While the interior was coming out, we kept looking at the dash and decided it too had to go!

The port side dash had to match what we planned for the helm, so it was removed as well. While we we at it, we decided to re-work the cabin door (it would barely open) too.

At this point in the story, I must recognize my "Cigarette Brother from Another Mother", Zero Patience. Without his help (many times he let me help) this resto would not have been possible. He's not only incredibly talented, he's a style trend setter!

While all this interior work was going on, we decided to refinish the transom, drives and tabs. First, they were media blasted to bare metal ...

Primer and paint were next. Lessons were learned the hard way at this point. We had to paint things more than once (yes we re sanded too) to get it right.

White transoms are not only hard to keep clean, they make a paint job look unfinished. We had to paint ours twice to get it "just right".

The original paint strategy was to "refresh" the stripe pattern used on the boat and brighten the colors a bit. We quickly had to revise that plan when we realized the stripes and the unpainted gel coat were just too rough to work with. Beginning to sand, we saw just how rough. With a fingernail on one of the "docking dings" I scratched off a flake of paint the size of a half dollar coin. A single edged razor blade was soon peeling palm sized sheets of paint.

Facing the prospect of a complete repainting, we knew all the white painted hardware had to be restored as well. For this, we began with chemical stripper followed by LOTS of sanding and polishing. At the same time all the rub rail was removed for replacement.

I'm very lucky to be able to keep my boat in a garage at Zero Patience's house. The 90 MPH Top Gun has a long, no very long hatch. To accommodate, ZP raised the roof during the restoration!

Much of the spring was spent sanding the boat. Fortunately, Zero Patience found a little (patience) because it was a dusty mess!