HART THROB resto / upgrade
 

theres some buttoning up of a handful of things before the hole cutting starts.
before we start here, i wanted to thank some people.

steve abott who built and raced the boat back in 96, sold and trusted me to take care of it.

glass dave who's threads posts and advice to me and many many others who did there own work is what got me this far.

class 6 who offered some good ideas along the way and made me a custom 3 foot long alingment tool and who is making me some custom exhaust tails for the cmi 496 plus 6 exhaust that's on it's way. he does some very good and unique fabrication, welding and machining of custom parts.

many other oso members who's build threads / race boats / etc. etc. and those who asked and answered posts over the years.

heres what it looked like the first week it came home

theres 460 or so pics so far of all the work that need going thru and will post along with details of the process every few days
but as of today here it is

the how it is now pics are round 2 of the gel work ( dash, hatch, transom, hatch extension and fairing inside )

Beautiful work! Can't wait to see the pics of the journey to get here.

The new longer engine hatch looks awesome

thanks,
the engine hatch was extended about 21 1/2 inches , it's 65 inches long and 75 1/2 inches wide.
the engine room from transom to bulkhead / firewall is 64 3/8 inches long @ crank cl.
it's bigger than the cabin under the cockpit of my old sea ray

Great work! Keep it up!

the dash
 

the dash was v shaped and had an aluminum cap on it, and parts of the deck unerneath it were cut out to rig it.

i bonded in a nearly full beam piece of ply with a filler piece in the middle so the face of the dash was flush.
the ply was pre drilled so after the back side was ground flat 2 layers of ounce and a half mat went on the ply
and it got screwed on, the screws got removed and holes filled a few days later.

the cutouts were cleaned up and then cut divinycel for them as well as the hatch opening and f1 style dash.
gauges and indicators go in the center part of the dash.

i have an idea to put basically bow flags on the dash w/ the blue and stars in the center and stripes going outward

more

engine room and transom
 

engime room isn't finished, some grinding and glass but all the holes are doweled and glassed. paint will happen after the alignment is
set and the rigging is figured out and the new holes drilled.

the electric hydraulic and steering goes back where they were, theres about 20 pics of the original rigging along with notes
about the various clamp sizes and locations.

1 of the bilge pump overboards was put half on a bulkhead fillet and didn't tighten flush, so this was one of the
many little details that got some attention

all of the thru holes got doweled 1/2 inch short so there was a quarter on each side to seal it off and glass it

drilled out new drain holes, plugged old, broke a hole saw doing it but stringers are dry and new holes are wrapped in 1708

more of the drains

last of the holes

Damn dude, talking about keeping a secret. How long has this been going on? Great work my friend.

thank you and thanks to the other guys as well.
how long, 16 months, and thinking that thru i shoulda been done 10 months ago, and probably would've been if it was inside.

I told you to bring it up and work inside, we might have been a week ahead by now!

Looking good man!
keep chugging! Those pics bring back a lot of memories from when I was where you're at now.

what brand of boat is it? Maybe I missed that part

I thought it was one of yours but the fact you've asked "what brand?" Means I'm definitely wrong....:)

26' modern marine 1995.
story goes some guys got use of "the old monza molds"
i don't know how many built, a few maybe and 1 race boat.
the race boat ran the 96 season, then for whatever reason it was derigged , mothballed etc.
the original owner / builder kept it until i got it.

2more pics as i got it

You have definitely acquired a special piece. Can't wait to see the end result. If you were closer I'd offer my warehouse/shop and help. Keep us posted.

What hull is that? It looks like a old 26 Monza design.

Ok I read back on the previous page where you mentioned it came out of a old Monza mold. That would have been our old Mirage mold that we made off our old 1972 Monza.

We sold the mold to this guy that worked at Tiara after we got out of the boat building business , he built them in his barn at night after work.

He sold them to Century boats after building a few Mirages. Century called them a Century Ultra.

tommymonza,
the chine is concave pretty deep up front, it tapers down as you go back and goes flat about 4 feet from the transom.

26' x 8' 2"

the deck
 

after the first week or so from picking the boat up i mentioned that i thought the deck wasn't cored, light layup yada yada.
well the last place you'd think would be look up instead of crawling down in the guts of the thing.

if you went up and tapped on the deck here and there it ticked like a bad countertop job.
turned out there was lifting eyes on the deck at the first bulkhead right were the fairing comes to a point,
and they leaked.

so the core got cut out and i drilled a couple holes in the bulkhead up aroud the deck and got saw dust plus there was some cabosil type material
between the top of the bulkhead and deck and i think that might have helped save it.

on the other side of the bulkhead i did some exploring and found that the core wasn't rotted, it failed to bond initially and that was what would tick
when you tapped on it.

the core material looked felt and smelled like oak, 2 layers of single ply 1/8 inch thick with fiberglass material in between that looked like the stuff that holds all the
little blocks of end grain balsa together to make a sheet.

here comes about 50 pics

i lucked out in a couple key places that could have been bad, we'll get to it.
you can see in the last 2 pics (previous post) how the core wasn't bonded to the skin
dry fitted divinycel in the forward comparment first, then put mat on them except for 3 inches around the perimeter.

once fitted every piece was marked for location then installed 1 piece a day for 6 days
no pictures of how it was done only after installation, time was a factor.
basicialy :
sqeegee resin onto divinycell and wait for it to start tacking up
roll on some fresh resin lay on and wet out some mat, hurry up and
activate a thick batch of cabosil and trowel it on the deck inside the lines
hurry up and put the piece up and brace it.

next day, repeat but add a step:
tab together yesterdays piece and todays piece but not the edges, just the seam

like i said repeat 6 times then tab it in aroud the perimeter and tab it to the bulkhead w/ 2 layers of 1708 like it was

more

last of them for this side of the bulkhead

ok for the core from the fairing to the bulkhead.
it was intalled the same except the deck was faired with cabosil and ground flat
that way 1 step was already done and there was way less of a rush
basically
resin on divinycell wait for tack
mix fresh resin roll it on
lay on mat and wet it out ( dry roller)

dry fit the pieces, put on some mat except for 3 inches around the perimeter
in the end there was 6 pieces and each piece was only big enough for two braces so
2 pieces went on a day for 3 days total

optical illusion here the fairing is a triangle but these pictures make it look straight

earlier on i said i got lucky, well there was a void from where the deck coring material ended and the coring for
the bottom end of the fairing starts ( it's the deck where it turns up and the fairing is attached to that)

the void kept the water that leaked in thru the lifting eye points from soaking up into the end grain balsa coring that is in that area of the deck
it's hard to make out what your looking at basically it's the deck and underside of the dash that section that was posted a few days ago

the void was filled with cabosil and was primarily the reason this whole section was just filled / faired, left to dry and ground prior to sticking the core back on,
same as before next days pieces get tabbed to previous days pieces except the perimeter.
once all pieces are up and cured tab in the perimeter and tab to bulkhead w/ 2 layers of 1708

side note :
no more lifting eyes, fact is the boat doesn't even have cleats, and i'm seriously considering not putting the grab rail back on the deck
no holes no leaks right ?

it was put back together the way it looked except the core material, and i made damn sure the "divinycell h80" was facing down

Very nice job! Subscribed to your tread! Will follow closely your project and progress! Inalso have a big big project i just started! Will grab a couple of good things and tips from your job!

keep up the good work!

double post for some unknown reason

Awesome job!

Nice work bud.

the hatch
 

obviously this thread isn't happening in the order the work occured, but it should all come together next week.

first thought was make a new hatch, the boat got to that point i went in a different direction.

the boat had 2 hatches on it, it looked like they popped a second hatch gutter off the mold and bonded it onto the boat
then made a second hatch that covered the rear of the cockpit.
both hatches were the same size.

so the the core was removed from both hatches, 1 (the cockpit hatch) was cored w/ the same oak single ply stuff that the deck was
and the other (engine hatch) was cored w/ end grain balsa. this got me thinking and i'll get to that at the end.

both hatches have what i think is coremat, it's that perforated stuff you can see in the 6th picture

once they were de cored and cut to fit in the newly extended engine hatch gutter,
they were fitted into a jig that was fashioned up and cut to the same curve of the hatch.

problem was both hatches were cupped or bowed from basically hanging from their 4 corners
so if you look close theres a board screwd down thru the hatch and into the jig on both sides
it took out the majority of the cup.

then the material was dry fit

glassed together 12 inches of 1708 over the seam and patch that filled the blower scoop cutout, mat over the rest 1st layer.
2nd layer just mat then sqeegee resin on the nida core and set it.

next day 1708 tab front and back core edge and bracing, it was hot and getting the cross bracing in was a bust.

next day it was one piece and the outside of the bracing to the edge of the hatch was glasssed 2 layers of 1708.
in the hole and thanks to big silver cats thread i would never have thought to use a hot glue gun to hold the cross bracing in place
so they could be tabbed in place.
after that the bottom was sealed off w/ mat, same as the original hatches