Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Day 247 - A new window

Another long busy day and we're getting down to brass tacks.

So let's see...

The divider under the rear-admirals seat was installed.


The captains seat was installed.


Then the white paint was pulled out and some little areas got done. Under the transom well, the GPS antennae mount, a little more around the front windows and some little touch up places around the boat.

The lower door support was 4200 and screwed into place and and some white paint was put on the top edge. The squeeze out of 4200 from when the center fuel tank fixture was installed was trimmed out and the screw and washer removed.


A coat of maroon paint was put on both the inside and outside edges of the windows in the door.

And I finally decided what size and where to put the rear window. So here's the steps for making a window.

Draw the outline making sure all the lines are square, plumb and level.


Mark the radius of the 3-1/2" hole saw and drill the holes for the corners.


Connect the holes with the jig saw.


Use the router to make a rabbet.


Prime the edges.


Now the paint needed time to dry and it had stopped raining and looked like it might stay that way so it was time to swap trailers. I traded my three axle King for a two axle EZ Loader plus some cash. He needed a larger trailer for his much heavier 24' boat and I needed a smaller trailer for my much lighter boat so this would work out well.

After discovering that there were some parts needed for the replacement trailer I went to Home Depot for many 1/2" bolts, washers and nuts, and Western Auto for a replacement trailer jack. The bolts that were used to hold the trailer bunks (the long flat pieces that the boat sits on) were very well rusted and I knew they were going to have to be replaced. I had started spraying them yesterday with anti-seize in hopes I could break them free.

The new trailer was taken over to the shed and work commenced. Even with some serious grunting I couldn't get even one of the bolts and nuts free. I grabbed the impact wrench.

No go.

Wow, these things are rusted good!

So it was time for the final option; the sawzall. Every single bolt had to be cut off. Yikes. Thank goodness for power tools!


And with that the bunks were free.


I cut a quick jig out of 3/4" plywood to match the shape of the hull at the transom.


And then got to work resetting the bunks. I marked on the jig the centerlines of the stringers and set the inner bunks to centerline on the stingers and the outer bunks to provide continuing side-to-side support.


Then the forward hardware was installed and the trailer is basically ready to go.


I'm contemplating changing all this though. I'm going to see if I can hang the cross-members under the frame instead of sitting on top. That would lower the boat five inches, which would be really good from a launching and center of gravity standpoint. We'll see. Research to do on that.

Then it was back inside the shed to do some final painting. The rear window got it's first coat of white and the GPS antennae got its second coat.


And with that I called it a night.

10.5 Hours