4000 Views and Goodbye Gray

This week, my blog surpassed 4000 views.  Most likely the same 10 or so people! LOL.   In the midst of painting.

Here I am prepping the deck for a coat of prime-kote primer.  I sure have gone through a lot of this blue painter's tape on this project.

All hardware has been removed, except for the jib traveler.  I could not get any of the screws/bolts to budge, so I just taped it off and painted around it.

Alluding to the title of this post, all the gray has been painted over.  OK, the gray in the anchor locker is still there, but that will get a couple of coats of bilge paint when I get around to it.  It seems that most Iroquois were painted an offsetting color, so I am pretty sure the gray was original.  Oh well, not really my style.

If you recall, I deliberated between removing the existing window frames to  have them powder coated black to match the new windows or leave them and paint them insitu.

Well the picture answers the question.  The frames were not budging much, so I decided to leave them.  They are adhered pretty, well, so I don't think it is the route of any leaking.

Masking the frame was quite a tedious task.  I bet it took about 3 hours total, if not more!

Here is a shot after painting a self etching primer on the aluminum frame.  I ended putting 2 coats.

Same shot, just a close up.

After a couple of coats of paint.  If you look closely you can see the masking coming away.  I am not sure if it is the "purple" painters tape (not 3M) that I bought at Home Depot or what, but the tape was not sticking with the wind beating at the brown paper.  Unfortunately this lead to quite a bit of overspray that I did not notice until I removed the masking.  It all came off with a bit of paint reducer.  So much for all that tedious work!

And the finished product.  I want to put a tint on the window at some point.

And from the side.  This angle kind of shows the black out effect I am going for.  I ended up applying 2-3 coats of black satin, but I did not think that it matched the new windows, which had a bit more gloss to it. So I went and bought a semi gloss black and applied 3 more coats.  Hopefully it will hold up for a while!

Didn't forget the screws.  I guess I could have gone out an bought some new black ones, but what the heck, Reuse, Recycle.  Laid the screws in a piece of Styrofoam and applied etching primer and a few coats of paint.

So now that my window frames are all black, I thought about how the chrome port holes would look.  The exterior frames were tarnished and would need re-chroming, so I decided to go ahead and paint them.  If I don't like it, I was still going to get them re-chromed.  We'll see.












For the rest of the week, I will continue with laying down the first of 3 coats of Interlux on the deck and cockpit.  In the coming weeks, the rest of the boat above the rub rail, will likely get one more coat of Interlux to meld everything together and finally, a non-skid will be applied.

I ordered some Dow 795 sealant for the old windows.  Hopefully I can get to that this week.

Boat Arch

My stainless steel boat arch was delivered today.  I am very happy with the work.  The cost.... well that is another thing!  Remember, B.O.A.T.  If you own a boat, you know what it stands for!

The main reason for the arch is to remove clutter from the cabin.

Here is a shot from aft.  The main sheet traveler will be placed on top of the arch.

I originally was going to put my radar scanner on top, but I wanted the top of the arch to go under the boom.

I incorporated a bench seat to move people out of the cockpit area and provide more seating.

I will likely use some plastic lumber in a teak color.  Probably slats similar to a park bench look.

I really like the forward slant of the arch.  I ended up going with 1.75" diameter tube.  Sturdy enough to add davits later, if I so choose.

It also provides a mass that I think balances out the mass of the raised cabin area.

You may have noticed in the previous picture that I got around to putting a primer coat in the cockpit area.  Prior to that, I added some vinylester resin to the channel that surrounds the cockpit floor.

The copper scupper holes are proud of the surrounding area by about 1/8".  This leaves standing water and debris.  So I decided to lay the resin in order to limit the amount of standing water.

This week I also placed an order for some teak veneer plywood and teak molding so I can make more progress on the interior.  What did I say about B.O.A.T.?  Oh well, at least I made it down to the West Marine store that is closing and got 75% off on some 8/2 AWG wire.  Bought 50 feet.  30 feet to run to the electric toilet in the head and 20 feet to run to the refrigerator in the galley.  I think I paid $.75 a foot.  I also bought 30 feet of 2 AWG for about $1.25 a foot.  Unfortunately all they had was red.  I bought that to run to the forward deck for a future windlass.

Painting and Window (Port) Install

Friday morning I spent a few hours sanding in preparation for my first coat of paint on the lower cabin area.  I also started installing the windows on the raised cabin roof.  Around 10:30 I pulled myself away from the project to take my Ericson out for a sail.  Very nice day, 5-6 knots going and coming back.

Laid one coat of the Snow White paint, since I have half a gallon of it.  The next two coats will be Oyster White.

I purchased a badger hair brush to tip the paint.  It came out better than my first attempt at roll/tip, but the jury is still out as to if it is better than roll/roll method.  I did not use flattening agent with this coat.  I am pretty sure I am going to flatten the remaining coats.

I had some paint left over, so I decided to paint the storage lids.

I did not use a primer, because I did not want to waste the paint, which only has a pot live of 4 hours.  It actually covered the gray paint pretty good.  Still need to fill in the defects and sand prior to the next coat.

              New window installed.

Shot of butyl tape oozing out.  Once I cut it back, I will tape off and apply some black Dow 795 sealant for a nice finish.

Started installing foam backed vinyl "headliner".  The roof will get a PVC wainscot.

The liner is temporarily held in place with 3M spray adhesive.

At some point, I will install teak molding.  This is a piece from the previous headliner.   I need to buy some more and varnish it.  Need to make a trip to the lumber yard soon!

I think I will wait and varnish the new molding at the same time I decide to varnish the teak rub rail and then install it.

With daylight savings time, I have been trying to do more after I get home from work.  I decided to paint the 2 forward storage lockers with bilge paint.  This is after 2 coats.  The plywood floors need one more coat.  I also wanted to get this done before I start wiring the navigation lights that will go on the hull.

Speaking of wiring, here is a small sampling of my wiring collection.  I have been buying wire at various boat rummage sales over the last year.  The West Marin store in Huntington Beach is going out of business, so I have been getting the bulk of the wire there.  The wire is now 75% off.  Just need to buy some heavy gauge wire for the head and fridge.  I may even buy some for a future windlass.  Because of the long run from the battery bank to the windlass, I will likely need some 2 AWG, which can be quite expensive.  May as well buy it now and install while the boat is accessible.

I have already run the 2 AWG from the battery area, through the chase and to the helm area.








Here is the electrical schematic I came up with.  I already bought the different color wire to match the colors on the schematic.

That's all for now!

Windows and Priming

Spent most of the week deliberating on whether to remove the existing windows or not.  If I removed them, I would have also looked into powder coating them black to match the new windows.  I was able to remove all of the bolts that hold the window in place, but the frame seems to be adhered to the boat pretty well.  I had visions of bending the frame and creating another problem.   Even thought others had removed theirs successfully, I decided to leave them in and work around them.

Here is a shot of the existing windows. I removed all of the caulk, or whatever that red bedding is.  The front runner for resealing/rebedding the glass is Dow 795 silicon sealant in a black color.

I am going to spray a self etching primer to prep the aluminum and then paint the frames a satin black.  This is the same color I used to paint the cabin top hatches.  I think they will match pretty well with my new windows on the raised cabin roof.   This will get done once the fiberglass, around it, is painted.

Speaking of which, I place a 2-part primer on this part of the boat today.  I have 2 quarts of the snow white left over, so I am going to use that for the first coat and then follow up with the oyster white.

After I applied the primer kote, I filled in all of the pin holes with the Interlux putty.   Mothers Day is tomorrow, so not sure if I will get much done.  Need to take some more time off of work!











BTW,  Interlux Perfection does not like moisture, so cover up your work if a dew is expected.  This happened to me after the paint had cured for about 6 hours.  The dew flattened the gloss to a dull finish.

The stainless steel arch is supposed to be done next week, so stay tuned!