What's on my agenda from now till next season...

Since the shaft didn't spin all that freely the last few weeks of ski season, I decided to take the boat out to the marina for one last time to check my alignment while she's sitting in the water.
When I started on loosening the bolts on the engine mounts, I found out that the starbordside front mount was completely loose and all the way down!!!
I could just slap myself!! Right there I understood why the engine had that funny vibration (even when the trans wasn't engaged). Ain't no such thing as "I-don't-need-to-check-the-alignment-this-year-I'll-do-it-next-year" or "I'll-check-that-later-let's-just-ski-now"...Hard lesson learned (yet again).
Now she spins as smooth as can be!

Next: making her ready for winter tomorrow.

In two weeks she'll go to an upholsterer for a complete new interior.

After that, sanding, sanding, sanding to prep her for a new paint job...

So I won't get bored this winter... Pics will follow off course

will the boat match the propane tanks?

TRBenj wrote: Kristof wrote: After that, sanding, sanding, sanding to prep her for a new paint job... Please tell me youre not actually considering painting your boat!

Regretably yes!! Algrip!!

Someone recently said that between prep and cost of painting with Algrip, it wouldn't have cost any more to go with gel.

There's a guy in Portland that does fiberglass work and paints boats. He's done 2 Mustangs that I've seen and they looked stunning. They look like gel, but are done with Awlgrip. I don't know what he charges for a whole boat, but I got an estimate of around $5k just for the deck on the Classic.

The extra cost of doing a gel job is really in the sanding and buffing of the final finish. Algrip is good stuff but it'd still paint and needs to be treated as such. Plus, to my knowlege, there isn't a paint out there that recommends keeping the boat in the water for very long. Kristof, did you consider that? Don't you keep you boat in the water?

I guess the first question that needs to be answered, is why refinish at all? Is there extensive cracking or blistering that needs to be repaired? Your boat looks to be in great condition, so Im curious.

Ill let Pete and the other experts handle the gel vs. paint question, as I dont have any first hand experience... yet. Based on my limited research here, I do know that spraying gel is a legit practice, and when it comes time to refinish the deck of my '67 Nautique, it will be getting gelcoat.

Kristof,
I talked with Billy and there seems to be a communication issue between the Cajon and Belgium languages!!! He's up to speed and knows all about gel coat but just feels you should paint the boat.

I wonder how the yuckytan yellow is coming along? That might be good input.

parafin=wax

Question: if I use the polyester topcoat, do I need primer first...?
My first guess would be no... But I might just as well be wrong .

Tim,
Logic has nothing to do with it
I wanted to do this for a long time. Chantal cried for hours when it happened, but I was secretly glad it happenend...
I love Choppers' hull and wanted to do something similar since I got the boat. Yes, I know, not original, but had that conversation with Pete over the phone last week .

Ha, you must be feeling the peer pressure... it seems like just about every CC Ive seen that has made its way to Europe ends up with a funky paintjob or other significant modifications. I figured it must feel pretty cool to have one of the only original boats on the continent! Maybe I was wrong.

Taheejizown.

Tim,
Ya have a point there... Damn... More doubts!

Good thing Chantal isn't reading this thread, cause she's all over me into keeping it original...

paint is nice..but in not close to gel in resistance to rubs in docking etc, etc...I see the price difference as an issue but in the long the gel will last much much longer than paint...
Have this friends who painted their top deck on a ´94 style mc..they used polyurethane paint..very nice finish..good work..was holding nice..left the boat aside of mine in the dock..with fenders..but unfortunately water movement made them to move..and my killer SS rubrail that sits higher than the mc..ruined the paint in the deck...uf they were upset!!!.
So my advice is go gel..

Quick search on the gelcoat prizes in the links mentionned in my former post, it doesn't look more expensive than the Sterling paint.
Got a quote from the Sterling salesman and the total price is around 370 euro (517,63 USD)...