Beginning my 1987 Fisherman 20 Restoration

[Blue_Runner]

Amazing work. Not only on the boat but the documentation, quality photos, etc. Pipe summed it up in 2 words - fine work! Nice job and thank you for posting up this really cool rebuild thread. Can't wait to see your next move, and the final product!

[Myfathersson]

Originally Posted by Blue_Runner

Amazing work. Not only on the boat but the documentation, quality photos, etc. Pipe summed it up in 2 words - fine work! Nice job and thank you for posting up this really cool rebuild thread. Can't wait to see your next move, and the final product!

Thank you! Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I've been doing additional thinking and reading about the fuel tank. My platform design wasn't going to result in a sealed compartment but I've decided the platform does need to be fully sealed to the stringers & bulkheads so that any fuel leaks can't foul the bilge. Not a big deal, just need to epoxy up a few pieces of glass as right angles to bridge at the ends - the sides were always intended to seal to the stringers for support.

I'm still contemplating if I need to add vents and a blower though. I'm leaning towards it'd be a good idea.

[Myfathersson]

Less than favorable weather this weekend so all I got done outside was some sanding to prep for priming and applying a coat of TotalFair to scratches and pock marks on the transom and keel.

But I was able to tackle one lingering project in the basement after I wrapped up glassing all the surfaces of the new tank platform. I went to work recoring the fuel compartment cover. A new piece of 1/2" MDO laid in with peanut butter. Then I filled the gap between the edge of the plywood and the lip of the cover with a blend of thickened epoxy, milled fiber and 1/4" chopped strand before wetting out a layer of 17oz biax over the back side. I am hoping that this mixture will allow me to countersink the screws which secure the compartment directly into the newly reinforced edge.



The piece of ply covered with mylar tape sticking out the side is just a form to let me build up the edge where a hole had been cut in the edge of the cover for the original install of the cables to the console. Once the back side is set up I'll patch that glass on the topside and create a new hole with a proper dam around it for the console cables that ISN'T in the compartment cover.

Up next may very well be removing the hull from the trailer again and applying paint. Weather just has to cooperate. Stay tuned!

[Myfathersson]

It's Derby Weekend here in Louisville and the weather is freaking fantastic - 80° days and 0% chance of rain today thru Tuesday. So painting is on tap.

Over the past few weeks I've made some new hull supports. I wasn't overly fond of the stacked concrete blocks I used last summer so I took some scrap treated 2x6's I had and grabbed a couple 4x4's and 2x4's and made up these pylons:






And then earlier this week I set to the oh so fun chore of jacking up the hull and shimmying the trailer out from 'neath her.




Then set to fairing and sanding the hull to clean up where I sanded thru the old antifouling paint and in spots gelcoat, and the myriad of scratches from the PO beaching her regularly.

On the less dry days I cleaned up all the hatches, faired them and set the non-skid in a coat of epoxy to simplify the painting process.




The PO also mounted a swim ladder to the transom and put one of the screw holes right through the E in the HIN. I tried to dremel a new E in but it never looked very good. So I modeled up a negative of the HIN in Fusion360 and printed it on my 3D printer, packed the mold full of epoxy and milled fiber with a backer of 1708 and put it under a vacuum for an hour to yield this:




Lost the islands in a few of the digits but they read well enough that it works. Cut the old HIN out and glued the new casting in and faired it last night.


And finally this afternoon, after wrapping up a late post lunch meeting, I came home and set to spraying the primer:






Tomorrow morning I'll wet sand and start spraying the finish. With the fantastic weather I'll get 6 coats on her and be ready to install the fuel tank when it gets delivered next week. Just gotta order the new hoses and clamps to make final connections from the deck drains to the thru hulls for assembling the two halves.

Thanks for looking! - Greg

[Myfathersson]

Productive weekend! I sprayed a total of 4 coats of paint. My bodywork filling and fairing wasn't perfect, but from 10 feet away I can't pick out the issues, and even at 5 foot I have to know where to look. Plus, except for the 3' long scar along the port side, all of the issues are below the waterline, or under where the engine will mount on the transom, so it's a win in this amateur's book.

It's so nice seeing a glossy shine on her - she didn't have a lick of that when she came home.








I did have one sag starboard side just fore of the ice box thru hull but it's hardly noticeable.




I should have sourced acetone by the pail...




I used a variant of the iBoats "tractor paint" process. Rustoleum Oil Base Gloss Enamel, Acetone to reduce, and Majic Enamel Hardener from Tractor Supply in a 8:6:1 ratio. Each coat took 120 oz of mixed product, sprayed through a Harbor Freight Pressure Pot HVLP gun, fed by (2) 21gal compressors to yield a theoretical 11.6 cfm supply rate, just above the 10 cfm spec'd by HF for the gun. While spraying the hull I also coated all the hatch covers which all had coarse non-skid. That really took some serious application to cover. I bet 30-40 oz of each coat was sprayed on the non-skid. I sprayed the primer with a gravity feed HVLP gun and decided that the $60 pressure pot version was a good investment to let me correctly aim the spray for the keel and chines - I was right :)


Now, since the hull is off the trailer, I'm setting up to replace 4 of the bunk supports on the inner pair that were too short in my original setup. I've gotta grab a length of 2x4 tube and weld those on over the next couple weeks before my brother travels back down to assist with getting her back on the trailer and setting the cap back in place. So I rolled the trailer up onto the patio to where the welder can reach the outlet, and braced the bunks where they need to be, cut out the front 2 and made up a template for the new supports out of a scrap 2x4. Once the front set is tacked on, I'll cut out the mid supports and tack those in.




Fuel tank should be delivered this week so installing that will be the next big ticket endeavour.

Thanks for looking!

[Giorgio]

Looking GOOOOOD!!!!

[Pipe_Dream]

Really nice! Where'd you source your fuel tank? It seems like someone somewhere is always looking for one.

[Myfathersson]

Originally Posted by Pipe_Dream

Really nice! Where'd you source your fuel tank? It seems like someone somewhere is always looking for one.

Ocean Link - THIS 50 gal poly belly tank. Waiting for updated tracking info from the manufacturer presently. I've worked up a support platform to anchor it that there's some detail on a few posts/pages back. As I install it I'll try and highlight what I've done.