Still don’t know the year !

Here we are in the shop …nice and warm..  all my tools.. Away we go.  As I mentioned in the motor post ..one thing lead to another and I removed all the switches and the stereo, and the speakers.  Cleaned up the rat’s nest that someone else did..  I’ll make my own.  Now I was dying to see if something was hiding under the Government tag.

This tag..  Well there was nothing under it BUT when I removed the padded trim that you see below the tag.. There was the Hull number ! And it matches what is on the tag.  Mystery Solved.. But I still don’t know the age of the boat. Darn..  I’ll probably find out when I register it.  Now I’m making a plan.  And that starts with removing everything from the dash.

What a mess !  This is going to take some planing..  I have a speedometer, steering wheel, tachometer and a switch panel to fit in this space.  But not yet.. The overall plan is to strip the top of the boat of things that are easy to remove..like the snap buttons.  This will make the polishing easier.  What the heck..  Let’s strip the interior too.  It needs new carpet and the seat bases are coming apart.  Let’s give it a real good face lift. !

That’s better..  I’m keeping the fold-down seats..  But I will rebuild them..  I found a good deal on gray marine carpet in town, so this will look like new soon.  Also I’m testing my abilities to remove the oxidization from the red gel-coat.

Not bad ..not great either..  Wet sanding then polish then wax.  How fussy should I get ?   I’m using  an eraser wheel on the decals..  works great ! The oxidization is deep.  So it’s hard to get all of it.  Here’s the bow area that I’ve been working on..

The difference you see here is on the right side I used the orbital sander with 220 grit first.  That made quite the difference in the final finish.  Getting rid of more of the oxidization then hand sanding .  I’m working on the bow because the snaps and the bow light will go back on and little to no change.

This is next !  But first an update video..

And the polishing continues…   Also I received the coloring powder to use with resin and filler..  But the best I could do is pink.

Oh well I’m just filling holes like these above.  Snaps and fittings for a top.  Those tops are old school. I want to buy a bimi top .