glassdave

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or . . . . . "Skater repair 101"

Been a while since i started any threads and with a few interesting projects coming into the home stretch i thought I'd share some of the fun. This 36 is the X Snakeman racing outboard boat currently owned by board member da*****rcury (as well as previously owned by Okie Tunnel). The boats going through a complete restoration and re-rig from tripps to quads and just about new everything else. Heres a few pics before i dug into it and in its previously life.

she's a keeper . . . .

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

First order of buisness was to address the tanks. When the boat was purchased from Okie it came with a set of custom aluminum drop in tanks. The original tanks were already cut out and these needed to be glassed in so i built all new floor sections epoxy encapsulated on all sides and cleaned out the original tank well. Dropped in the supplied tank pads and foamed in the tanks. The foam was put in in stages to bring it up the sides and allow it to completly surround the tank. Once the sides were done the excess was trimmed to allow room for one final dose of foam once the floor is in. Those are the tanks sitting on the sides of the cockpit kind of a mess at this point but this was the only pic i had of the tanks out of the boat

glassdave

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New floor sections were epoxy laminated on all sides, fit and glassed in. Easier to get around the cockpit now without the Bermese tiger trap to fall into.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

The previous glass work needed some attention so it was decided to re do most of it. The dash was in primer but on further inspection it was found that all the holes were superficially filled with epoxy and a light fairing filler. Its a good start but would never hold up on its own so i decided to completely cap the dash on the face and on the back. At the same time i cleaned up the center section and trued all the surfaces.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

All new seat risers and foot wells were constructed and completly encapsulated in epoxy and glass. Much easier to build these things outside the boat and simply tab them in. First pic is before old tanks were cut out.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

Early on in the project David was weighing the options of quads over tripps and after the decision was made to go with quads we decided to go back to a clean slate on the transom and fill everything in. At the same time the single center pod had to be removed and the boat was fitted with two new pods made at skater. Taking the old center pod off involved cutting through the sides and core to get the bulk of it off then then the entire footprint had to be carefully (and arduously lol) ground off without disturbing the original surface laminate. They were originally just bonded on with a thick bed of some kind of high density filler.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

more pics tomorrow (or later today actually lol). . . . get'in tired



zzzzzzzzzz

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

Ok thats plenty of sleep . . . . .


check out this shot of a 36 Cig next to the Skater . . . . . It amazes me how big this boat looks next to anything thats been parked next to it

Or how bout a teeny tiny lil 'ol 31 Awesome cat (sorry Richard (Rotax454) )

gotta go . . . . more pics coming later today.

jeff1000man

It is amazing how big they are. Good job. Quit sleeping, and get to work.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

This is when the fun really started. Dave and i had discussed some concern with a previous repair up in the port sponson after inspecting it from the inside and outside the the surface laminates seemed a bit loose. It was decided to drill a few test holes to see what was going on in there. I poked i few half inch holes in the suspected area and the drill went through with pretty much nothing coming out. I put a vacuum pump to it and got some moisture and a dis heartening gurgling. At this point it was decided to drill several more larger holes and see exactly whats going on. Half a dozen holes later and eight feet away from where i started the plugs were bringing up the wettest most rotted core i had ever seen (I can say that now because it has been repaired but its the kinda thing you want your customer sitting down for lol) I ended up roughly twelve feet away from where i started but the good news was it was isolated to just this sponson and did not extend under the tank. . . . . the one i had just finished glassing in (another bit of luck) Dave took the news well and said I'd rather learn about that kind of thing now lets get it taken care of. So away i went with the Metabo cutter and every other cutting device i have on hand. Heres some shots of excavating the carnage . . . .


Some of the pics have not been seen . . . . if you are squeamish please look away