1979 Viking build

[XstreamVking]

That's a slick install....

[LakeFever]

Battery tray done. Foot pedal base set in core bond as well as the seat boxes. This is the end of fabrication now it’s all about refinishing which will start with gel coating the inside and the we will bond the cap to the hull.

[tnelsmn]

Do you have a way to weigh the hull when you're finished? Our builds are very similar and I would be curious to see what the weight savings of the coosa is over marine plywood. If I ever build another one I plan to use coosa throughout.

[LakeFever]

Im going to weigh it somehow, i'll figure it out. I like the coosa its been nice to work with aside from the extreme itchy factor. I got a flake that landed on my nose I didnt initially notice and I rubbed it in and it made a nasty bleeding spot for a couple weeks lol.

Tony Ive been reviewing your build thread again as we are getting to the refinishing stage and I notice what looks like Nav light wiring under the deck but I dont see any Nav lights on your hull. What did you use if any? Got pics?

[LakeFever]

Glassed in the seat boxes with two layers of 1708 above and two layers below the seat pad. One layer tied into the deck with csm tailing. We think one layer will be enough to hold the seat boxes in, anyone think different? We also laid one layer of 1708 over the foot throttle mount. The white material is mekp activated core bond I believe it’s called B72 and it is working great under the vinylester so if anyone is worried about core bond and vinyester this is the stuff to use. Wish I knew this before using the benzo hardened green core bond that apparently has some issues with curing under vinylester although I never did try so maybe that’s fine too? Dunno.

also added a pic of the finished battery tray with corebond levelling trick. Certainly sped this process all up and fills wayyyyy better than thickened cabosil resin. It’s super light too.

[rjdubiel]

I am going to weigh mine as well once I get the motor off and get ready to finally finish mine and paint the floor. Will be interesting to see the difference between all three. Anyway, one layer should be good for seat boxes and mount pads

[tnelsmn]

Lake, I don't have a decent picture with the lights on, but I do have nav lights on the bow. They're LED strips that are mounted to the underside of the rub rail. I drilled a small have through the hull just under the rail and sealed it with 4200. You really can't see them during the day, but they're very bright when running at night. This picture is not where they were mounted. I went a little further back, but you get the idea.

[89LASER]

transom light (upside down) and bow lights under railings

[LakeFever]

Cool! I’m definitely looking for a sleeker look than the factory deal.

today we very lightly sanded the interior nubs and the edges of the exposed lays and hit the whole interior with tooling gel. My thinking was to use tooling gel first to help fill some of the roughness of the 1708 because we didn’t really sand it. Just a quick hit with 80 and even that ate up a lot of sanding disks. Tomorrow we are going to hit it with waxed gel and call it done. If there is time we will bond the cap down but I doubt we will do that tomorrow because I will need to lay on the gel to bond in the knees so the gel will have to be really cured up well. I’m not sure what to expect this is our first gel coat experience. Much to our surprise ( maybe I’m showing my age here ) but rolling the gel out was actually quite easy, and quite familiar. If anyone has ever painted with old lead base oil paint when it’s a little cold out? That’s exactly how gel coat feels lol.

[tnelsmn]

Heck yeah!!! Looks killer!

[LakeFever]

Thanks man your build thread was the main road map and we wouldn’t have done nearly as good a job without it

I forgot to mention we also gave it a good wipe down with acetone about an hour before we gel’d it. We played with tinting the gel a bit, so the gel is very light grey. Tomorrow with the waxed gel we are going to darken it up some more because I have serious light sensitivity and find white boats hard to be in. We are also going to try and do some sort of fleck finish with a darker grey again. Fingers crossed I’ll update after we get that done

[LakeFever]

When we gel’d it yesterday we noticed the stitching in the 1708 would take up a little gel and swell. No big deal but it did leave a slightly sharp rough feel that the wife and daughter won’t like so we gently ran a small sanding pad with 80 over it today. It cleaned up quick although plugged the paper every ten strokes lol. Then we hit it with waxed gel tinted to a decent medium gray and did some fleck with slightly darker grey. We’re pleased with it.

Next stop is bonding the cap

[rjdubiel]

Looks soooo nice when brand new! This thing is going to be one nice ride just like Tony's. Brand new boats, fantastic. Mine, more of a beater race boat that looks good from 50 feet!

[LakeFever]

Thanks Rj, ya it’s basically new aside from the skin. It’s very satisfying work which was a pleasant surprise. My first go with fiberglass, I think we could cut the time to do this in half if we ever do another one. It took a while to get a feel for it, especially with the short time window to work with catalyzed resin. I learned a ton along the way. Good times

[LakeFever]

Been busy lately but today we managed to get the deck bonded to the hull. We set the stringers into the knees using core bond and we ran black 5200 down the lip and clamped it. It took exactly one tube per side. I’m wondering how long I should leave it clamped though? Not sure how long that 5200 takes to cure.