Project......382
 

Both engines are out for valve springs and custom paint, the generator and hot water heater are out, all plumbing and wiring is out for a rigging cleanup and bilge paint, even the platform in front of the engines is out, to have the soggy wood replaced by polished diamond plate. All in all, it's a major birthday for the 8-year-old gal. The wife has been a MAJOR trooper on this one, volunteering to do all the bilge prep, sanding and painting. What a woman!

Hopefully , I won't encounter the same nasty surprises that OffTheFront did....

I am getting ready to pull the engines out of the race boat and clean up the bilge myself. Tons of fun

That's a nice little project you have there! The Diamond plate on the floor will look great. Are you going to do anything to the tray that the generator sits on? Mine is already starting to look like it's going to need some attention. I was considering powder coating it. Don't forget to add the LED lights in there when you're done!!

The wooden panel in my 382 that is covered with the plastic grey colored diamond plate material is rotten. The piece that holds the gen is pretty bad. After a test run on Friday, I am sending her to the shop for the valve spring job, and will pull the gen to replace the rotten material.

What type of material are you replacing with? Alum diamond plate?

I probably will add sea strainers also.

You said you have a water heater in the boat? What is that for? Shower in the head?

My diamond plate job from 2 years ago:

Sea strainers went in last winter:

Chuck,

The progress so far looks good. I'll be interested to see how it continues. You must have more time on your hands, because I've just gotten mine winterized, much less any projects started.

Keep up with the pics.

Port engine ready for the heads to come off, and starboard engine waiting in the wings. These are from 2 days ago; the starboard engine has just about caught up now. Man! EVERYTHING on these engines is heavy! I took about 200 pounds of mounts, brackets and heat exchangers to the media blasters to get stripped.

The Admiral has been flat-out in the bilge all day, filling in all the old screw holes with West System epoxy and filler. We may be able to start painting in a day or two.

RedDog - What did you bond your diamond plate to as a backing? It looks like you re-used the factory edging, too? I bought stainless steel valves for my strainers, too. (Strainers were already in, though...) Most of the boat's being built from the McMaster-Carr catalog.

I cut the aluminum diamond to fit the factory plywood, then just overlayed it and drilled the holes for the hinges. The factory edging helps hold it in place. I also had the diamond plate powdercoated in clear to prevent corrosion.

Chuck

Are those your motors? I thought the Volvo stuff was painted all grey?

The Performance Series were all black, except for red valve covers and circulating pump pulley. These will be charcoal metallic, with black brackets and silver valve covers and accessories (closed cooling tanks, etc.) Should be much brighter in the engine compartment...

Just about ready to start painting the transom and the sides. The transom assemblies will come off to replace the mounting studs (the nuts have frozen on some of them), to check for any water in the transom, and to clean up/re-shape/powder coat the backing plates on the upper studs. All steering, tab, and drive trim hydraulic lines will come straight down from above, with the long runs hidden from sight. Power steering high-pressure and return lines will be re-routed to the front of the engines to run with the fuel lines, and I'll (eventually - :rolleyes: ) scratch-build a clear p/s reservoir. Once all the rigging is back up on the transom and sides, we'll paint the floor. Water pickup lines from the transom assembly to the sea strainers will be 1-1/4" 316 stainless hard lines with short pieces of hose to provide some float and flexibility. The generator water pickup scoop has been replaced by a flush through-hull, so the massive 2" diameter overpressure relief line will go away (Thank God). I'll probably replace the fiberglass generator exhaust elbows (2 of them) with stainless bends. Why do they use those fiberglass elbows anyway???

Aluminum rigging clips will be replaced by (polished) stainless ADEL clips (bling). Hidden LED strip lights will shine inwards and down all the way around the engine bay from out of sight under the gunwales, individual LED fixtures will go under the engines and in the bottom of the hatch in the angled section just in front of the mirrors to shine straight down when the hatch is open (more bling). I'm staying away from the color-change and UFO light-show LED tubes though; they're a little too :cool-smiley-027: for my tastes.

About 6' of excess wire will be trimmed from the starboard engine looms, and the bonding system wires will be re-routed out of sight. All wiring will be re-bundled as neatly as possible in fire-resistant split loom.

The heads will go out for service tonight, and everything that needs it has gone out to the blasters to get stripped, and I'm almost done washing the rest. Thank God I've got an parts washer and air compressor in the shop I rented. Glad I scored some shelves, too. Painting, powder-coating and polishing start in earnest next week, and re-rigging should be underway shortly after Thanksgiving....

Phew.

Cool project c-spray, I have always liked your silver 382, cant wait to see it finished.

Chuck,

You're moving right along.

Been crazy at work ad just got back from the Keys, I'll get that paperwork to you shortly. Keep the progress reports and pics coming.

looking good ..... when I rerigged my 311 this past year I was amazed at the pile of wire I cut out of the boat ...

Those don't look like the other Penske Shop pics you posted! :ernaehrung004:

Nice work Chuck! I look forward to the finished product.

nice work

I am having my 500 efi's pulled out the week after Thanksgiving for a valve spring job also. My mechanic said that if I add sea strainers, I can tap the generator water pickup into one of the strainers, and will be able to run the gen on plane, up to about 55 mph.

Has anyone tried this?

While the engines are out, I want to install diamond plate to replace the rotted wood under the generator. What thickness diamond plate should be used to support the gen? I am guessing I need to use aluminum, should keep the weight down.

Be careful. If you feed pressurized water to the generator when it's not running, it will push its way past the water pump, out the genny exhaust and fill up the water-lift muffler. Once is does that, it will work back into the exhaust ports of the genny's engine and -bang!-. That's why Formula fits a relief line to the scoop pickup on the factory-installed generators - it vents the excess water out the back of the boat. I replaced my scoop with a flat through-hull, so I am going to drastically downsize the relief line, but not eliminate it (just in case..). In the picture below, the BIG elbow and hose coming out of the front side of the bronze tee (at the 1:00 position) is the relief line; the 3/4" elbow and hose coming out the other end is the genny water feed...

There is a drip tray under the generator that is made by the genny manufacturer. Beneath that is a piece of 3/4" plywood to reinforce the floor, which is also plywood with a rubber "diamond plate" covering. I am going to go with wood again, but cover it with 1/16" polished aluminum diamond plate, also clear powder-coated like RedDog382 did.

Did I mention we're doing some touch-up work (dock rash), adding another coat of silver pearl on the whole thing and cleaning up the transom cutouts?

Somebody stop me...

More..

I finally got a chance to put something TOGETHER instead of only taking things apart!

Looks great!

Poll on valve cover art. (My vote counts more than everyone else's combined, but I'd still like to hear opinions.) The idea in the right hand picture is that the outlines of the stripes, or (in the case of the center option) the background is "chrome" mylar.

C-spray - good time to check your supreme cables for trim tabs - I did not when I had engines out- one cable locked up, and the other was sticking . Might want to hand cycle the cables to see if they have issues - My 382 in a 1996 -

Valve cover vote is for either of the middle ones -

Right middle....... :) Looks nice Chuck!

Nort the middle left is much better :D:D

How 'bout if I substitute engine-turned stainless instead of chrome mylar for the middle one?

May be hard to keep clean in the bilge?

Nice art work C- Spray, I like both of the center ones but maybe the right center a little more. Can't wait to see them all done. Nice boat. Propwash

Chuck, may make it look a little busy. The right one in the middle is my vote.

It will be the right middle, with a brushed stainless background. I found a terrific deal on a 2' by 4' piece of leftover piece of laminate today. It's REAL stainless by Wilsonart, and $30 took it all.

Propwash: Thanks - It's Adobe Illustrator, and has saved me lots of aggravation over the years. You can give the files to a decal shop on a CD or flash drive and save $$ on their design and layout fees.

Further updates: The new stripe graphics are laid out on the side of the boat in tape, the polished aluminum diamond plate for the engine bay platform and the new raw water pumps are in. The valve covers and coolant tanks will be painted by Thursday. (All while I'm 2800 miles away in LA....) Gotta keep the momentum up!

gotta get me one of those Admirals....:D

givin' cuda's Deb a run for most valuable first mate...?

First engine's out of the paint shop! It's looking a little like the Silver Surfer at the moment, but all the accessories and brackets will be black. The nicest thing now is that when I pick up a ratchet out of the toolbox, it's set to "On' instead of "Off"...

I guess this is "progress"...

Actually, a lot of things are starting to come together now. Hopefully there will be significant progress in the next few weeks.

Chuck...it looks like you are in the middle of major surgery. It will be worth it on your one-of-a-kind boat. Keep the pictures coming!

I have to ask you, how do you remove the fabric piece in the cabin that covers the speakers. This is the vinly covered panel approx 5 inches wide that buts up to the ceiling, and to the wall. I see you have yours removed on the pic.

I have some staining on my fabric that covers the speakers near the roof of the cabin. I am not sure how to remove the panel.

Just go boating...it will come down! :D


Looking great Chuck!

Nort's right - Just look for rough water, and they'll come right down.... :rolleyes:

First, you have to remove the bottom panel with the lights in it. This is held on by a combination of "killer" Velcro, and by being pinched between the wall and the vinyl-covered trim panel. I used a plastic pry bar, started at the back and worked forward. The lights are hard-wired, so you have to either let it "dangle" or cut the wires.

Once you have that off, remove the speakers and unplug the wires. (You'll need a right-angle ratchet screwdriver to get the outboard speaker screws out.) Reaching through the speaker holes and other access holes with a deep 3/8" socket or wrench, remove the 5 nuts that hold the trim panel up. I could not reach the front nuts on each side, so I cut a new 3" hole underneath, as far foward as possible.

We're replacing the blue vinyl on these valance panels with black to go with the paint scheme.

We are also replacing the "sparkle" Ultraleather on the starboard side, as the halogen lights got turned on when we had the panel hanging down, and it burned the Ultraleather. (Duh!) We will have enough material left over to do one side if anyone needs it.