1975 V-Mate II Restore

[yellowfiero88]

Mike, get to work bro!!!!! The MI river takeover is not that far away. Us Ohio'ians need to show them MI guys whats up, LOL!

I should be ready to drop in the motor into the green boat next week!! LMK if you wana come down and hang out.

 

[bigredinohio]

I'm starting to run behind on my schedule so I'll get cracking on this thing.

I should be free most of next week so let me know what you're thinking. I have a machine that's going to be picked up and I'll let you know for sure by this Friday when that will take place.

 

[happy]

I strongly reccomend "dry" (dont use any caulking) bolting the engine on prior to paint, and any other item that may go back on, biminies ect. right now you don't have to worry about scratching her, after paint you will. And all the dust and grime will be gone by the time it comes to really assemble the boat. Not to mention you'll know if all your bolts fit (right lenght) ect.

There is a jig for drilling the holes for your outboard so your holes are all at the right angle. Maybe someone on here has one, or your local dealer may let you rent it.

 

[bigredinohio]

Thanks for the tip. I'll ask around and see about finding that jig.

 

[Dave Dendekker]

nice resto and outstanding documentation. Wish mine was goin as fast as yours

 

[Dave Dendekker]

The wood for the gunnel rails you cut - I'm assuming you will upholster them - but how will you mount them?

 

[bigredinohio]

The wood for the gunnel rails you cut - I'm assuming you will upholster them - but how will you mount them?

They are at Checkmate to get upholstered as we speak. Actually, they've been up there for a while now. It's my understanding that they are going to put some bolts in the wood prior to upholstery that I will have to drill some holes for to mount. I hope to document this in the very near future.

 

[bigredinohio]

I guess since I'm on here tonight, I should update my progress. Last week, I popped the cap back off to remove the wax paper from the rebuild of the spashwell. While the cap was off, I made use of groundloops advice earlier in my thread and drilled some holes and filled some delamination with some epoxy mixed with some cabosil and milled fibers. It's probably not perfect but it's definitely better then what it was. After that, I sanded the edge of the spashwell. I have pictures and will post the next time I'm on.

Today, I glued the cap to the hull and used a mix of rivets and screws. After the glue cures and when I finish painting the bottom side, I'll replace those screws with more rivets. I'm using 3/16" rivets from Tractor Supply if anyone finds this info useful. I hope to get the boat flipped over in the next day or two so I can start sanding and filling. I'm really looking forward to the next stages of prep and paint.

 

[yellowfiero88]

I'm really looking forward to the next stages of prep and paint.

Let me know mike! I got that paint down to a science now, been using it on some waverunners

 

[JT Patroni]

The wood for the gunnel rails you cut - I'm assuming you will upholster them - but how will you mount them?

Now it looks like you are moving right along. It seems as if the factory
is getting a little busy. you will like the upholstery work thay they do.
My seats are real nice.

 

[happy]

Dont forget to clean all that old caulking out of the rubrail area, caulk it up real nice while she is upside down. A huge time saver!

 

[happy]

You floating yet?

 

[rickvi]

Nice Job So Far!

Great Documentation too! You picked the right boat to restore.

 

[bigredinohio]

You floating yet?

Not yet ...but I do have to boat flipped upside down, almost finished prepping and hope to paint the bottom today or tonight. The past couple of months have been an absolute chaos. Sorry for not updating my thread. I promise to get some pictures on here soon.

 

[JT Patroni]

Mike,

Are you going to spray or roll and tip the bottom?

 

[bigredinohio]

Mike,

Are you going to spray or roll and tip the bottom?

Brian talked me into spraying so that's what I've been doing. I'll be spraying the third coat here about 5:00 AM and then I'm going to wet sand tomorrow afternoon/evening. I'm going to post pictures Sunday when I get home.

 

[bigredinohio]

Okay, update time. I finally towed the boat down to my folk’s house a while back. I popped the cap back off and fixed some delaminated 1708 that I glassed. I drilled some holes, mixed up some epoxy with some milled fibers and Cabosil added and used a syringe to fill in the areas. After I saw the areas fill in, I taped them off until everything cured. Then I hit it with a quick sand to smooth everything out.








I then trimmed up newly glassed splashwell. Afterwards, I glued the cap to the hull.






To flip the boat, we used a pulley system. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of this process but I will when we flip it back. Basically, there are two pulleys positioned on the starboard and port side of the boat near the stern and two more near the bow. We raised the boat high enough to remove the trailer and we proceeded to turn the boat with the use of ropes. I removed the bunks off the trailer and ran 4x6's across the trailer to set the boat back on to work on it.

 

[bigredinohio]

Once flipped over, I have a better understanding of the condition of the hull and what type of filling I needed to do. These pictures are all before any sanding had been done.

 

[bigredinohio]

I must admit, this next part have not been much fun. Once flipped over, I sanded the bottom of the boat. Then I filled all the little nicks, chips, scratches and other imperfections that I could find with Interlux Watertite. It's a two part, below the waterline, epoxy filler. The stuff isn't very hard to work with but it does set up fairly quickly so mix in small batches. Once cured, I sanded and refilled any further imperfections.

 

[bigredinohio]

Next I taped off at the rub rail with plastic and wiped the boat down with Interlux 202. That stuff is really strong and will eat through two layers of latex gloves like nothing. You need to be pretty careful when using that stuff.





Next, I started shooting some paint. I used Interlux VC Performance Epoxy, a two part epoxy bottom paint. It isn't very glossy but is supposed to be durable for trailered boats. Here are some pictures of the first coat being sprayed on.