I Bought a '78 V-Mate II

[jjjrick]

Update… longest project ever… this has snowballed pretty far hahah. But I cannot allow ANY sacrifices to the details!!

Transom is redone with cousa, and I added some gigantic stringers made of 1.5” cousa. It could hold a 400R; if you desired it to do so. I had the hull cap off, fixed a couple spots of delaminating on the wooden supports underneath, then laminated it back down to the hull with 1708.

Now time for the floor & seat boxes, and then the ball is in my court for rigging. On the side while the floor is getting done I am tracing all the Upholstry out onto pvc board so it can get re-done. I used a 24 grit grinder to remove the wood from driver’s seat buckets yesterday.

… this thing better hold up for the next 50 years I swear…

 

[jjjrick]

Does anyone out there have speakers in their boat? I’m curious to see how it might layout in the combing panels, because I’d have to drastically hang the piece down towards the floor in order to fit a 7-8” speaker within the borders

Also curious how I will incorporate cup holders to the boat

At this point I think that any objects in the combing panels would look too ugly, and that I should leave them plain & original shaped. My best bet is to mount speakers with the tower pod enclosure and tuck it up under the hull cap, and just do my best to aim the noise towards the seats. Likewise with the forward speakers, I think I will just hang them from the underside of the foredeck, off of the little wooden stringers.

The stereo is going to be just about the only item in this boat that wouldn’t have been attainable in the 70s/80s. I want everything to be as classic and close to original as it can be

 

[jjjrick]

Few more pictures, restored the top side. Need to fix blisters in the bottom