Exterior paint on Das Boat is done. Engine bay clean up now...
 

Well, the paint came out great on the 38 '82 Excaliber. I am going to roll gelcoat on the top half, but for now I am replacing the deck furniture and cleaning up the engine bay/bilge. This should look good. Here's the thread on the paint i did:
https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/...reat-buzz.html

Well, now that I have all the engine and electrical gremlins fixed and fresh paint on the hull it's time to re-do the deck furniture and clean up the engine bay.

I decided as part of the bilge/engine bay cleanup to powder coat the intakes and valve covers on each engine. Green for starboard and Red for port. Took me about 3 hours start to finish which includes sand blasting, shooting powder, baking, cooling, 2nd coat of powder, cooling, and a coat of clear coat powder. This is going to look much better.

Starting off cleaning this mess. Makes me think I've done all that work to be no better than a C4 COTY. :( (that's a joke for a friend on a Corvette Forum who has a C4 Corvette voted C4 of the Year).
https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...b9&oe=5AC4642A

Starboard intake and valve covers..... (I'm thinking about having the headers ceramicoated to match, too). All Chrome/Stainless is going bye bye. Too much work to keep up with it.

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...7e&oe=5AD75224

Yes, the surface where the throttle body mounts will have the coating removed for a proper seal.
https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...2a&oe=5ABA7B77

It looks like the coating is pitted, but that's actually the metal surface. I hit it heavy with powder and clear coat to fill most of it in and it looked worse before I did this.
https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...b7&oe=5ABD7B18

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...79&oe=5AD04CC6

And here are more pieces I did to today while I was sand blasting the port side pieces. i sill need to to the main fuel pump casing, but it's soaking in some break-free over night since it's never been taken apart before.

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...bb&oe=5AB4A254

Same as your other thread, I like the outdoor work. Not everyone has a big workshop and spray booth but that's no reason not to paint things!

Looking nice, keep up the good work.

RR

Thank you.

Still got a bunch of work left to do, but it's coming together nicely. I think i may send the headers off to be ceramicoated to match the engines they are attached to.

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...02&oe=5AD3AE8D


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...6c725e80c9.jpg

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...89&oe=5AC04C6B

Looks great, I love watching your threads as i too did a spiff on the old Excal. Keep it up love seeing your boat and its progress :)

Thanks. Where are the pics of yours?

After I finish this, the next think to do is a new engine bay cover (new fiberglass) and seating. I already ripped out the rear bench and captain's chair. When I took them to the dump, they both weighted in at about 500+ pounds. Yikes!

I am still working on getting a way to post pics lol, maybe 2018 is my year !!!!

It's fairly easy. I upload mine to facebook now that photobucket makes you sign up and pay for the privilege of linking to pictures saved there.

I think I'm going to doe the headers in matching colors for port and starboard, too. Either that or I will do the same color blue that I painted the hull with which will match the new benches and captain's seat. The headers don't get more than 200 degrees since the coolant water exits through them. Should look real nice and clean. The black just makes it look dirty and nasty like it has been neglected for years (which it was before I got a hold of the boat).

Just my opinion, don't do the headers blue...... too many colors in the engine bay. Match them to their respective engine if you're gonna paint them. (TBH, I don't mind them black)

Cant remember the BM or the boat (might have been a Hustler) but a boat had a multi-color interior and the BM said "looks like Ronald McDonald has made love to a Smurf". I don't want people saying that about your engine bay! :o

RR

that's what I was thinking and I'll do the green/red like I had orginaly planned.

Now, since I ripped out all of the deck furniture, I am going to put down indoor/outdoor carpet on the floor and the side of the bulkheads where I had padding mounted on plywood cut to the shape of the side. It was heavy and nasty. I'm thinking black carpet or a blue that matches the seats and hull paint. Not sure what I want to do yet, but I'm leaning towards the blue.

I hope this works http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img924/2563/KWnJsc.jpg

Wow. That looks nice and clean!!! Love the blue.

Thanks, it sure is a labor of love lol, the blue is similar to the merc racing blue. I bought the valve covers because of the color :)

Good color choice and i like the mirror on the underside of the engine bay hatch. Do you have pics of the rest of the boat?

https://imageshack.com/i/pmFZJKXxjhttps://imageshack.com/a/img922/2165/b2Dln8.jpghttps://imageshack.com/a/img924/2770/J9gWS3.jpgHope this works https://imageshack.com/a/img924/8236/YXLZON.jpg

nice. We have almost the same boat. And do you have en enclosed cooling system?

What length? Dashes look the same, too, but my door to the cabin is on the port side. I wish it was centered,though.

I also like how you have the seats mounted and I'm doing something similar with a plastic base/storage and hard foam to form the seats. The bench and the captain's chair are both light enough for me to easily lift by myself. The previous ones were wood frames covered in fiberglass and combined weighed a little over 500lbs. Yikes!

Yes our boats are quite similar :) mine is a 1980 38 Excal. It has a notched transom and a "notched" upper step. Both your hull and mine are a Bill Farmer build of the former Tom Adams Signature 38 hull. I have seen the entry below both ways, the port entrance like yours and the center like mine. As for the cooling it is raw water pickup. And my seats are mounted on stainless tubing and are quite heavy as well lol. I have yet to find anything on these old boats that is light weight :)

What is the vent tube coming out of your port side dash dash used for?

LOL, Dam you caught that : ) It is a special flux capacitor hyper drive motor cooler !!!! Its actually a hillbilly air setup : ) The boat had a compass in that spot and no air, I purchased a relatively cheap AC unit and stripped the chassis off of it and shoe horned it inside my cabin where the fridge used to be. It needs a vent stack so....... out came the compass and low and behold the vent tube fits perfect !!!!! no cutting or messin with the fiberglass on the dash. So no more compass but the air is fantastic in the heat :) oh yea and no more fridge I keep YETI in business

Well done billy!
You did it!

That's awesome. I was looking at a system to mount where my forward hatch is located since I rarely use it for anything, anyway. This sounds like a much more betterer idea.

LOL Im glad u guys like it. I used a Honeywell or similar I think I paid 300 bucks. Its 8000BTU. I would like 10000 but this one works. Its nice because you dont have to set it up on a hatch cover, and it sends most of the condensate water into a built in evaporator. I did rig up a condensate drain line that after about 12 hours I drain it into a solo cup and dump it overboard. If you dont want to keep it onboard you could just bring it when ya need and leave it dockside when the weather permits.

Honeywell 8,000BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Remote Control, Black (MF08CESBB)

this is actually a good idea. i'd probably have mine drain into the bilge, though. No need to check it and the pumps will take care of it if needed or it will drain when I pull the plug after I get it back on the trailer.

Yea its pretty straight forward way to go. I only keep the water out of my bilge because im such a freak it would probably be almost zero discharge from those AC units : ) Mine stays onboard and is semi permanent, I just plug it in while dockside if its real hot out and it seems to do the trick.

:lol: I'd probably forget to empty the drain pan and have the water in the bilge anyway.

Alrighty then.... almost done with the engine bay and new hatch I'm building. Next thing to do is deck furniture. I don't want to build a rear bench or captain's seat out of plywood and fiberglass. What ideas would you all have that might work. I was looking at some seats from a pontoon boat (hear me out....) that fit perfectly but the captain's chair would need to have a metal brace to sit on and raise it up. It doesn't look bad, matches the theme of the boat, and looks like it was made to fit. I'm jsut wondering how well this would hold up to heavy abuse. It's an idea for now, but not what i settled on. What other ideas do you guys have that might work?

Barnacle my rear seat is just made out of marine plywood and covered in foam and vinyl. It is a pretty simple setup that works quite well. It is also removable and it is what the factory did back in the day. Is it just that you dont like the look of the built in?

I had the built in stuff, but it was too heavy. If I didn't cover it in resin or plywood, it would easily rot. I literally ripped out about 600lbs worth of seating.

I'm tired of screwing with this boat. Fix one thing and three more fall apart....even new stuff that was installed correctly. I'm hope it get struck by lightning and burns to the ground.

4 years of resto and I'm burnt out. Almost done. Gonna do the test run, check everything, and then unload it.

It's coming along. engines are done and new deck furniture will be mounted soon after i put in new carpeting. I also took the old wood/padding off of the bulkheads and will put matching carpet along those. So far, I think I've removed about 700+lbs of weight out of the deck area by removing all the old stuff.

i also just picked up two 4-blade stainless 23" 23 pitch props for $200 and will see how they do compared to the 23" 23 pitch 3-blades i have on it now. I'm guessing better hull shot with lower top end?

Well, looks like i will be sitting a month longer than expected. The rental property i own in TX just had the AC unit die and I have to fix it or renters get to break lease. Uggh.... I hope it's just a blower motor and not the compressor.