerboat that's for sure! I have toyed with the idea of sailing it out on Winni as it's home waters happen to be Lake Wentworth. We'll see just how well I can handle this thing the first few times out.

10-17-2005, 09:22 AM	#12
Dave R Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2,974 Thanks: 246 Thanked 736 Times in 438 Posts	Those Daysailers are fun and forgiving to sail. I have been sailing one of those on and off since 1989 or so. Get sorta hiked out with the lee gunwale in the water and the keel visible below and you will be having some fun. You'll need a tiller extension handle and a good grip on the main sheet. If you need to reduce sail area, don't take down the jib. It won't turn at all.

10-18-2005, 06:32 AM	#13
ApS Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Florida (Sebring & Keys), Wolfeboro Posts: 5,788 Thanks: 2,085 Thanked 742 Times in 532 Posts	Another way to keep the lee rail dry is to instruct a kid in sailing! (After you get your sea legs, that is ).

10-21-2005, 08:54 AM	#14
Misty Blue Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 658 Thanks: 121 Thanked 283 Times in 98 Posts	Wicked Awsome! Maxim: Thanks a bunch. I have a similar project going on at my place and you have shamed me into doing it right instead of just good enough. 'Like my life is not full enough! One thing though. My rub rail is shot to all HECK. I have been on the day sailor website but have not been able to find a replacement for it. Any ideas? Misty Blue

10-24-2005, 01:41 PM	#15
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	You know I was quite astonished at the results. I had no idea it was going to come out looking as nice as it did. Anyways, what the heck go for it, I'm convinced that the price I paid for the paint was worth every penny. Remember that the prep work is what will make or break the final paint job. As for your rub rail, I'm not to surprised. The rubrail on this boat has taken a little bit of a beating too, but not so much that it needs replacement just yet. The best place I have found that has every part your boat needs (assuming it's an O'Day/Pearson) is D&R Marine. They are located down in MA. Quick check of thier web site shows that they do stock the rubrail. It looks like the price is $1.45 per foot. http://www.drmarine.com Good luck with your project and do post some pictures when you're done!

11-06-2005, 09:47 AM	#17
fatlazyless Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 8,526 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 295 Thanked 957 Times in 698 Posts	Losing weight is lke gaining horsepower. Makes sense to me. Anyway, I'm in the middle of repainting a twenty year old 12' C&L Echo sailboat. First coat of bottom paint went on yesterday. It was a $7.70 quart of X-O Rust light grey primer. What a day for painting, it was, yesterday. And today, hopefully, it will get a 1st coat of XO Rust light blue. Methinks the 2nd coat of light blue will be next April. Would post a photo except I don't have a computer and haven't figured out how to post photos w/ my msn-tv+ The Ash Hardware store in Ashland NH is absoluely the best hardware store around due to it's incredible organization and neatness, depth of inventory, reasonable prices, plus it's a family business. It is about one mile off exit 26, in between the original Common Man restaurant and Bob's Shurfine super market in beatifull downtown Ashland and worth the short trip. From hot tub chemicals to paint to Amsoil four-stroke outboard oil to fishing to lawn & garden to plumbing to hardware & stainless steel fasteners to a lot of other stuff like glass window and screen repair. And, the prices are very decent and it's on the way to the Plymouth Super Wal-Mart from Moultonboro-Centre Harbor-Meredith.

04-17-2006, 03:12 PM	#18
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	Final update, after laying up the hull over the winter time I got started on refinishing all the wood work, repairing and re-rigging the mast, going through the sails and weather cover. Couple weeks ago I pulled the boat back to my house and finally got started on the re-assembly. Now the final product turned out far better than I had even hoped it would. She looks essentially brand new and I never figured that considering this was my first crack at restoring something like this. All the repair work came out great (can't even notice where I had to fix things) and the full FG coated cockpit turned out beautiful. Now all I have to do is wait for the registration to come in and my new sails to show up and that's pretty much it. Whew, lots of work, but it's great to see the final product. Attached Images

04-17-2006, 03:17 PM	#19
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	Couple more pix..... Attached Images

04-17-2006, 03:29 PM	#20
trfour Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: The Lakes, Central NH. and Dallas/Fort Worth TX. Posts: 3,694 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 3,069 Thanked 472 Times in 236 Posts	MAXUM, Great work, she does look like new!! I've always enjoyed restoring and rebuilding. It is a lot of work but well worth the outcome. Thanks for the pics. __________________ *trfour* Always Remember, The Best Safety Device In The Boat, or on a PWC Snowmobile etc., Is YOU! Safe sledding tips and much more; http://www.snowmobile.org/snowmobiling-safety.html

04-17-2006, 03:53 PM	#21
Skip Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Dover, NH Posts: 1,615 Thanks: 256 Thanked 514 Times in 182 Posts	Outstanding workmanship! Thanks for sharing your story (and pictures), hopefully it will serve as a great inspiration to many of us weekend sailors getting ready to tackle small (and large) restoration/repair projects. You should be mighty proud of your craftsmanship! Skip

04-17-2006, 06:31 PM	#22
Silver Duck Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Billerica, MA Posts: 364 Thanks: 40 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Maxum She's beautiful! You should, indeed, be very proud of what you've accomplished! Silver Duck

04-17-2006, 07:02 PM	#23
Sunbeam lodge Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Meredith/Naples Florida Posts: 367 Thanks: 135 Thanked 50 Times in 26 Posts	Great job! How about a before and after picture?

04-17-2006, 09:00 PM	#24
RI Swamp Yankee Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: North Kingstown RI Posts: 688 Thanks: 143 Thanked 83 Times in 55 Posts	Now That is a boat. She is beautiful. Fantastic job MAXUM __________________ Gene ~ aka "another RI Swamp Yankee"

04-18-2006, 07:46 AM	#25
Dave R Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2,974 Thanks: 246 Thanked 736 Times in 438 Posts	She came out spectacular! Ought to give another 36+ years of good fun. Looking forward to seeing her on the lake.

04-18-2006, 10:25 AM	#26
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	I wish I had more "before" shots, unfortuantly I lost a bunch of them due to a computer crash at home and it's shameful that me a computer geek by trade did not bother to have any backups running. Anyways, to give you an idea, the hull was faded to chalky pale blue, the interior was missing most of the sprayed in speckle coating which over time and use chipped off. The wood was pretty much missing all of it's finish and sun faded to grey. A bunch of the floor boards were coming apart, the side trim boards were split and faded. The molded seats on one side were split and the fiberglass was de-laminateing. Most of the rigging on the mast was trashed, all but two cables need to be replaced and many of the mounting brackets were missing rivets. The trailer was all rusted, the only thing that was worth keeping was the frame axle and leaf springs, everything had to be replaced and the stuff I kept was all sandblasted primed and painted. She's by no means perfect more work could have been done had I chosen to be really fussy but after all it's going to be used not put on display in a museum. Other thing to was I set a budget for this project and believe it or not the total cost spent including new sails ended up just shy of $1500.00. I'll probably take her out on Winni a little bit, but truth be told her home port is over on Lake Wentworth.