Another BFN Rebuild

What do you use to tint the epoxy?

Man am I glad I didn't use that stuff!!!
I was going to but didn't have the time to wait for shipping. I used the garage floor epoxy and it has held up great.
Good luck what a pain!!

87BFN owner wrote: Tim, Any new updates?

No good ones.

Most of the bilge paint is out, but the bilge is a mess. The paint stripper attacked the resin to some degree- I fear I will be re-fairing once it is all cleaned up. Still have some final cleanup and sanding to do before that. The resin pigment is on order... going to use tinted epoxy.

Ranger wrote: I will be curious about the tinted epoxy. What color are you going with? I've heard that is has a tendency to yellow a bit which makes me a little hesitant. I'm hoping that it works out well since I would like to do something similar. Let me know how it works.

Jeff, you raise a valid point. I havent tried this before either- anyone know if I can expect some yellowing to occur? I was tentatively thinking of going with off white, but I would consider other colors (blue?) if I thought it would withstand the test of time better (at least looks wise).

8122pbrainard wrote: Tim, I don't want to sound boring here but how about a gray tint?

I hear you Pete- the bilges in my '90 and Dad's '03 are gray- and I painted the Tique's bilge gray as well. It looks ok, but like you said- kind of boring, and looks a little out of place on an older boat. Id prefer to go white and brighten things up a bit. If we decide we want to avoid the yellowing, blue might be our choice.

TRBenj wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: Tim, I don't want to sound gay? I hear you Pete- i and Dad are gay- and Tique as well. Its ok, but like you said- kind of boring, I prefer to bite things up a bit. If we decide we want to avoid the yelling, u might be our choice.

Well I thought I would have a few semi-current pictures today, but I dont. I had taken a few of the bilge before we removed the bilgekote, but I guess I used Dad's camera (which ended up in the lake, whoops). I snapped a few pics last night of the newly prepped bilge, but I dont have those with me... I dont want to disappoint, so here's a shot of the one time we had the boom on the boat last summer. It will be good to see the boat all rigged up next year.



Anyways, we finally got back to putting the final finish on the bilge last night. We went back and forth on the color and decided to go with white... off white actually, as the bright white bilgekote made the white on the deck look dingy in comparison. We figured 2 quarts of resin would be a safe amount so I mixed it up as half off-white (US Composites "Halyard" tint) and half bright white. It turns out that thier "off white" is really more of a tan, so the resultant color was much closer to cream than we wanted. Actually, it would look perfect in the bilge of one of my older boats- it appears to match the '71 and '69 almost perfectly. Of course, at this point, I had used up all of my bright white tint, so instead of waiting to order more, we went with plan B. The bilge will be blue! The color actually looks to be a great match to the motor and stripe, so I think it will look pretty good. I got one pocket coated last night and will try to get the rest of the first coat on the bilge finished tonight. I think it will probably take 2 coats to cover. Will try to get some pics up tomorrow.

M3Fan wrote: What a tease that pic is. At first glance I thought it was the victory pic.

Ha, good point. Though, if all goes as well as we hope, then maybe the "victory pic" will be a shot of the GPS instead!

Finally, some current pictures... first, the re-stripped bilge:





And now, with the first coat of blue-tinted epoxy.







The pictures are actually a little misleading... the first coat didnt cover as well as I had hoped. It got a little blotchy and transparent in spots as it dried... we'll have to sand and hit it with a second coat.

Hollywood wrote: Looks like one of the new 2011 Barefoot International ads to me.

LMAO

Tim,
You sure strayed away from the original idea of white or grey!!

8122pbrainard wrote: Tim, You sure strayed away from the original idea of white or grey!!

Original would have been white gel with gray splatter, Pete. Nothing original about plain white by itself, and definitely not plain gray either. Once you lift the engine cover on this thing, not much will look like it came from the factory- engine, structure, etc. At this point, who cares about the background color!

hasbeenskier wrote: Break out the sun glasses bj

We have slowly but surely continued to make progress... so I better get an update in.

The bilge is finally done. It ended up taking 3 coats of resin- the tinted epoxy didnt work as well as I had hoped. Because the base is clear, it didnt cover all that great. Each coat required a good amount of sanding and cleaning, then several hours to paint it on. The last coat didnt lay down very flat for some reason- though it cured just fine. Not the mirror finish I was hoping for, but I guess its just the bilge, right? Im done messing with it, thats for sure.





I then buffed the transom out since it was easier to do while there was no hardware installed. We were starting to lose the "Competition Barefoot Boat" lettering, and now its almost gone. Will need to repaint that at some point... but now now. After it was shined up, we started cutting holes. Had to redrill all the platform bracket bolt holes, the new exhaust tips and hardware, and the speedo tubing holes, as they were all filled/covered with thickened resin, glass and coosa from rebuilding the transom.





The 4" exhaust tips look much better on a transom this substantial, I think.

We also cleaned up the hull and cut the holes for the raw water pickup, bilge drain and bow eye. We need to grab a 2" hole saw for the rudder port and some drill stops for the fin screws... Once those holes are cut and cleaned up, then we can 5200 all the hardware in.

Are you just leaving the tips like that or adding flappers?