New project boat.... California Skier

[REW]

Well done. Thanks for all the detail and the detailed photos.

[Michigan boarder]

Nice work & pics! I can't wait to see the trailer the way you envision it.

[NitrousBIG]

Well its been a while! I have been crazy busy, started working at a new school this September. Being an Auto and Metal teacher that means a ton of organizing. But, I got a lot of the boat stuff done and had it out a bunch of times this summer. Had tons of fun! Had some interesting times. Dingled a prop, had to fix it myself, at The Prop Shop! Blew a tire on the trailer on the way to Osoyoos. Pulled my triceps, bad. Hitting the gym now! Its boxing day now and things have slowed down enough to show my progress. Looking at the pictures I can't wait until summer now to do it all again!

So I left off with the hinge on the swing away ready to install. I did most of the welding with 6011 stick. 6011 is the rod you use if you think your getting really good with a 7018 rod. The welds will make you cry! The welds look like CRAP, but as your welding you can see the stick gauging the parent material. The other benefit is that it freezes really fast when doing a vertical up weld. So, after a bunch of practice I started welding it in place. Technically I am very happy with the results, but now I want to make it pretty. I had everything checked by a welder buddy of mine and he said it definitely not going anywhere. I welded it at EVERY joint, inside and out. Most trailers get just a couple of welds (usually in about 4 places), but I wanted to make sure it wasn't coming off. And, it has been awesome so far. I did a stringer weld with a bit of a weave on the vertical up. I am thinking I am going to do a 7018 weave over top of it to deposit enough material to file it into a smooth fillet.

Unfortunately I haven't taken ay pictures with the tongue on. But it looks so much smoother and cleaner. I also installed the reverse solenoid so trailer brakes turn off when the truck goes in reverse. That thing works so good, especially since I have to back the trailer up a hill to get it into my drive way. Now I don't have to think about it, I just back up.

Axles and Suspension

So, like I said before I was going through the suspension, axles and brakes. I wanted to lower the trailer to make it look better and easier to get into. I also needed to get rid of the rust. It was giving me a weird twitch just knowing it was there!

First step was to mock it all up and do some measuring after removing the pad from the one axle and make sure the balancing block sat level.

Threw the wheels under and set the ride height of the trailer and did some more measuring.

I was going to de-arch the leafs but decided to relocate the mounting points. this allowed me to move the wheels out to fill the fenders better. The trailer has fenders that are a little too big and it looked funny (read "ugly"). Oh yah, thanks to my students I had everything sand blasted and ready to paint.

After everything was re-drilled I mocked it all back up to check it all.

Compare it to the other side, which I hadn't done yet.

Much Better!

New floor piece

For a change of pace on evening I decided to finish the new floor board I finished earlier. Got the stapler and contact cement out and got to work.

This winter I need to drill out the stringer and fix the stripped holes. When you lift the cover all the way it puts a ton of pressure on the screws. They were stripped before I got the boat but didn't have time to fix it, but they are not really bad (but getting worse). I was worried it was rotten stringers but its just stripped holes.

Back to the axles and suspension

So after everything was sand blasted I got my paint on! This is my favourite part, when everything starts coming together.

I love the smell of VHT paint in the morning!

L]

Isn't that a beautiful thing!

Ok the day I did this it was HOT! I set up the EZ-up in the driveway and wire wheeled the axles.

From this into this!

I needed to attach the brake lines to the axles, the zap straps weren't doing it for me! After crawling under a bunch of trailers to look at what others had done I saw this. I just welded a few washers on then bent them into shape.

When I ordered the new tongue I also ordered a bunch of new brake system parts. I installed new brake lines and distribution blocks. I also re-did a bunch of the brake line to make everything look cleaner.

After some other maintenance and fixing a problem with a one way valve that seized just outside the fuel tank everything was working and I was off on vacation!

This one is my favourite picture!

I have since removed the pin striping on the trailer that looked like electrical tape!

A little while after the last picture THIS happened.

Fortunately there was no damage just dust from driving about 30km back to town on the shoulder to get some new tires. One blew but I replaced both on that side.

You can see the chain we used to tie up that axle.

I didn't even feel it blow out! fortunately some people came up beside me to let me know. I am looking into tire pressure monitors now. I had even checked the pressures when we pulled over for my favourite pic and all was fine. But I don't know how old they were or how they were treated by the previous owners so I am going to replace the other two so I have 4 new ones. Once I get my 17 inch mags I will put these wheels and new tires on my car trailer.

With the new tires it was smooth sailing all the way to Osoyoos. Here are a bunch of random pics.

Here's my Dad ready to ski for the first time in about 20 years and after recently almost dying from the super bug and then congestive heart failure in the past two years.

The rat bastard dropped a ski before I did!

I skied a few times but they couldn't get the camera to work while I was skiing.

Shortly after this I pulled my triceps and couldn't ski. After a few days I did the tube.

Edited December 27, 2015 by NitrousBIG

[4nryde]

Great job so far! Are you going to keep the surge brakes? If so, please take some detailed pictures of how you install the brake lines. I may be interested in doing the same this winter.

[NitrousBIG]

My brother was up with us too (he is a rat bastard too because he got up long line before me or my dad and he had never skied before)! He used to knee board though.

I felt pretty good about my cheap little boats reliability while I was up there I towed two new boats back to shore. One $200,000 Air Nautique (didn't get a picture of that one) and one Bayliner type boat (below). I figure this filled my quota for good deeds for the year so now I can be a jerk for the rest of the year!

My summer house!

Here is the most recent picture I have of the boat. I have cut down the monster guide poles and put on some pads. This works much better now. I have also done some power polishing and cleaned up the trailer some more.

This winter I am going to redo all of the wiring and install the lights the trailer is missing. I am going to move the boat forward on the trailer 2-3 inches so it will fit in the garage with the swing away on. I am also looking for wheels and tires, but I probably won't do the chrome fenders this year. I might remove the drop at the back of the trailer and suck everything up as high as I can so I can get the trailer even lower when I put on the new fenders. I might also put carpet on the step pads because the painted surface that is there is a death trap.

On the boat I want to remove all of the teak that is painted black, have it striped and oiled up. While that is being done I am going to polish all of the brackets that currently have paint slopped all over them.

I diggled my prop while on vacation and went to get it fixed at the Prop Shop but when I got there their welder was not there. Fortunately they let me use their TIG welder and I fixed it. but I have been having some cavitating problems since then. So i need to get the prop checked over some where.

I also have a couple of other little things I want to do like new speedo tubes and set-up the carb better.

But right now the snow is falling and the garage is to damn cold. I think I stay inside, drink some hot chocolate and check out this internet thing!

Edited December 27, 2015 by NitrousBIG

[NitrousBIG]

Great job so far! Are you going to keep the surge brakes? If so, please take some detailed pictures of how you install the brake lines. I may be interested in doing the same this winter.

I am keeping the surge brakes. I haven't done anything to the trailer lines yet. I saw some clips on a trailer up in Osoyoos that clipped onto the C channel and held the brake likes. I might also run the line with my wiring when I redo that. I think I am going to weld some tubing to the inside of the C channel at the top for the wires to run through, could run the brake lines with it. Next time I'm working on it I will take some pics of what I've done so far on the tongue.

Edited December 27, 2015 by NitrousBIG

[h2oratJR]

Great post! Congrats on your health

[Lance B. Johnson]

Awesome Looking!

You commented somewhere that the leafs were getting sandblasted by one of your students.....are you a teacher then? What do you teach?

[NitrousBIG]

Awesome Looking!

You commented somewhere that the leafs were getting sandblasted by one of your students.....are you a teacher then? What do you teach?

Auto and Metal Work

[dmc]

LOL! Awesome man, I can't believe how many of us from the good ole 'wack there are on TMC.

I guess we are going to have to do some sort of get together in the summer or something.

Something to note given your proxy to Cultus. It is a real b!tch to launch/reload the older lower boats due to the steepness of the ramps. If you launch at the far end make sure you stay as far away from the dock as possible. The angle is better and will make things easier. You prolly know that but I've helped a lot of folks with that across time here so.... what the heck!

I am going to have to do the swing away tongue thing. Same sort of constraints at my place.

Anyways, boat looks good!! See you on the water (and prolly vedder judging by your bikes!!! )

Edited December 29, 2015 by dmc

[Michigan boarder]

Looking good!

Are you running straight exhaust, no mufflers?

[NitrousBIG]

LOL! Awesome man, I can't believe how many of us from the good ole 'wack there are on TMC.

I guess we are going to have to do some sort of get together in the summer or something.

Something to note given your proxy to Cultus. It is a real b!tch to launch/reload the older lower boats due to the steepness of the ramps. If you launch at the far end make sure you stay as far away from the dock as possible. The angle is better and will make things easier. You prolly know that but I've helped a lot of folks with that across time here so.... what the heck!

I am going to have to do the swing away tongue thing. Same sort of constraints at my place.

Anyways, boat looks good!! See you on the water (and prolly vedder judging by your bikes!!! )

That would be awesome to have some type of get together! Always down for a cruise.

I haven't launched at the far end of the lake yet but I have scoped it out. It is definitely steeper. Thanks for the info.

Edited January 1, 2016 by NitrousBIG

[NitrousBIG]

Sitting around today thinking about wheels for the boat trailer. At this point I have two in mind, both American Racing wheels.

Torq Thrust ii

Salt Flats

Try to imagine with chrome fenders and not a crappy paint photo insert.

Let me know what you think!

Oh yah! I am fully aware that my computer skills suck. I am NOT TRYING. Just playing around.

Edited January 1, 2016 by NitrousBIG

[2014Skier]

Torque Thrusts all the way.

[coldwater-echelon]

X2 for the torque thrust wheels.

[NitrousBIG]

Well the garage warmed up enough to start playing with the boat again over spring break. I opened the engine cover and was confronted with the ugly engine and decided something had to be done!

 

 

Ok, where do I begin! The manifolds are hideous, there is a fuel filter on the breather line for some reason and things just look messy. I am not going to pull the whole engine yet, maybe in the next year or two, but for now I am just going to do small projects.

 

So I yanked the manifolds of and took them to my shop at work for some sand blasting.

 

 

 

 

 

Also starting on some of the engine parts. I'm thinking that I might powder coat these pieces.

 

 

 

All my junk sand blasted.

 

 

 

Just getting the manifolds off made it look better.

 

On goes the VHT brake calliper paint.

 

 

In the background you can see my free oven for powder coating. I like free!

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is the swim step and all the other teak. So far its just disassembled. I have to strip the paint and polish the aluminium. I checked at a couple of places to get the paint stripped but they wanted too much. Any one know of a place where I can get it dipped in a paint stripper tank for a reasonable price. And I don't want them to do anything else, I want to prep the surface myself.

 

At this point I think I am going to strip it myself and then power wash it, but I'm doing more research to figure out what I am going to do.

 

 

You gotta love the paint slopped all over the brackets. That kind of stuff gives me a weird twitch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's close to the color I want but I think I'm going to do it with boiled linseed oil.

 

 

 

Well that's all for now.

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2016 by NitrousBIG

[ahopkins22LSV]

The engine looks great! Nice to have a shop like that to use too!

[NitrousBIG]

Its been a while. Not sure where to begin?

I did a ton of research on teak. I found almost nothing on stripping paint off it, so I decided to do some testing with automotive / aircraft stripper. I was worried the stripper would affect the wood some how. Turns out it was OK so I got started.

 

Tried scrapping but the paint was trapped in the grain.

 

I figured out that the stripper has to be layed on thick. Let it sit then power wash.

I was going to use Starbrite to finish the teak, but read some negative reports. Then read about Boiled Linseed Oil. I found some at Home Depot and thought I'd give it a try. Like it so far.

I enlisted the help of my Dad.

Next we started on the brackets. Don't know what was on there but the stripper barely touched it. Nor did oven cleaner.

My dad took over and hit it with the DA.

After some polishing.

Half way there.

All done!

 

More on the engine soon.

 

Edited May 16, 2016 by NitrousBIG

[NitrousBIG]

This is where I left off. The manifolds look great but the valve covers.... They needed some work.

So I put the stripper to work.

And after some paint.

New fasteners.

Re-rooting the wires and cleaning them up.

[ahopkins22LSV]

Seriously great work! And one heck of a thread!

[Raimie]

LOVE the teak. What an improvement!

[Michigan boarder]

Nice job!!

Can you detail a little more how you got those swim platform brackets to shine like that?

[Woodski]

Looks great.  Let us know how the polished aluminum swim platform brackets hold up, the water in my lake tends to take away the shine, what type of water are you in?

[DUKENO1]

Beautiful work!  Can't believe someone covered up that beautiful teak with paint!    Nice work getting it restored!  The whole boat /trailer restoral has been fun to follow. Keep up the good work and thanks for taking the time to share.  Looking forward to the powder-coating.  I got involved with a little amateur powder coating myself this year.  Turned out pretty good so I find myself looking for more stuff on my boat to soray.

I am thinking my swim step brackets may be next.

[NitrousBIG]

11 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

Nice job!!

Can you detail a little more how you got those swim platform brackets to shine like that?

My dad and used the DA sander with as heavy as 80 grit working up to 220 grit to get a smooth surface.

Then bench grinder with two different polishing pads and two different compounds are used. First we used the pad that is sewn on the sides and the red stick for compound. This does most of the work and gets it shiny but leaves some light cobwebbing on the surface. Finally we use the loose wheel and the white compound to put a finish on the pieces.

 

9 hours ago, Woodski said:

Looks great.  Let us know how the polished aluminum swim platform brackets hold up, the water in my lake tends to take away the shine, what type of water are you in?

Once I get tired of polishing I'm thinking I'll clear coating them.

Edited May 17, 2016 by NitrousBIG