Here are a few images. The photos skip a number of steps. Once I figure out how to reduce the size of the rest of the images I will post more. If there is any step someone is particularly interested in let me know.
Removing the old tube was difficult. The glue, despite being 15 years old, is rather strong
Once the tubes were removed we ground off the glue remnants with various tools, (angle grinders, palm sanders, our teeth)
We were lucky to be able to hang the boat from the ceiling. I am not sure I would want to tackle this project without this ability. Although, I did think about how nice it would be to completely flip the boat upside down and put it on the floor.
The hull had some sort of gray touch up paint all over it. It was very hard to sand off. Once we sanded everything 3 times, we were amazed at how many imperfections disappeared!! The gel coat was/is very thick on this boat.
We used body filler for the long scratches and gouges. This stuff dries as hard as a rock, but once sanded down, it is amazingly smooth! One thing we would do different here is to let the body filler cure longer. The transom holes that we filled shrunk slightly after the final sanding, leaving a slight depression.
We went with Interlux Brightside paint. Two coats white primer. Two coats yellow. A light sanding between each coat.
If we did it again, we would have sprayed the earlier coats on lighter. We had a few drips we had to sand down.
Still to come: The deck and the entire boat finished sans the tube.
I hope to have this posted today as well.
