Beginning my 1987 Fisherman 20 Restoration

[Myfathersson]

Slow progress this season. Between the impact of the pandemic and a couple medical issues I've gotta devote resources to I don't anticipate getting much done in 2020. I did decide that the engine is not worth attempting to rebuild. The salt infiltration was too excessive. I've spent the last several days dissembling to throw the good bits on eBay and recycle the castings. I finally got the heater core replaced in my truck (started in January but got side burnered due to health) so I can hook up and uncover her this weekend then pull the cap back off to finish up some odds and ends glass work in the hull. If funding can be pulled together I'll get foam to refill the side bays and finish marrying the two halves together. Gas tank will wait till next season. I've got paint on hand to paint the hull and sole so that will be the goal for this season if I can get the foaming accomplished.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Myfathersson

Slow progress this season. Between the impact of the pandemic and a couple medical issues I've gotta devote resources to I don't anticipate getting much done in 2020. I did decide that the engine is not worth attempting to rebuild. The salt infiltration was too excessive. I've spent the last several days dissembling to throw the good bits on eBay and recycle the castings. I finally got the heater core replaced in my truck (started in January but got side burnered due to health) so I can hook up and uncover her this weekend then pull the cap back off to finish up some odds and ends glass work in the hull. If funding can be pulled together I'll get foam to refill the side bays and finish marrying the two halves together. Gas tank will wait till next season. I've got paint on hand to paint the hull and sole so that will be the goal for this season if I can get the foaming accomplished.

You might want to consider using pool noodles for foam. You can get them for a buck each at the Dollar store(s). Cut them to the length you need for each void. Nice thing is that you can buy them as you need them as the work progresses and as funds permit.

[RABBITFISH]

Definitely enjoying the pictures and progress. I have the same model and it is great to be able to see what is under the deck. Just curious have you an estimate as to what you have spent so far for the rebuild? It is getting to be a question these days of rebuilding or buying another one..

[Myfathersson]

Time to catch this thread up. I opened her back up the beginning of July. Pulled out the mothballs and pulled the cap back off:








Started off piloting the holes where the foredeck hardware would be mounting so that I didn't lose the locations while fairing the area. Dixie was an eager helper:




Spent some time polishing the oxidation off the hardware I was reusing. Here is a side by side of the bow chocks before and after spending some time on the buffing wheel:



Man...I need to wet sand and buff my shop table...but I digress.


Decided the replace the original cleats with something a little more modern looking (and which are less likely to impale me):




Worked on patching the holes and other scars on the foredeck:




And while I was working with glass I worked on the myriad of holes at the back of the cap - speakers, rod holders, poorly located holes for controls, etc.:








And fabricated and glassed in a new anchor shelf:




Guess I didn't save any of the pics of fairing, and sanding, and fairing, and sanding, and more sanding and oh my lord am I restoring a boat or converting epoxy and glass to dust... I did note that the green color of TotalFair is a dead ringer for the Seafoam Green of the 1970's Cruisers Inc tri-hull my family had during my childhood years. Kind of poetic.


With the fairing completed I primed the foredeck, anchor tray, battery trays and the bilge:







More to follow! - Greg

[Myfathersson]

With the priming completed, I laid out how I wanted the nonskid on the foredeck. I elected to hold the nonskid about 3/8" off the bowrail mounting plates which came really close to the minimum curve radius of the 3M fineline tape of 1½", and then left clear areas under everything else using that minimum curve radius. I cut templates out of thin cardboard (like notebook backer), then took a few days of vacation so I could ignore my phone while painting:












I'm using the iBoats Tractor Paint formula and rolling it on. With the layout done I laid down the first coat and coated it with nonskid granules as I progressed:






And once the paint had solidified sufficiently I pulled up the masking:




The following morning I swept up the excess nonskid for reuse and laid down the first finish coat. In hindsight I should have vacuumed up the excess the evening before before removing the masking and applied a coat to lock in the granules right then, as there were enough loose particles still, despite brushing and vacuuming multiple times, that I had particles migrate into the smooth areas. I was able to rectify all those with wet sanding but would have been nicer to not have to worry about that.






Four days of painting and then let it rest to get nice and hard.

More to come! - Greg

[Myfathersson]

While the paint cured up my brother traveled down to Louisville from Toledo to lend a hand for my next endeavor - FOAM!

Did my calculations and arrived at needing 47cf of foam and that worked out perfect to get a 40cf kit and an 8cf kit from US Composites. Set the cans out in the sun first thing Saturday morning to let them warm up and around noon we poured the first lift.

I guess it got a little too warm in the sun as the first cell, pouring in half the calculated amount resulted in a massive overfill. When I trimmed off the excess found large voids in the middle due to overheating. But we adjusted and figured out the best method for us to use.





Later in the week I went back with a handsaw and trimmed the foam down flush with the stringer tops and then coated the cut surfaces with a little thickened epoxy for good measure.


Then began installing the hardware on the foredeck. Since I wanted to through bolt all of that hardware and not rely on just screwing into the wood coring, that was the impetus for the prep work and painting on just the forececk and not the cap as a whole, before the 2 halves will get mated back together:













I'm really please with how the non skid contours around the hardware, I think it's a really slick detail. I'm also pleased with the finish of the paint with only rolling - no tipping or wet sanding or bufffing. It's got a light orange peel like surface but it's glossy as hell and easy to clean. I don't want to wax it until I blend the rest of the cap and sole paint in with this area, so washing the bird dropping and whatnot off it every couple days until it's recapped and can be covered with a tarp again.

More to come! - Greg

[Myfathersson]

Now you might expect the next post to be the cap being married back to the hull...but it's not.

I hadn't figured out my fuel tank plan up until this point, but I decided it was time to solidify that portion before I put the cap back on. In modeling the target tank I decided that while I probably COULD get the tank in through the hatch...it's going to be whole hell of a lot easier to do BEFORE the cap goes on. So, since the stock market and economy have been doing better than I feared they might back in the early spring (I work in the restaurant industry so...), I felt comfortable in ordering the fuel tank, the Oceanlink FOLT5007 I mentioned earlier in this thread. It's a 50 gallon poly belly tank. Less capacity than the original tank but more than enough for my anticipated use. And most importantly it fits within the dimensional requirements of the original tank compartment!

With the tank settled I began formulating a plan for supporting it. I gridded out the hull line from the stringer top, and modeled the hull in Fusion360, as well as the tank. After locating the tank at the height I felt was appropriate I then created a platform which matches the tank profile. That platform will rest on a riser assembly which spans the innermost set of chines. The riser will get epoxied and glassed to the hull, the platform will get epoxied to the riser and glassed to the stringers on either side. There's 1½" of gap between the bulkheads fore and aft of the platform so any moisture that does happen to get down in there can find it's way all the way down to the bilge and out.




At the ends of the tank I will wedge in a few strips of 2" insulating foam to lock the tank in between the 2 bulkheads. I'm fabricating the hold downs which will provide the rest of the rigid mount from a piece of 18ga 304 stainless salvaged from a bar renovation so the tank should be well anchored, fully supported, and last the remainder of my lifetime.

Here's the riser assembly that I started yesterday morning:




And the platform I glued up this morning:




The platform will receive (2) 4" diameter holes matching the tank design which aren't cut yet.

And here's cutting up the stainless for the hold downs:






The flux core stainless wire will arrive at the end of this coming week but no rush on that as the tank has a minimum 3 week lead time - should be plenty of time to get all the glass work done on the riser and platform and get them mounted into the hull, and finally weld the gussets on the brackets.

And THAT catches the thread up! I've gotten a lot more accomplished this summer than I thought I would.

Hope you enjoy! Thanks - Greg

[Pipe_Dream]

Fine work!