going to be farwell to all googans !

[diggin4grouper]

ok F.Y.I for any one that has a boat now , its real easy for me to steal your trailer ! the trailer we got didnt have a title , and the vin was smugged off , it was easy enough to do , i hate thiefs so i wont say how to do it on a public forum ...

only took me like 4 hours to get a tag for the trailer !

so if you have a sticker that has the vin number on it , take your trailer and have the vin stamped in to the frame and on the tongue of the trailer , that will insure it cant be re tagged in any state ...

heres what the vin tag looked like

[diggin4grouper]

Chevy Juan this is for you ...



well the trailer is almost done , just needs new keel rollers and its done , all bunk boards have been replaced wood and carpet



we have removed part of the floor to get back to good decking that was not rotted away and are going to replace the floor here soon with cypress ply wood , the old tank will not be going back in as it has to many hole to fix and the old fuel coffin will now become a insulated fish box and we will have the 2 external tanks of fuel one out one back ..

before


after


i have also redone the seat console
before




after

[diggin4grouper]

Gee Whizz

That is progress right there.

Gonna be good when all said and done. You got talent Diggin

thanks , this isn't the first boat we have redone but the first one that was ours . but were no strange to fiberglass grew up around it and work with it for many years

[PhishingPhanatic]

Cool thread, keep posting updates and pics on here. Looks like a great project boat.

[permitchaser]

looking good trailer looks great.

[Chevy Juan]

HELL YEA!! Agreed with rory, keep posting till complete. this im sure will serve as motivation with those who have similar goals!!

[diggin4grouper]

ill keep updating as we go , were hoping it will be ready in time to catch a few last season snook around sebastian later on !

the out side of the hull really isnt in to bad of shape , a lot of rubbing compound and a few coats of good wax should get it back in to shape . since were going to lay cypress ply wood down we have to wait for it to come in , most lumber places dont keep it in stock and the ones here only do it by request . when that comes in we will get cracking on it and do a lot of the prep work before laying it down , right now we are going threw the foam layers and getting out the dead foam that has been soaked by fuel and water , the boat its self has not been in the water since 1999 so the people that had it did not use it when the registration rand out and they had took the hatches for the bilge and fuel tank , pretty much they gutted the boat of any thing of value that could be sold or swapped to there new boat and then layed a piece of untreated ply wood over the holes and half assed seal it and screwed it to the old flooring and the rotting started then in the floor , they did how ever 5200 in the holes in the transom , we checked all that yesterday and its still solid but were going to enlarge the holes and plug them with a 3" dowl rod as we have been told to do and re fiberglass the whole transom to give it a fresh start ..... still a lot to go but were getting there .

[diggin4grouper]

well after debating over to remove the old foam that was water logged or to just cover the boat in a tarp and let it dry out on its own , we decided to take it out so 3 days later all the foam has been removed , we cut it with a hand saw and then slowly removed it chunk by chuck , and we found spot that need some tlc and new glass put down to make it better than new , me and my father took turns in the boat as the foam was removed , its very hot inside the boat with out a breeze blowing as at some points we were on our side laying in the boat to get to small areas but here is some before and after pics

[permitchaser]

David its looking better each day ,the fishing reports will b 100% better.

[permitchaser]

Wow wow wow

Yep you guys building a new one alright

Rony i pass by ur house nobody was there ,i was by the your area today.

[diggin4grouper]

Derail end - Sorry Diggin

im not that worried about that . it happens from time to time ...


but it will more than likely be stronger than when it came from the factory , the next step is to get the cross supports back in and run the lateral braces and get the deck ready to go back ! about 180 bucks worth of cypress 1" x 2 1/2" and 1" x 6" and should be ready for the foam to be sprayed back in, and the deck layed back down .

[permitchaser]

Telephono mas fasil Raulito

Damn my Spanish is bad.

Derail end - Sorry Diggin

i drop my cell it doesnt dial tmarrow i will be able

that area where diggin is its amazing ,David you are by Sebastian?
Ron the best way to learn is with a spanish girlfriend

[crashmister]

Actually Raul, Dave is in Georgia I believe.
Nice job Dave. Just a thought, but have you considered putting a pipe in under floor from the CC to the battery compartment? Makes adding things a snap. Switchable power to the transom and even the gunnel's if you want, depending on your plans. Also have you looked at LED lighting? You can light the boat and fish all night and still have almost full batteries in the morning. with a 50.000 hour rating, they last for years cause they are vibration proof not just resistant. Only real draw on your battery would be a livewell. Best part, LED's don't attract bug's. No UV light.

[diggin4grouper]

Actually Raul, Dave is in Georgia I believe.
Nice job Dave. Just a thought, but have you considered putting a pipe in under floor from the CC to the battery compartment? Makes adding things a snap. Switchable power to the transom and even the gunnel's if you want, depending on your plans. Also have you looked at LED lighting? You can light the boat and fish all night and still have almost full batteries in the morning. with a 50.000 hour rating, they last for years cause they are vibration proof not just resistant. Only real draw on your battery would be a livewell. Best part, LED's don't attract bug's. No UV light.

the pipes that were in the floor for running the wires and control cables will go back in plus a few more for drainage reasons , when we took all the foam out we took the pipes out too , there was one about 8 foot long running from the cc to the left rear box and then there were 2 6 " ones about a foot and a half long for running the live well pluming and other things that will go back with 45 deg pipe ends . as far as deck lights we may put some around the cc but that might be a later project as we just want to get the boat fish-able for now . long slow road but it will get done as funds are available

[diggin4grouper]

little more progress , keep in mind we used pine just to get the fit and make template's so that when we cut the cypress there is no waste as cypress is expensive @ about 8.00 a board foot .

[permitchaser]

A lot of work ,its looking better each time.

[Chevy Juan]

lookin' like you can throw it in the water already david lol!..

awesome progress dude keep it up man!

[diggin4grouper]

yea its starting to look like a boat again and hopefully we will have the floor braces back in and the foam back in soon and then we can put the main floor back down , we had found a new problem with the transom and then found it will be good for a long time to come . problem was who ever had the boat had trim tabs on there and looks like they put kitchen and bathroom caulk in the holes and fished the boat a while when we opened the holes up a little bigger water poured out of it , so we drilled a few more holes around it and sprayed in stop rot under 60 psi pressure till it came out the holes on the bottom were going to let that dry for a few days and then reglass the transom area , and should be ok for about 6 or 7 years , also we were playing around with gelcoat colors .




this will be the hull color

[diggin4grouper]

well took a break off the hull for a bit , to much at one time will lead to a screw up or you get burned out doing it so i played with the console a bit

got the old wood out and replaced it with new wood that has been fiber-glassed and then fiber-glassed in place where the old wood was , the top where the gauges were really didn't need to be replaced but figured while i was here might as well do it , the wood for the steering was a different story as soon as i cut the back of the fiber-glass off what was left of the wood there went to dust . so the task that is left now is to fill in the old openings with fiberglass and fill 50 million screw holes it seems like and sand and paint with aw-grip

[Chevy Juan]

Nice Davis you got yourself a template right there.

[diggin4grouper]

Sweet deal Diggin

I really like this thread. Basically a step by step how to

yea but at a high learning curve , it looks easy but can be a pain in the butt

Nice Davis you got yourself a template right there.

na the new gauges will be in different spots , you'll see later on

[diggin4grouper]

alright here ya go Chevy Juan no more template lol