78 Predictor Full Restoration

[HANK PREDICTOR]

Minor Balsa Issues

Hey Guys Thanx again for all the postings and step by step rebuilding blog. I have worked up enough courage to tear into Her but I have found a couple of spots where the Balsa between the Outer Hull and Inner Glass has a few water damedged places. Is it necessary to replace with Balsa or could something else be used to fill in the Gap? I need to attend to this before putting the floor in for sure.

 

[Adambomb]

Nice job ... but are you sure you want to paint that black? Just my windscreen area is black and I touched it in 84° sun and it just about burned my hand off. If it retains heat like mine, you definitely won't be able to crawl or walk barefoot on it.

It's going to be hot as hell! I was thinking of calling it The Untouchable. The good thing about it is scratches show on black pretty easy but nobody will be able to touch the thing, so hopefully that will minimalize the scratches.

 

[Adambomb]

Hey Guys Thanx again for all the postings and step by step rebuilding blog. I have worked up enough courage to tear into Her but I have found a couple of spots where the Balsa between the Outer Hull and Inner Glass has a few water damedged places. Is it necessary to replace with Balsa or could something else be used to fill in the Gap? I need to attend to this before putting the floor in for sure.

Luckily Keith and I didn't have to deal with any real balsa issues. I went through to the balsa in a couple places when grinding the hull and keith cut out a window just to take a look at the balsa, and we ended up covering over that with new fiberglass. so if you are planning on doing the stringer and floor, or other fiberglass work, in my humble opinion I would highly reccomend looking into your balsa problem. there's no sense doing all the resto work on top of a rotten base. That being said, the severity could have a lot to do with your solution, and I"d start by cutting out a window over a problem spot like Keith and I did to see what you are dealing with. If you can post pictures and or explain in a little more detail, I"m sure myself, along with the rest of the forum members can help you through it. worse case scenario, you may have to order balsa and replace your problem spots. just be careful when pulling up the inner layer of glass, you don't want to pierce the hull.

 

[Adambomb]

We are getting very close to finishing the Predictor now. The boat is painted, guages are in, carpet is cut and waiting to be glued in, jackplate and motor are on, steering and controls are installed.
First step was to spray the primer. Keith and I taped off and masked the boat on a sharp edge so no line will be seen when the paint job is finished.





Next we decided where the guages should go and drilled them out with a hole saw after we masked and marked the dash.

still one more hole for the speedo to be drilled in this picture.

I picked up a very durable PPG polyurethane at a local paint shop, it's well rated and reviewed, so hopefully it will hold up fairly well. if not, im only out about 130 bucks, I will try to include a picture of the product I used when I get a picture uploated.
I had a friend who is an experienced painter spray the boat,
After the paint had hardened up enough Keith put on the new decales I ordered from Mike at Checkmate.

Here's a shot of the new cmc power lift jackplate. I found the lift on craigslist for 450 bucks with all the controls and guage, if anyone knows how to wire a cmc lift guage manufactured by faria, please help! I havn't been able to find any info on it online.


Here's a look at the painted boat after Keith and I installed some deck hardware and the rub rail, Which we used stainless rivets to fasten. The rubber instert took some serious stretching to refit but it's on now. We also reinstalled the windscreen, which I replaced the spray painted plexiglass with polycarbon and then had that tinted.

 

[Great East Predictor]

boat looks great, nice job!

 

[atc250r]

Looks great! I'm loving the "Darth Vader" look. Just noticed the NY plates on the cars in the background, where abouts are you located?

John

 

[Adambomb]

boat looks great, nice job!

Thanks, We definitely got some inspiration from Checking out your boat and some others like it. Everyone who tells us the 135 is too big, our reply is always "we know people running 200's and 225's"

 

[Adambomb]

Looks great! I'm loving the "Darth Vader" look. Just noticed the NY plates on the cars in the background, where abouts are you located?

John

Thanks John, I was hoping the boat would have a sinister look to it. Keith and I are in the fingerlakes. We run our boats on Seneca and Keuka lake. There is a "Keuka lake" thread started about a checkmate gathering here in July if you are interested.

 

[atc250r]

Thanks for the heads up. July is really busy for us, maybe you want to take a ride to Great Sacandaga in June for the Scream and Fly Rondack Romp?

 

[Rob B]

Great job!!! Boat looks good all black!!

 

[HANK PREDICTOR]

Kool Checki

That Black Looks Great It really lets the Boats Lines represent itself. I bet You cant wait to get it in the water ASAP. I'm still going backward on mine Balsa is getting looked at hard now but I have a line of action allready mapped out. I dont want to rush and make mistakes and this being my first it wont be easy. Thats why I really appreciate all the information You posted and I hope all goes well too completion.

 

[jtellor]

Man the boat is really turning out great. I love all of these hulls predictor, exciter, enchanter. Yours looks almost exactly like my enchanter only shorter. It even have has the checkmate horses on the rear like mine.

I'm going to have to borrow your idea for the seat mounts. Someone remounted my seats years ago and really f'd them up. The drives seat came broke loose last year when i floored it out of the hole...throwing me almost into the rear seat...lol..throttle pinned and everything. One question for you... Im defiantly a newbie when it comes to fiberglass...so just wondering what you used and where you got it.. I plan on getting mine out sometime this week and get her ship shape for this summer.

 

[Adambomb]

Man the boat is really turning out great. I love all of these hulls predictor, exciter, enchanter. Yours looks almost exactly like my enchanter only shorter. It even have has the checkmate horses on the rear like mine.

I'm going to have to borrow your idea for the seat mounts. Someone remounted my seats years ago and really f'd them up. The drives seat came broke loose last year when i floored it out of the hole...throwing me almost into the rear seat...lol..throttle pinned and everything. One question for you... Im defiantly a newbie when it comes to fiberglass...so just wondering what you used and where you got it.. I plan on getting mine out sometime this week and get her ship shape for this summer.

Thanks, I think those are all sharp looking hulls, a little faster and meaner looking than my old diplomat, which I had a similar bad seat mount experience in, like yours, luckily I wasn't going too fast when it happened. To answer your question all the supplies came from Joe at Merton Marine. Polyester resin, a couple different types of fiberglass mat, gelcoat, hull and deck puddy. Tell Joe what you are working on and he can be very helpful getting you set up. I plan on posting some pictures of all the products we used, but a lot of them are already in the thread if you read back through it.

 

[Adambomb]

The Motor swap! It was a bitter sweet day to see my beloved Diplomat de-powered but it was an awesome sight to see the Predictor with that 135 on it. We started by setting up a gantry in the driveway and backing the Diplomat in place.


We used a mercury eyelit that screws into the flywheel to lift the motor.


after everything was unplugged, steering, throttle cables were unhooked, and the motor was unbolted from the transom, she popped right off.



next we backed up the Predictor. The jackplate made mounting the motor very easy.

[ATTACH=full]69420[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=full]69421[/ATTACH]
Next we installed the helm, steering cables and throttle cables. a little extra cable but somehow I was able to stuff everything in the boat fairly neatly.

 

[Adambomb]

Next, the boat went back in the garage to recieve a gelcoating on the interior bow area, splashwell, seatboxes etc.
I started by prepping the surface, removing the black overspray and roughing up the glass. It made me wish I had done some more masking before it recieved the paint job.

Here's the product, It was part of my last of about 3 or 4 supply orders from Mertons. it uses the same hardener as the resin. very easy to work with, you just have to make sure you consider temperature for gel time, so you don't mix in too much hardener, same goes with the resin. It's very easy to find detailed directions and charts for all these products we used but, when working with the quantity it requires to rebuild a boat, it's pretty easy to learn the nature of the chemicals.

I used almost the entire gallon, the most coats went in on the transom and floor in the rear compartment area, then I went to the seats for a number of coats, when I realized I had a lot of gel left I started doing the rest of the cockpit area.

 

[Adambomb]

By the way I'm putting my Diplomat up for sale, it's definitley a project boat but it can be done! I have proof! Could be parted out, misc. Merc and other guages, deck hardware, rails, nice custom cockpit and bow covers, fuel tank, windshield and the trailer. Also a couple left over parts from the Predictor, single cable steering, 12 gallon plastic fuel tank.

 

[Adambomb]

Here's a look at some goodies going on the boat. First a 2" wire hose, I found on Ebay for about $1 per foot, a bezel to mount the hose to the deck, and an extra thru-hull I recieved with an order from a shifty web site which I used to run the fuel line through.




Next was the carpet, which becuase I couldn't make any sense of what was for sale online as far as quality and price,I called up Mike at Checkmate and ordered a roll of grey rubber backed glue down. to install it I cut it to length, set it in, then trimmed it to fit, it was not fun, but it came out pretty nice, but you can tell I"m not a carpet guy.


the glueing down was even less fun. I used a gallon of solvent free carpet glue, and 3 cans of spray adhesive. I ended up trimming the carpet back under the seat because it's likely to just be waterlogged back there a lot.


Here's my set of Teleflex guages I found on ebay, spent about 230 for 7 guages, including a oil temp guage wich I didn't need but the deal was better than otheres withough it. So I have a teleflex lido ss series oil temp guage, if anyone needs one.

I also picked up some cheap 12 volt red led's and hid them under the deck for interior lighting, here's a look at everything lit up.


Here's a little look at some of the wiring, this took a couple days, but when I was done, everything was hidden away nice and everything works! It 's not the neatest job but that's partly because I copied the wiring in my diplomat.


This is a fuse panel I picked up at a local auto shop. it holds the fuses for the stereo, bilge, lights, and most the circuits in the boat.I still have some wires to add in this picture

 

[Adambomb]

Next I mounted and strapped and connected everything permanently, fuel water seperator, fuel tank with filler tube, fuel line, breather hose, oil tank, and battery, everything fit like a glove with just enough room for a little storage on either side.



Getting close to completion now, next are the seats, which I cleaned with acetone, they will need replacing eventually but I think they look pretty good for now.

The 70's Predictor has a ridge in the fiberglass that runs parallel with the back seat, it's right in the way of where I would mount Checkmate's standard 2 peice Seadog hinges. Fortunately Seadog also makes a smaller hinge with a 90 degree offset angle on one side, it fits perfect along the ridge.

If you look closely in the background here you can see a layer of fiberglass dust on everything.

 

[Will30]

Fiberglass Dust and red paint dust in my garage . Its every where . I have to start cleaning before my dad gets ready to come over and paint my boat lol ..... Yours is looking great by the way ...

 

[Adambomb]

7 months later! before and afters and some eye candy shots

We've had the boat out about 3 or 4 times now, it's taking some figuring out but every run gets better. The first run was on Cayuta Lake, aka little lake. perfect little test lake, then we went to Keuka, on memorial day weekend, which had an annoying amount of boat traffic but we did see this old gem, a 1979 V-mate, same colors as my boat had originally.

Here's a look at keith and I on our 1st Keuka Lake test run. I wore this striped shirt not to match the boat but to be easily identifiable if I were to be thrown from the boat. There were some rough moments but luckily I stayed out of the water.

Here's some before and afters.