# Mojo's Fiberglass V hull Project



## Mojo (Feb 24, 2010)

Hi Yall,
I've been lurking around your forums for around a week now after finding it on the net while serching for ideas to upgrade this poor little boat i rescued from a yard sale. First let me say i've been totally impressed by the skills and imagination of your membership. 
I just retired from the Navy after 20 years and moved back to Sunny Florida and realized I need a bass boat so that my life will be complete! Seriously thou, my brother in law has a really nice center console gulf boat that i can go borrow any time i would like.. but you just can't bass fish in that monstrosity and that what I love to do.
So after looking around and scouting and hunting i found this beautiful little Fiberglass Simi V with a trailer and Merc 4.5 on the back for dirt cheap.
The boat is a custom fiberglass hull from 72 or 73. Its a wreck. Large holes in the seating area. The paint is chipped, cracked, faded and OLD.. I bet this thing has the original paint.
The trailer is in pretty good shape over all. Its got some rust spots but thats easily fixed. If i learned one thing in the Navy its how to grind, prime and paint metal.
The engine runs strong... but lets face it, 4.5 HP isn't enough. It was plenty for the old guy i bought this from who did some crappie fishing and just wanted to put around but that's not gona fly for me. So I'll be hunting for a larger engine while i'm working on the restore project.
Hopefully I can get this thing sanded, primed, painted, fabricated, painted, carpeted and lake ready in around a month's time. That sounds pretty ambitious but since i'm technically still active duty and recieving a full pay check i can work full time on my new money sink till its finished.
I know it's not a "Tin" boat but I saw there were a few fiberglass builds who snuck in so i'm going to go hang in the corner with them. Hope you guys enjoy the progress as much as i'm going to enjoy fixing this old hag and making her the new prom queen.
Mojo.


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## Waterwings (Feb 24, 2010)

Nice rig and looking forward to the modifications! Welcome Aboard, and enjoy your retirement!




> ...since i'm technically still active duty and recieving a full pay check...


 : Terminal leave!? I had 59 days of terminal leave when I ret'd and was working retail. Had to take a day off to go to my retirement cermony, lol.

WW
USN (Ret'd '92)


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## Jim (Feb 24, 2010)

:WELCOME:

Thanks for joining! 

Nice Glass boat! Looking forward to the rebuild. :beer: 

I will add it to our tiny Glass section.


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## Mojo (Feb 24, 2010)

Yep Terminal Leave. I rolled out with 90 Days.. I've been enjoying it so far. Will probably take a while before i start to feel like a civilian again. I keep waiting to get the call telling me to come back! If that happens i'm moving to canada.


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## Doug (Feb 24, 2010)

:WELCOME: 

Thanks for your service to our country. Great looking boat, can't wait to see the outcome of your mods.


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## Rat (Feb 24, 2010)

Welcome to Tin Boats and civvy life! You can't get a much broader canvas than that little jewel of a hull, I can't wait to see the mods. Are you gonna paint her battleship gray? You are going to have a blast, and yes a month is a little ambitious; the first rule is to never set a date (which I constantly break and get caught on)!


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## dyeguy1212 (Feb 24, 2010)

welcome :mrgreen:


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## jasper60103 (Feb 25, 2010)

yes, Welcome aboard and congrats on your retirement.

That's a nice rig. I look forward to seeing pics on your progress.


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## Mojo (Feb 25, 2010)

Update time...
My brother in law came over today and helped me out. 
Everything got removed from inside the boat. All the old screws and wood and crappy seating got yanked and tossed in the truck bed along with the bumper rail around the outside. 
We sanded the interior rail from the top down to the first horizontal rib. This part i wanted taken down to bare fiberglass to get it as smooth as possible... the paint was very rough and i want it super smooth for the new paint in that area. Everything else on the inside got a light sanding just to take the edge off and rough it up and get rid of the dirt and any residue.
After the inside was finished we flipped the boat over and sanded the bottom and sides out real good got any gouges in the paint feathered out and got it all prepaired for painting. I'm going online tonight and ordering paint that should take a few days to get here so in the mean time that trailer needs work. I'll be sanding down the rust spots on that and giving it a good once over then it will get sprayed out. Gona replace the lights and the shoddy wiring along with the rest. The good news is almost all of the rollers are in good shape. I only found one that really needs to be replaced. I'll keep yall updated. 
Here's some pics from the day..


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## Rat (Feb 25, 2010)

Cool, sanding is the worst part, on Alu. or glass hulls!


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## RStewart (Feb 25, 2010)

Welcome aboard. Thank you for your service. This will be a cool build.


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## Mojo (Feb 27, 2010)

Update time..
Yesterday was beautiful! It was sunny in the mid 50's. Great weather for going out and working on the rusty trailer. So armed with my trusty grinding and wire wheels i jumped in and got busy busting rust. It didn't take me very long to go over the trailer and knock out all the rust bubbles and rough spots.. then it was a quick trip up to the auto parts store to get $20 worth of primer and paint. While i was working hard temptation showed up in the form of my brother in law with his boat in tow telling me to hurry up so we could go down to the river since it was such a nice day out. Well... i couldn't resist temptation and did a quick primer job on everything i had cleaned up then away we went. We spent a few hours running up and down the river, fished for a little while then got back home before dark and I had enough time to paint over the primer coat. So I got the trailer looking good AND got to do a little fishing.

Someone needs to come over to my house and take away my credit card and cancel my Ebay account. Good thing i'm not married so I don't have to justify all the money i'm spending on my new baby. All the fun stuff should be arriving at the house soon and i'll be able to lay it out and show you whats going into the build. That should be some good boat porn to keep you all happy.

Mojo


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## dyeguy1212 (Feb 27, 2010)

Where are you located? You should update your profile to include location.. top left User Control Panel


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## dearl (Feb 27, 2010)

First, Thanks for your service to our country, Nice looking rig you got there. Those little boats are real sturdy and stable in the water. Have fun with her.


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## Mojo (Feb 28, 2010)

Rained all day Saturday so I didn't get to do any work at all. Today was nice and sunny thou so I went back out and started sanding on the hull again. There are giant long cracks all thru the paint, just from the age of the boat and the paint i'm sure.. but i've sanding them all out which is taking forever. Pretty much have it back down to bare fiberglass in spots. I'm almost tempted to just strip down the entire hull and throw another layer of fiberglass and resin on it to make sure all those cracks are sealed up good and don't come back any time soon. I'd hate to spend all this money on paint just to have it crack in a year or so. If i decide to go that route i'm going to break out that belt sander and go to town on it... i'll have to think about it.

The good news is some of the goodies are starting to roll in. Got my Volt Gauges in and also the LED's I ordered for the accent lighting and interior hatches. Once i get this hull finished and painted I can move the boat back to the trailer and start working on the mod build.

I'm in the process of scrounging for a place to work on this inside when it comes time to paint. Been hitting up the folks at church seeing if anyone has any spare garage space i can borrow. We'll see...


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## Waterwings (Feb 28, 2010)

Sounds like you've got things rolling now, and it'll come together. That last shot with the turkey vulture & the sign is great! 8)


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## dearl (Feb 28, 2010)

Maybe Rat will chime in on this build, his fiberglass work on his boat is top knotch, he may be able to give you some pointers on those cracks.


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## Rat (Mar 1, 2010)

Do you have some pictures of the cracks? 

If they are in the paint/seal layer I think you will be fine; if they are through and through you will need to bolster the area that is flexing to stop future cracks. 

If it just the paint layer, you can apply a seal coat of Epoxy (no glass matt, just epoxy) then repaint with a good quality paint like Sterling or Interlux. the good part is on a blown form hull like yours you will not need much, if any, fairing to get it looking great. A good quality paint will last years (20+) without cracking.

If they are through and through you will need to find the structural failure. I can't ell from your images if she has stringers or not. You may need to rebuild them if they are weak, or add them to stop the cracks. 

Pictures and locations of the cracks will help. Between me and huntinfool we can get ya where she doesn't crack any more!


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## Mojo (Mar 1, 2010)

Cool.. Thanks Rat. I'll get some pictures tommorow for you to inspect. I can tell you thou.. In some places its just the paint and after i get down thru that its fine. But in others it's cracked down into the glass work. Nothing Huge.. just little stress fractures that led to the paint cracking. That's why i was leaning towards taking it all down and then putting a new layer of fiber on the bottom.

Also.. Boat Porn for the rest of you. Got my new motor and trolling motor today. There was a show this past weekend at a local place and i got a good discount. Went by there this afternoon and picked them up.


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## dearl (Mar 1, 2010)

Oh yeah, Christmas in March! Thats a good looking motor you got there, what did you do with the little merc that was on it?


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## Mojo (Mar 2, 2010)

Here are the pictures i promised of the cracks in the paint and fiberglass.

And Dearl the little merc that was on it got sold to a guy down the street for $400. It paid for my new trolling motor.


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## Rat (Mar 2, 2010)

Wow, are they on the bottom of the hull? It looks like they are. Probably have some oil canning going on, the bottom is flexing while running over chop. That's what usually causes those star shaped cracks. It could have been caused by overpowering the hull, by having too much weight forward of the spray line or just a weak bottom. 

It looks like Biax cloth on the bottom, which is good if it is. I would add a lamination of 12 oz Biax cloth to the bottom all they way up to the spray rails to help stop this. Are these forward on the hull or aft? I would also add another strake along the center strake you already have; take it pretty far forward, at least to the bow curve on the bottom. This will help you in corners and will help stiffen the hull without needing to add stringers inside the hull. 

Laying the Biax is pretty straight forward. Cut the cloth to cover the intended area, then roll a light coat of epoxy, let it get just tacky feeling, then lay the cloth over and wet it out with epoxy. 

The strakes can be made of many woods but good ol' Southern Yellow Pine does a fine job, a 2x2 or 1.5x2 would be all you need. Glue the strakes to the hull using epoxy glue and then cover them with two layers of 12 oz biax tape 6 inches wide, again working wet on wet. The fairing you will need to do will be the lamination edges of the strakes biax cloth, the hull sides by the spray rail and to fill the weave of the cloth. 

Biax cloth is sold by the linear yard and is 60 inches wide, two gallons of epoxy will leave you enough to do some other touch ups you may need inside the hull and 1 pound of woodflour will be all you need for making the glue and maybe a pound of silica for fairing compound. 

This is a pretty major task so do your research. When you are done the bottom of that hull will be bulletproof! 

I can direct you to another forum where they know their epoxy inside and out, much more than I do, and they can give you a bill of materials and also pointers on the best way to proceed and the best materials. They also have the best prices on the net for epoxy, cloth, woodflour and all the other stuff needed for lamination work. 

I can PM you the site if you want, or, if it's okay, I can post it here.


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## Mojo (Mar 2, 2010)

Rat,

Thanks for the reply. OK.. First.. Those cracks are all over the bottom of the hull. They aren't localized to forward or aft.. but there are more in the rear and middle areas.

You lost me at Strake... yea... not that technically hip on the small boat lingo. There are no stringers on the interior of the boat. It's just a solid fiberglass mold as far as i can tell.

"The fairing you will need to do will be the lamination edges of the strakes biax cloth, the hull sides by the spray rail and to fill the weave of the cloth." I didn't understand what you were talking about here at all. I need some edumication on it please!


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## Rat (Mar 3, 2010)

Mojo said:


> Rat,
> 
> Thanks for the reply. OK.. First.. Those cracks are all over the bottom of the hull. They aren't localized to forward or aft.. but there are more in the rear and middle areas.
> 
> ...



Based on those locations I would say they occurred at speed (while planing) and is either due to overpowering the hull or a weak hull, less likely but possible is overloading. 

Fairing: is nothing mor than making everything glass smooth. We are familiar with smothing out of fenders during autobody repair, it is the same thing. We use a fairing compound, or make our own from Silica, to fill in the low spots on the hull; we also use it to fill in the weave on the fiberglass cloth or matt we use. Once you have applied the epoxy it will harden to the weave of the glass and be rough. Fairing fills this in so we have a glass smooth bottom and sides. More sanding...

Strakes are the "runners" on the bottom of the hull. Your hull has a Vee bow but a flat bottom, similar to a dory. On a full Vee bottom we call it the keel, but on flat bottoms we cal it/them strakes. They help stiffen the bottom of the hull and to keep it glued to the water in tight high speed turns; they also help protect the bottom when beaching as the strakes take the damage and not the bottom of the hull. My suggestion is to add two more strakes on the bottom of your hull midway between the strake you already have and the chine (where the hull bottom meets the hull sides). This will give you better performance in turns, better protection from obstructions and a much stiffer bottom so we don't have these "oil can" cracks again. 

Laying the glass cloth "up to the spray rail" just means covering the bottom and up the sides to the first break in the hull. In your case it looks like you have kind of a stepped chine and I would end the glass cloth right there. It is easier to make it pretty when you end on a break then to try and feather the edges, for me anyway. 

But basically you will need to smooth out (fair) any edges of the glass cloth to make nice uniform transition without bumps and bubbles and get a glass like finish on the bottom. It looks prettier and it performs better. 

Realistically you can probably, with help, lay the glass one day, add the strakes the next and maybe a couple of days of fairing and sanding. Easily done in a couple of weekends with a little time after work thrown in. The epoxy curing will take the most time, and the sanding


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## Rat (Mar 3, 2010)




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## Mojo (Mar 3, 2010)

Ok, Thanks for the info. Now I understand. So, add a couple of strakes to the back to stiffen up the hull and glass it all up.. fill in the cloth with fairing compound, sand it all out smooth... paint... good solid boat bottom.

Thanks for the info Rat. One other question. Can i fiber over the existing paint? That stuff is on there solid.. taking it all down to bare fiber is going to be a chore if that is required.


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## Mojo (Mar 5, 2010)

Well I learned a very valuable lesson today. That cost me around $40 in materials. Fiberglass is a strait pain in the butt to work with... and trying to do one good sized sheet of it all at once is a bad idea. 
But now the bottom of the boat has another coat of resin on it. Guess I'll go sand it out tommorow and try again. This time thou i'm cutting up that cloth into more manegable portions.


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## Mojo (Mar 6, 2010)

It was a bit too cold out today to do any fiberglass work. I'm waiting till monday when the temps are supposed to be up in the high sixty's and low seventy's. But I did get the new strakes for the bottom of the boat cut and sanded into shape. I think they are going to look good on there when it's all said and done.


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## Rat (Mar 7, 2010)

Don't worry about getting all the paint off, itf it is good resin paint, which it proly is from the factory, you should have no worries getting the new epoxy to adhere. 

When working with large sections of glass cloth it is best to have a friend help; but the secret is in prepping the area. Have everything cut and ready to go it will minimize the mistakes. And don't worry, everyone blows a little time and money in learning something new, we usually call it tuition! 

If you still plan on cutting the cloth into smaller pieces, allow for a three inch overlap at the seams. DO NOT stop each piece right at the edge of the other piece this will create a weak spot in the hull. 

Also you will need to build fillets down those strakes to get a good radius on the glass matt so no air bubbles get it. You can use the same epoxy glue to build the fillets you use to glue down the strakes. Those strakes look perfect BTW! 

Here is a pretty good article on fillets:
Fillet Tutorial


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## Mojo (Mar 7, 2010)

Here's the bottom of the boat all glassed out! That was alot of work.. once i got going it wasn't too bad but about half way thru my painting hand started to cramp up.. i just had to push thru it and get it all finished up. I'm going to go back and place some more cloth along the keel probably tommorow. I have to go get myself some more resin. Fun, Fun, Fun. Seriously thou.. i'm never doing this again.


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## Rat (Mar 7, 2010)

Mojo said:


> Fun, Fun, Fun. Seriously thou.. i'm never doing this again.



The way you are going you will never NEED to, that will be one tough hull! Once it dries you will be able to see a big difference in deflection just with what you have added. Good job.


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## Mojo (Mar 8, 2010)

Got my strakes glued down and ratched in place for drying today. I also ran all over central florida but finally found a place to sell me some 6" Biax cloth in a 50 yard roll. So plan for tommorow, if it doesn't rain; is to mix up the fillet compound and get those strakes ready to be fiberglassed in.


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## Mojo (Mar 9, 2010)

It's been a busy morning. I got the ratchet straps taken off the new strakes and they are on that boat SOLID. Time to get to work with the fillets... 
I got the epoxy mixed up and added sillica to it till i got a nice thick paste. Added it all along the rail then went back and smoothed it out with a little rounded plastic fiberglass tool i picked up at Lowes. 
I had pre-cut the fiberglass tape to size and once my fillets were layed in i placed the fiberglass down and whetted it all out. I had some issues with air bubbles at the front and back. We'll see how bad it is after its all dried up. I'll give it 4-5 hours to cure then go out and cut any of the air bubbles out then lay down another layer of cloth.
I'm starting to get the hang of this fiberglass stuff.


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## Nick Jones (Mar 9, 2010)

That was a great idea.


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## Mojo (Mar 9, 2010)

I can't take credit for the idea. Rat gave told me it would be a good thing to do and I decided he was right so I ran with it.


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## Rat (Mar 10, 2010)

Great job Mojo! When you are done you will not even be able to tell they are added and that will be one solid hull bottom. The strakes look perfect!


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## Mojo (Mar 10, 2010)

Update time,
I got outside early today and got the second layer of fiberglass put down over the strakes and also ran a strip over the keel. Then i mixed up some sillica with some epoxy and coated the bottom of the boat again to start filling in the cloth weave. No pictures.. I figured you guys are getting tired of looking at the bottom of my boat.

I went out to gander last night and picked up some new bunks for my trailer (and a new rod & baitcaster :twisted: ). The old ones were shot to hell so I just picked up some pre-made ones. So while i was busy getting those installed Mr. UPS guy showed up with some of my stuff that was on order and low and behold it was the LED trailer light kit I had been waiting on. So this afternoon turned into Trailer day... unfortunatly I didn't get to finish wiring it up before it got dark outside.

I did get some other good news thou, there's a guy I go to church with that has a big garage I can make use of when it's time to start painting. It's detached from the house and He's going to give me a key so I can work on it without having to bother with anyone being home. SWEET.
So the plan is to finish the fiberglass work here in the back yard at my place where the dust doesn't matter then when i'm all ready for paint I'll load the boat back up on the trailer and tote it over to the garage to do some painting. I'll be leaving it there to work on the interior modifications also. Lights and power means when I start my fabrication I'll be able to work after sunset and whip this thing out.


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## Mojo (Mar 14, 2010)

Finally got back outside today and got some more work done. It rained cats and dogs Thursday and Friday so nothing got done at all, Saturday I had to go celebrate my Grandmothers 92nd Birthday, so my weekend was pretty much filled up.

Got the trailer lights all wired up and heat shrinked today. Those LED lights are awesome! Nice and bright, had to chase down a loose ground before they would come on but after i found that it was good to go.

I got about half the boat bottom sanded down smooth. If you ever have a fiberglass boat and want to redo the bottom of it you had better have a lot of time. I realized it was going to be some serious work, but I didn't know exactly how much work. I bet over the whole deal of sanding down the old paint and the new fiberglass i've gone thru 7-8 packs of 80 grit sheets. And I've still got more to go but i'm pretty confident I'll be putting on the first coat of paint before the end of the week. As long as the weather holds.

Got most of the matterials I ordered for the build in, got my new seats and all the hardware for that along with the various switches, pannels and lights. I'll stack all this crap up when I've got the space in the grarage i'm going to borrow and take a few pictures of it and get them posted as soon as possible. 

Peace out Tinboaters


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## Rat (Mar 15, 2010)

Yep, fairing and sanding the hull is the most labor intensive part. But the more you put into it the better it is going to look!


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## bassonater (Mar 19, 2010)

I can't express my gratitude enough to you for your service to this country. Really enjoy seeing your progress, it reminds me of my first boat , it was a 1973 tomboy. Keep up the work an thanks!!


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## huntinfool (Mar 20, 2010)

Sorry I wasn't around to give advice. We have been remodeling our house and just did new carpet and got DSL (no more dial up!!!!!) First off I doubt that the boat has paint on it. It probably has gelcoat on it. Those cracks are only in the gelcoat and not in the glass. (paint would come right off, and since it is very hard to get off it is probably gelcoat) They do not need to be reinforced. But since you have already done it, it will just give you some more strength and an added turning chine. You can paint the bottom, but it will not last. I would only use gelcoat, but now that you have epoxy on the bottom that is not going to work. (gelcoat will not stick to epoxy)

I would look for an epoxy that you can use as a bottom coat of color. That would serve two purposes, one is it would give you some more strength and two it will give you some color. 

Your doing a great job so far and keep up the good work.


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## Rat (Mar 21, 2010)

Epoxy paint will not come off, gelcoat isn't the only way to add color to a hull. Any of the epoxy paint by Sterling, Pettit, System 3 or Interlux will work fine and last as long or longer than a gelcoat. 

For the bottom tho, all the cool kids are using Graphite! You mix Graphite in the epoxy, roll and tip it on and you have a a super abrasion resistant bottom that will out last almost anything. The only downside is that Graphite only comes in black; so lots of guys are using it up to the waterline and then using the epoxy paint from there; kinda like we do with steelflex. That's what I am doing on the GF-16.


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## Mojo (Mar 21, 2010)

Graphite sounds cool.. but i've already got some Pettit paint to put on the bottom so that's whats going on. I've just about got the bottom smoothed out to where I want it. Paint is going on this week..i'll post pictures after its all done up and pretty.


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## huntinfool (Mar 21, 2010)

Rat said:


> Epoxy paint will not come off, gelcoat isn't the only way to add color to a hull. Any of the epoxy paint by Sterling, Pettit, System 3 or Interlux will work fine and last as long or longer than a gelcoat.
> 
> For the bottom tho, all the cool kids are using Graphite! You mix Graphite in the epoxy, roll and tip it on and you have a a super abrasion resistant bottom that will out last almost anything. The only downside is that Graphite only comes in black; so lots of guys are using it up to the waterline and then using the epoxy paint from there; kinda like we do with steelflex. That's what I am doing on the GF-16.


While I agree, not many boat manufacturers use epoxy as their outer color coat. Most if not all use gelcoat. I was only refering to what was probably on the boat, not what was going on the boat. Gelcoat has been used for a long time and it works great, and it can be repaired. Epoxy will work too and it can be repaired also, but not as cost effective as polyester resin/gelcoat. Also not as fast to do repairs with. 

I suggested using an epoxy on the bottom, especially since he has already used epoxy to put the boards on.


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## Mojo (Mar 23, 2010)

Hey Guys,

Well I got the garage space to work on the boat indoors finally and it's everything I could want.. nice and spacious lighting and power. So i got the boat taken over and set up inside. I got the first coat of primer rolled out today, I'll be letting it dry overnight and i'll mix up another batch tommorow and apply the second coat. Then It will be time to sand it one more time then start applying paint.

After all this painting fun is done and over with i'll start fabrication on the interior. Now that I've got a place to work where i'm not limited by day light i'll be able to bust that thing out.

Pictures for your enjoyment below.


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## Rat (Mar 23, 2010)

Sweet! Looks like she faired out pretty well. You need a sign on the front now, Mojo Boatwerks!


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## Mojo (Mar 25, 2010)

First coat of Bottom Paint is on the boat. It takes six hours of dry time before i can put on the second. So i'll head back to the garage this afternoon and give her a second coat. Then the plan is to let it cure over night go back tommorow and sand then put on the final coat. 

It was exciting after all of that prep work to finally start putting paint down. My anal retentive side is annoyed by the places i missed while smoothing out the hull, small pin holes in the resin and such that were hard to see when it was bare fiberglass. But I decided I can live with a few imperfections... its the bottom of the boat after all.

That paint I got goes on so thin! I bought a gallon of it just cause I wasn't sure how much I would use... Pffffft.... one coat of the bottom of that boat took up a whole whopping 1/16th of that can. I'm gona have a LOT of leftover paint.


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## huntinfool (Mar 25, 2010)

Any place that has a pin hole or a place where glass is exposed could cause delamination. Keep a good eye on it. Paint is so thin and will scratch easily and could cause major problems later on. I could type a whole page on this, but will refrain. THe boat looks good, and keep up the good work.

If you want to ask any questions let me know and I can give you my phone number.


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## Rat (Mar 26, 2010)

What paint did you use Mojo? Looks good so far. If you need to fill those pin holes it is pretty easy with fairing compound, even after it is painted, it's epoxy paint so it will all stick together.


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## Mojo (Mar 26, 2010)

I started out using some Pettit paint i got.. but I didn't like it. Since it was so thin I sanded back down to my primer coat and put some interlux on it. Something that was a bit harder and had a better shine. It looks a whole lot better. And i filled in the holes i found with some epoxy and sanded them down smooth. That boat bottom is starting to look pretty pimp.


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## SoFlaBassAddict (Mar 27, 2010)

Mojo said:


> That paint I got goes on so thin! I bought a gallon of it just cause I wasn't sure how much I would use... Pffffft.... one coat of the bottom of that boat took up a whole whopping 1/16th of that can. I'm gona have a LOT of leftover paint.




Send it down my way  Heck, you're not even that far away from me. You know you want to.....


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## huntinfool (Mar 27, 2010)

Sure looking pretty!


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## Mojo (Mar 31, 2010)

NEW PIC. The bottom paint is almost complete. It will be ready to take to the lake this weekend and test out the motor and put some weight in the boat and move things around to find out where I need to mount batteries, live well and other heavy type stuff.


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## huntinfool (Mar 31, 2010)

Paint job looks great! Be careful with her when you roll her over.


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## dyeguy1212 (Mar 31, 2010)

Nice paint job


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## River Rider (Mar 31, 2010)

Looks awsome. What did you use to apply the paint?


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## Mojo (Mar 31, 2010)

Foam brushes were used to apply paint. Multiple light coats, as per the manufactures directions for dry times and such. I'm impressed with that Interlux paint.


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## bassonater (Mar 31, 2010)

looking good.


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## Mojo (Apr 4, 2010)

Well, Got the boat out on the water this weekend as advertised. It handled great with the new strakes on it, that sucker would turn super sharp and the back end never did once try to skip out on me. Clocked it on the GPS top end of 27mph. All in all I was pleased with its performance. 

However.. stability was a major issue. There is just no way that thing is going to get decked out, or have very much weight put in it. So the plan is to finish up the topside paint, put some nice wood on the benches, make it look prettier than it does now and put it up for sale. It's a great little boat, but it's not going to do what I want it too do.

I figured all of this out on Saturday, just my Dad trying to get into the stupid thing after I was already in and seated almost put me into the water. Tippy Tippy Tippy. So we talked it over and decided to keep an eye out for something bigger. 

Low and behold the Bass Fishing and Tin Boat Gods were smiling on me and I found a SUPER deal on craigs list. A 1987 16ft Fisher Hawk 3V. For $1500!!! The hull is in excellent shape, it needs fixing up but since i bought most everything thinking i was going to use it in the other boat I've already got carpet and new hardware, seats yada yada. So here's a teaser pic, I'll finish up the other boat and update this thread as it gets completed but I'll make a new one once i start working on the new bass machine.


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## Troutman3000 (Apr 5, 2010)

Looking forward to that build.


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