Beginning my 1987 Fisherman 20 Restoration

[Sangster]

Read from the start today, nice! Any update?

I did see someone mention no foam from the factory in 1983 V20's? Is that true?

[Myfathersson]

Originally Posted by Sangster

Read from the start today, nice! Any update?

I did see someone mention no foam from the factory in 1983 V20's? Is that true?

I can't speak for the foam in other years, or variants - my '87 Center Console definitely had foam. Still undecided as to whether I will replace it.

Last Friday I finished off the glassing of the new structures in the hull:



I still have to get in there and cut away the excess glass at the different shapes, and glass over the screw heads where I anchored the members to the stringers while their adhesive set up.

Then had my brother in town for a music festival last weekend, then had to trek up north for a funeral first part of the week so progress has been minimal. I spent a little time the last several evenings with the grinder and welder reworking the trailer so that once I finish the sole up this weekend I'll be ready to replace the bunks and slip the two halves together next weekend.

Cut off the forward bunk supports - they angled in too tightly and wouldn't have aligned to where I need them to lie. Found a nice little collection of wasp babies that thankfully weren't viable:



And cut out the too short tongue member:



And got the cross members all cleaned up to accept the new locations of the bunk supports:



And welded the bunk supports into their new positions:





Welds aren't the prettiest but for the first welds I've done in close to 10 years and on a new welder I'm pretty happy. They're solid.

All the bunk supports in place and the welds dressed:





And the tongue ready for the new member:



A 72" long piece of 3x4x3/16" tube steel:



I guess I didn't snap any photos down in the shop last night of the prep on that piece - drilled the holes for the hydraulic brake coupler, the cross passage holes for wiring, drain hole, passage hole for the brake line, and tapped the ground connection hole. Here it is mostly welded in place:



I need to jack up the trailer and get it flipped at least on its side if not completely upside down so I can weld the bottom of the connections - I could NOT get a bead overhead. If I can't get it flipped I'll fabricate a piece of 3/16" plate to join the three members and lap weld that in place. For the moment I laid on a coat of Rustoleum primer and called it a night:



Tomorrow and Sunday will be gluing the plywood pieces to the sole and glassing them in. I also need to glass up the two plywood panels that sit atop the stringers near the rear for the batteries and oil tank. Then I'll pick up the new bunk wood and get the carpet that's sitting on the floor of my spare bedroom on. I ordered the hot dipped lag bolts from McMaster Carr today - even with shipping still going to be less than half the cost of grabbing them at Home Depot or Lowes. If the glass work scheduled all goes smoothly I may start on wet sanding and buffing the hull. I've got a gallon of gel coat for the scratch and chip repair that I need to use before November so I at least need to find out if I can bring the existing gel back to life and color match that restored gel so I can do those repairs and I want to get the new stainless thru hulls installed while the hull is split instead of working through the access holes to torque them down, so the hull needs to be semi complete cosmetically.

There's a long long list of stuff left to be done before I can even think about finding a new motor or rebuilding the '89 Yammy. Winter will be long, if summer ever lets go of its hold, so still focused on getting the hull ship shape before I'm forced indoors for a spell.

[SkunkBoat]

Originally Posted by Sangster

Read from the start today, nice! Any update?

I did see someone mention no foam from the factory in 1983 V20's? Is that true?

only foam is around the fuel tank on 83

[Myfathersson]

Hallelujah! All the recoring is done! Saturday morning I cracked the whip and got rolling about 7:30am. Started mixing up some peanut butter and gluing down the new cores on the sole and clamping it in place with as many clamps as I could, 80# bags of Quikrete and some screws through from the underside:













Then once that was rigid enough to remove the clamps and concrete, I set to glassing. I used 1708 but it would've made more sense to order more 17oz Biax and use less epoxy:









All in all it took 11 hours and 6 gallons of epoxy, and in record high heat (I think we hit 98) I cooked a couple batches of epoxy, one thickened, one laminating. I panicked on the laminating batch and ended up with a section of glass on the starboard sole that didn't penetrate, so I went back tonight and drilled some holes and with a 2oz syringe was able to pump in enough to permeate the glass and adhere it to the ply. Then I was able to finish off catching the fasteners I needed to cover and some exposed corners I didn't like in the previous work in the hull:





Now it's decision time - since the 2 halves are essentially ready for a test fit it's time to decide if I'm foaming or not. If I do foam it's gotta happen between the test fit and the final reassembly of the 2 halves. Tomorrow night I'll try and get a firm idea of how many cubic feet I need if I choose to foam. And since I've got to let funding catch back up it might be a little bit before the final decision and the reassembly happens. I've made my milestone of being ready to reassemble before winter so that's a load off my shoulders. Stay tuned!

[phatdaddy]

Fill the cavities with ping pong balls

Saw it in a Donald Duck comic book!!

[Pipe_Dream]

Looking awesome.

[oteps]

Originally Posted by phatdaddy

Fill the cavities with ping pong balls

Saw it in a Donald Duck comic book!!

I used to roadrace motorcycles. One race organization said we could only have a fuel tank that holds 4.5 gallons for endurance races. We filled the tank with 4.5 gallons of gas and the rest ping pong balls.

[Myfathersson]

Work is still progressing. With the drop in temps it's going to slow down quite a bit. But I got the welding on the trailer done, had a friend help me flip it over since my overhead welding skills are...lacking...



Then my neighbor helped me flip it back over. Carpeted up the new bunks and installed them:



Started stripping the rust off the two rims that need new tires by electrolysis:





And cut down the winch stand so that it can get extended to the proper height once I put the hull back on the trailer:



And once the new coat of paint was dryed I put the step treads back on the wheel wells:



And started tackling the sanding of the hull.











I wish I had one of these when I was a kid sanding down the bottom of dads boat every year to apply new antifouling paint:



And if all the hull sanding hadn't been enough I trimmed up the tank hatch opening excess glass from recoring the sole, and cleaned off the back of the gunnel strips and the tank hatch so they can be recored this winter:





A resupply shipment of epoxy is arriving tomorrow, I was down to only slow hardener which with the cessation of 90 degree temps made for a dead stop in any patching progress. I've got a few spots on the keel that I want to build up - it's obvious the previous owners beached her quite often, and fair out the gouges and scratches across the hull. Then I want to seal up the glass everywhere the gelcoat wore thru with a coat of epoxy before I prime and paint.

Given the new trend in temps it's looking like, barring an extended warm front, I'll put the two halves back together for the winter and pull them back apart, foam and paint in the spring. I decided that the gel coat on the gunnels is too thin so the whole shabang is going to get painted.

Next weekend I'll get the two new tires on and slip the hull back on the trailer, flip the cap, and pray that it all goes together the way it's supposed to.

My to-do list keeps growing but at least the BIG tasks have been completed.

[Myfathersson]

Well seasons change so time to button her up for the winter.

Got the battery trays glassed in place. More on those later...



And got the hull onto the refurbished trailer:



Will have to remake the forward bunk supports. Keel was sitting too low and only on the forward 1/2 of the bunk. I shimmed them up to where they will set. That'll do until she's ready to hit the road.

And sorted out the appropriate length for the winch stand and welded her back up:



Then early this morning hooked up the cap:



And flipped it right side up:



Lifted it onto some concrete blocks so I could wash it down:



And hoisted it to the sky:



And just like that they were one again:



Marrying the two back together went 100x smoother than I feared it might. Trailer lined right up, only had to shift fore and aft a couple times to get aligned, no side to side jockeying, and the lip snapped over fairly easy, it only took a little persuading with a light pry bar. Except for those pesky battery trays.

I matched the original size and placement of the trays to a tee. However, since I built my stringers 3/4" taller than the factory built theirs in order to minimize the thickness of adhesive needed, the trays are 3/4" higher than the original ones were. So the transom isn't set down tight. Thankfully the plan is to remove the cap again in the spring to finish things up, so I can simply trim the trays in place and re-glass that edge and should be right as rain.









Added some additional "rafters" to the lifting frame which will stay in place until the cap is permanently married to the hull to give good support to the winter cover:



And tucked her in for the long lonely winter:



Tomorrow I'm going to enjoy the first weekend day without a pressing task and kick back watching some football.