1979 Viking build

[LakeFever]

Well as it turned out my skinny helper couldn’t get any further up then I did yesterday so I sucked in the gut and squeezed my face between the deck and the hull and got it tabbed within a few inches of the bow eye. Calling that good. Also ran thickened corebond to help bond and radius the seams and a couple layers of 1708 on the top side of the transom to the splashwell and began tabbing in the corners. Going to have to take another run or two to wrap the splashwell up. Also ran a skim of thickened corebond over the dash pinholes and laid a piece of 1708 right across it. That brings the cap construction very close to complete.

[bbezok]

looking real good!

[LakeFever]

I think we finally have wet on wet lays sorted out. There’s two layers of 1708 on the corners, down the seam, and up and over the transom top going down about midway on the exterior transom skin. The corners are all woven in layers so there’s about 6 layers of 1708 in the corners and another 4 on the top part of the transom. Then we skimmed the top of it all with 1.5oz CSM. Calling the transom structure done at this point. Starting to feel the excitement coming on now each day it’s more of a complete boat again. We still have to repair the cracks on the edges of the cap in a few spots and finish off covering the old rigging holes and then fare it. We might leave that for the end and flip it to finish the bottom of the hull first though.

[VkingMike]

up and over the transom top going down about midway on the exterior transom skin.

This is what I was wondering/asking in my thread, thanks for that. Now I know this needs to be done.

[LakeFever]

This is what I was wondering/asking in my thread, thanks for that. Now I know this needs to be done.

I have a lot of glass on the transom. I did most on the inside before laying in the coosa it’s all in this thread if you read through it but I had a slight taper towards the top of the exterior of my transom which is why I went up and over half and approx 25% with the second layer. When this all cures I will fare it all out perfectly flat. Side to side it is very flat already but top to bottom it was slightly convex. Whatever lays you do the outside of the transom needs to be perfectly flat and hopefully square to the bow. Hope this helps ya out

[tnelsmn]

Looking fantastic, Lake! Sure is a god feeling when it's one piece agin.

[LakeFever]

Yes it sure is. I was doing the little happy dance today. You can lightly tap anywhere on the hull with your finger and feel it on the other side. It’s so solid now. I also forgot I still have a couple caps to lay on the top front of the knees. I’ll probably leave that until we finish the bottom though. It’s time to flip this thing!

[LakeFever]

Ended up with 3/8” glass on each side of the transom. It’s a blend of two types of 1708, and 1808. Very pleased with it. We made a bracket to lift the boat and spin it hanging off a couple chain falls. We were going to try and mount it on the cradle inverted but it’s going to be too high to work on without a ladder so we scrapped the idea of using the cradle and next week we will fab up a new inverted dolly deal to get it where we want it but still be mobile.

[LakeFever]

Thinking ahead a little and after we gel the bottom we are going to plant it back on the trailer. The trailer I have for now is some bass pro deal it’s decent I’m going to upgrade in time but the bunks didn’t line up that well with the hull so we dealt with that and added some extra bunks under the stringer area as well. The axle is also a little too far forward which we will relocate so until it’s fully rigged and we can position the axle properly, I’m leaving things bare bunks only. I have four new pressure treated bunks and carpet still to install. You can see the green tabs where new bunks are going. The two in the pic are the old water logged originals that are getting binned soon

[VkingMike]

This looks identical to my trailer, I also added two side bunks for piece of mind. I also moved the axle back 12" to help with tongue weight.

[LakeFever]

It’s a decent trailer 15” radials, drop spindles and and a strong frame. It’s a Trailstar brand I have side guide bunks to go on as well as steps, fenders and whatnot. I also realized it probably doesn’t make sense in my last post what I did but I angle cut the existing perches and welded on new ones beside to take the bunk squarely. Some more pics should explain the story. I zapped these up with a small 200 mig. Juuuuust big enough to weld these

[LakeFever]

Well so much for having this thing sprayed out by end of February anyways we managed to get some time to work on it today. Got the upside down cradle finished, flipped it over and gave it a quick wash. Real shame that the gel was half sanded off on the deck and all the cracks etc or I would have happily re clear gel’d this thing and run it as is. Looks great wet!

[LakeFever]

During earlier phases of the build we sanded some of the hull and as anyone who has done this knows the glass dust mess is insane. When I removed the gel from the transom the entire room from floor to ceiling became an itch factory. I used a leaf blower and lots of compressed air and it still took three attempts to get it to a usable state again with no itch. So now that we are removing most of the gel we erected a poly booth to do the dirty work in and for the two days work this took to build, with our first half day of sanding it’s already well worth the effort. We figure about two days more of sanding with the da’s using 40 grit Diablo paper and then we start to repair and fare.

[tnelsmn]

Lake, are you taking all the gel off like I did? If so just grab a 5" grinder and throw a 60 grit or so on it and go to town. You'll be done in no time compared to the DA. Take it 80-90% with the grinder and finish with the DA. A coat of primer and a round of block sanding will take care of any imperfections caused from the grinder.

Tony.

[LakeFever]

Thanks Tony i appreciate the input. I did run the grinder with flexi disk and 24 grit for some of it but the das with the 40 Diablo paper is very close to the same stripping speed believe it or not. I really don’t mind sanding it’s very familiar to me and kinda relaxing. Aside from being a bit hard on the shoulders and hands.

*edit* forgot to answer no we are not taking all the gel off but we are stripping the area under the core to the first chine which will be getting glassed over. The boat was run with a soft core and the edges of the core are all craze plus some other cracked areas so we want to sandwich it in between new mat to prevent print through. Not going to grind out the cracks there’s too many plus they are so stiff now we think it will be ok with this method. If anyone has anything else to offer or suggest I’m allllllll ears