Boat Restoration Story (with pix in photo gallery)

[MAXUM]

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.