A 76 Hondo GT comes home

[Brian]

My Gondo GT has the traditional bottom. never seen the 3/8 bottom on a GT either. Any pics of the actual bottom.

Here is mine, photo credit to Sharp Shooter!

[GotHalos]

Nope you're right on, it's the final layer of clear coat that is self leveling for a smooth, deep finish. It also provides UV resistance for the resins underneath so they don't yellow.

Thanks.

[Brian]

After we got it home and took a good look at it we decided all the hardware needed to come out and replaced, it was all well worn after it's racing career. Also decided that the floors needed to be refinished, found some delam on the stringers in spots plus the floors just looked bad so I started grinding fiberglass.....
Attachment 40474Attachment 40475

What a horrible job and I will never do this again - much of the summer of 2013 was spent being very itchy from fiberglass dust.

I just noticed the riding mower is your tow vehicle in this shot. Nice!!

[OhHondoGT]

My Gondo GT has the traditional bottom. never seen the 3/8 bottom on a GT either. Any pics of the actual bottom.

Here is mine, photo credit to Sharp Shooter!

Hello Brian,

I've seen your boat on Performance Boat and I love it, the stack injection is too cool!
I'll snap a pic of the bottom as soon as I can and post it up for you. If I'm not mistaken the bottom on my boat was the XH511 and the deeper runner on your boat was called the XH511T. According to all the info Jim Lange has posted on PB about the history of Cole bottom design, the Cole TR-1 was a splash of the XH511 while the Cole TR-2 was a splash of the XH511T.

And yes the lawn mower does make it much easier to get the boat in and out of the garage!

[OhHondoGT]

It's been a while since I've updated this thread so I thought I'd post a few progress pics.. First up, got the bottom all fixed up and looking good again.

[OhHondoGT]

Next was the trailer, bought a Competitive from a guy in CA and had it shipped back to Ohio. I'm converting it to a dolly style so it takes up less room in the garage - it was white but we repainted it black. This was right after getting home from the body shop (and just missing the snow).

[OhHondoGT]

And last but not least for now, finally finished the floor. What a project this was, can't even begin to imagine how many hours this took form start to finish..


That's it for now, time for a vinyl wrap so it'll look decent until I can repaint it and then start bolting hardware back in.

[2manymustangs]

Awesome work there!!! THose floors / stringers look @@ KILLER!!!!!

Can you describe your steps / materials at a HIGH level please???

Nevermind, I went back to the start of this thread, end grain balsa over the original stripped down floors with EPOXY over that...

DId you say that you DID clear urethane over the epoxy???

[OhHondoGT]

Awesome work there!!! THose floors / stringers look @@ KILLER!!!!!

Can you describe your steps / materials at a HIGH level please???

Nevermind, I went back to the start of this thread, end grain balsa over the original stripped down floors with EPOXY over that...

DId you say that you DID clear urethane over the epoxy???

It's another clear epoxy with UV inhibitors in it. It was a bitch to apply and sand smooth so it looked pretty, I sanded and sanded and sanded to get it to look like it does - never again.

[OhHondoGT]

Awesome work there!!! THose floors / stringers look @@ KILLER!!!!!

Can you describe your steps / materials at a HIGH level please???


Nevermind, I went back to the start of this thread, end grain balsa over the original stripped down floors with EPOXY over that...

DId you say that you DID clear urethane over the epoxy???

And thank you by the way.