Here I go again, another build but this time a 21' Daytona

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 06:47 AM

What some will do to save some weight!

Paper thin bulkhead and the STILL whacked the heck out of it!

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 07:05 AM

All cleaned up and ready to get after putting it back together

There’s a lumber yard close to us that deals with really nice stuff for Rich Folks houses so I went there and got some “Premium Grade” straight grain clear Douglas Fir Kiln Dried 2x4a.

Routed the top with a round over bit

This oughta be more beefy than the old stringers..

Got the stringers cut down to lower the seat and finished my gunnel supports. The supports now tie from the stringer, across the balsa reinforced tunnel across the balsa reinforced sponson and then tucks up to the gunnel where there is some 3/4" plywood glassed in.

Knocked out a splash well bulkhead as well that ties to the stringers

Started grinding on the transom to get ready to cap it as well as plug the old holes. Transom was incredibly sound. Only one spot about 1/2" x 2" where there was some rot right along where the deck and hull meet. Ground that all out and will be a super easy fix.

Funny, there were two little cracks up high on the transom and upon grinding those out we found where someone had drilled about 1/2" holes too high and so the stuck a dowel in there and then filled it with Bondo. The dowels pushed our with no bond whatsover.

We also found a couple more that were just filled with Bondo. All totaled I filled 32 5/8” holes in the transom with some resin soaked oak dowel.

Got the stringers set in a bed of epoxy . HUGE thanks to my son Ian for the help. I quickly became the goffer boy and he did all the work....

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 07:12 AM

The results are really cool and I couldn’t be happier or prouder of Ian. He was a huge help.

I’m a huge fan of Epoxy over regular Poly or Vinylester resins. For this project I’m using West Systems 105/207 make up. One of the nice things with Epoxy is you can throw some heat at it while it’s still wet and flow it out even more and get rid of any little air bubbles that may form. DO NOT try this with regular poly resin or you’ll have a dandy fire. Epoxy is non flammable while Poly resins are!

I then ground out the seam and capped part of the transom by laying 3 layers of 9.5 ounce cloth along with resin and Colloidal Silica (406). The brown that you see is the fairing powder (407) that I added to the resin to get the transom really close to final finish. It still adds some strength but is much easier to sand. Followed that by shooting some DP50 and some K200 I had laying around and blocked that out to the final surface.

PLEASE NOTE! The above was an assumption by me and I was wrong on my application that I'll describe later........grrrrrr

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 07:14 AM

Ian also surprised me with this kick ass plate for my tips. We wanted to shotgun them and have a water jet cut the plate but the damn machine broke so he did it the old fashioned way with a drill, sawzall and files. The look is EXACTLY what I was hoping for.

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 07:20 AM

Also got the pedals mounted.

Got the transom and bottom cut for the pump and mocked it up.

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 07:22 AM

We set Ian's motor in the boat for mockup purposes since mine is still in the UFO II.

Who the heck are these kids......... They seem nice

Oh, yup..........thats my kid. You can tell he loves his pops (after he's worked his ass off all day)

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 07:29 AM

Well, as I mentioned earlier I made a mistake on the transom.

I assumed that if I used a conventional process as if I was going to paint the transom (ie... catylized urethane sealers, 2 part epoxy primer surfacers..etc...) that it would be that much better when I shoot the gel.

Well, what's the old saying about "assumed"....yup I done made an ass out of me...LOL

Turns our Gel wont work over all that................sooo, even though I spent a regoddamndiculas amount of time getting that baby smooth, I had to sand all that stuff off with some 80 grit....

I have one of the premeir Gel coat guys in Todd Griggs, helping by phone and keeping me from making more mistakes.

So, that's as far as I've gotten. I need to spray the gel, double drill the pump and get everything powdercoated and then it'll be full steam ahead.
John

**-SR** · 10-28-2012, 07:57 AM

Project looks killer...

**jrork** · 10-28-2012, 08:24 AM

Thank you very much. It's been a fun project so far and the first that my son has really been involved with as the previous one he was much younger. Makes it so much better to do this with him.

BUT, that experiance has given him the confidence to do another so he's working on a friends boat now too. My poor old wreck got pushed to the smaller bay while we work on the other one.