1980 HydroStream Vamp resto-mod

I have a buddy that I fish with, I did a ton of work on his boat, and it got to the point where I would tell him to go wait inside while I fix it. When I had him mixing resin, he was putting 30cc of hardener into 8oz of resin, that resin should of had about 4cc of hardener. So his boat is going to delaminate really really fast now due to the wrong mix ratios.

 

Well, "more has to be better" - right...

That is the same logic women use with laundry soap BTW.

 

lol. I believe they call that "girl math".

 

I've always called it "girl logic".

When things don't work out how my wife intends I will put my arm around her, lean down and gently say "it must be rough being a girl"...
.
.
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...and then she hits me.

 

More seriously:

Above you indicate 1cc per 2 oz of resin.
Is that ratio a constant for all fiberglass work or does it vary according to the job/temperature/type of filler/etc?

I have only done stir it up and slap it on hack fiberglass work.

 

It will vary depending on temperature and work time. Right now I am doing 10cc per 16oz of resin, if it was summer I would be mixing more in the 8cc range. But the difference between 10cc mekp and 8cc mekp per 16oz resin is a few hours in cure time and leaves a very tacky surface (I am using laminating resin, so it will be tacky normally when cured, but not enough mekp leaves it extra tacky).

So if I am laying up a single layer of cloth at a time I will mix at the 10cc range, if I am laying 3-4 layers of cloth at a time I will mix closer to 8cc. The heat from so many layers makes up for the reduced hardener in the cooler temps.

But, yeah the ratios I use vary depending on temp and job.

 

Alright, todays the day! I have the glass cut and ready, I will wet it all with ample resin and cabosil, lay the floor down then stack all the car batteries I have laying around on top of the center line.
I measured my stringer to floor level and its very tight all the way, so cabosil will be limited use there as I wont need to make up much space.

 

Get to it!! I can't wait to see it with the floor down and all the batteries stacked! Take your time.

 

Alright, took a little over an hour to get it all setup and put in.
I will be putting chop mat over the seams tomorrow, then a layer of 1808 over the whole thing. But I need to go get more foam rollers and mixing cups as I ran out tonight.

 

WOW! It's in, congratulations. So everything, in the floor, is glued together with the resin and its one solid piece now. I think it's going to last 30+ years like that-or longer, nice job. Will you put some resin on top of that floor eventually? It's really surprising to me that wood is used to build boats. Keep in mind I have never, ever, known until now, how to refurbish a boat like this. Is there another layer of flooring that will level out some of those angles, making more level floor space?

 

Yep, boats made of wood is pretty weird sometimes to think of. But as long as you seal the wood with resin, it will last for along time. This boat lasted from 1980 till probably around 2015 when im guessing the last owner tried to "recore" it. So 35 years on the factory half assed fiberglass job is pretty good. With the new work I did it should last another 30+ for sure, though I dont know how many of those years I will even own it. Guessing I will have it for 10-15 years before I sell it for something else.

So I will pour about 2 gallons of resin over the wood and then put the 1808 cloth over that and up the sides (the 1808 will soak up all the resin I pour on there). It will give it a strong water sealed bond to the rest of the hull.

The angles on the sides will stay like that, its one of the designs of the boat so the passengers sit lower in the hull.

 

Things are coming together nicely from 2 months ago.

 

Big change in the before/after. But im excited to nearly be done with this floor so I can move on to pulling the motor off and get the transom taken care of. Im thinking as it gets colder I will have less big blocks of time to work on the boat. I do plan to spend weekends out on the ice fishing.

 

Alright, the floor has been tabbed down (all the edges are sealed to the boat with fiberglass) Once that cures I can switch over to the 1808 and put the front half in. The 1808 will go up about 4 inches on the front bulkhead, then up the sides to the float boxes.

 

Spent this evening pulling the power head off the spare motor, last owner said it had low compression, not sure if true as I have not tested it yet, but all the wiring was destroyed on it and I needed the lower end from it for my other motor.
I pulled a few parts off that I needed for the other motor. I pulled the fuel pump off and the block side was gummed up really really bad (see picture with white powder). Carbs look pretty good, but they will be taken all apart, cleaned with the ultrasonic, then rebuilt so I can do a quick swap onto the other motor.
Im going to keep the spare block, might rebuild it in the future.

 

Front half of the floor getting glassed right now, just need to grind up the sides a little to get good bonds. I need to mark the cloth and the surface so I can line it up right again.

 

Do you need to rough up the cured resin on the core for a good bond?

 

Normally you would, but I am using a laminating resin so it remains slightly tacky between coats. This allows for just glassing over and over without grinding.

Now, if I was using finishing resin or the stuff you buy at the hardware store (bondo brand) I would need to sand with a 40 grit between layers.

Laminating resin also helps when I apply the gelcoat so it sticks well. There are 2 kinds of gelcoat, with and without wax. The wax floats to the surface of the gelcoat and seals it off from the air. This is what allows the gelcoat to harden correctly.

 

I noticed you mentioned laminating resin before and was going to ask the difference.
Thanks for the explanation, I have learned some neat stuff following this build.

BTW: Don't get resin & mat in your hair - your Beatles style hair...

Some lessons you only have to learn once.

 

I have a baseline knowledge of fiberglass work from my autobody past jobs, but I had to learn a lot of new things for proper boat building. Im still doing things a little different than the "hive mind" by using materials and tactics that are new or not used in the boat restoration world.

Much of the last owners failed fiberglass work was due to improper materials and poor prep work.