35 Bertram: full restoration & repower

more stuff going on

some of the composit paneling has been installrd in the cock pit, the swim platform has been installed, and the clam shell vents and 50amp cable master....

bilge rat's

So I pulled the diesel's out for a painting and to swap some stainless bolts on the flex plate to hardend steel. Then I also covered the whole bilge with awlgrip cloud wight same color as the top side and it stuck to every thing even the kevlar engine bunks awlgrip is good stuff brushed it out unreduced and gave me killer coverage.. I am close too splash down now... just have to have the shafts polished and put in the salon doors, interior, the ac/dc system and do a final fitment of the tower....

bilge rat's

So I pulled the diesel's out for a painting and to swap some stainless bolts on the flex plate to hardend steel. Then I also covered the whole bilge with awlgrip cloud wight same color as the top side and it stuck to every thing even the kevlar engine bunks awlgrip is good stuff brushed it out unreduced and gave me killer coverage.. I am close too splash down now... just have to have the shafts polished and put in the salon doors, interior, the ac/dc system and do a final fitment of the tower....


if you look close at the edge of the salon floor you can still see the nomex honeycomb,,, it the only place I used it, light and strong but I can sell it for much more then I can buy nomex and like the plastic core systems just a much better for marine use. I set it up so the engine room hatches have there under pining built in this leaves the floor 100% composit and saves me 1000lbs or so also it is much stronger then the patch work of plywood and hardwood under pining. there are no screws to rot away, but the best part is that when all 3 hatches are opened there is no need to crawl or duck you'll be able to walk around the engines

one more hole in my boat

Well two if you consider there are holes on both sides... As of now I am running fore x520's on the sides, two 1520's on the transom all super blue and one 3010 wight in the middle of the transom. I still have one more ocean led x520 flush mount super blue but do not think I will go to 3 per side, but who knows? I also have an extra 1520 blue, that will ether end up on the bottom in place of the use less drain plug or on the transom. Most likely I will end up buying one more of each and run two 1520's on the bottom and the two x520's on each side of the big wight 3010 on the transom, This will fill out all the water blue around and in back of the boats cockpit and and cause the much power full wight led to peak out past the blue in the back giving a neat effect... If you look in the reflection of the paint you can see I also pulled one engine hatch down and reinforced it with a layer of glass it was flexing a little and the final wood flooring may have fixed it but at $50 a foot for solid mahogany marine flooring I am not risking it...

stainless housings, speed & dripples seals

so the stainless steel rudder housings got finished to day an were test fitted punching the whole ate 3 saw blades in each housing but its nice to have a set of solid rudder housings that will not flex or rot with time.. I also get my shafts back tomarrow, and I will give them all my info and have them give me a idea of my top speed with the new diesels. Even with all the extra outfitting on the boat I think the composits will still reduce my weight below the factory weight but will still use the factory weight for my base.
also got the dripples shaft and rudder seals. any one have a big prob with a dripples system?

Thanks for the info.

Why do you think the seal ate the shafts?
Was the cutlass insert worn out?
Was the shaft damage a twin engine set up?
Was there a cross over tube on the system if it was twin?
Was it run on one engine if it was a twin engine set up with no crossover tube?
Was the cooling line clogged?

Why do you think the rudders were damaged?
Was the cutlass insert worn out?
Was it there j type?
Was there heat damage or sine of Lack of cooling?
Did the rudder housings have play in them?


Both systems ran un-till they leaked?
Both systems were used 7 to 10 years?
Both systems were trailer or slip boats?
Both systems were used often or sat?



I am only asking cuz I just dropped a lot of dollars with tide for new shaft & rudder seals and rudder bearings Friday....

Thanks

Thanks good to keep in mind...

I have been giving this some thought and the real draw back to the bladder is not being able to have float for a water level gauge, other then going below and taking a look you can't tell. I think an alu tank covered with fiberglass glass may hold up with the tank filled with water. A tank coated like that will last for ever filled with gas but the gas fumes keep the salt air out. Diesel & water may not be the same but can tell you the alu tanks that I see rotted out are form the out side in.

Plastic now that's kind of nice thought for a water tank my head tanks looks nice at 10 years old and has had worse then water in it and do not think it was the fumes that prevented the rot on this one.. Plastic would need a vent but may not rot like alu or cost an arm and leg like ss or have to be float less like a bladder. it may also have its draw backs but its just a thought,,,

some more stuff getting bolted and glued

moving on the boat was moved next to me so it was time for a photo. shot 2 the fuel tank is painted and the un glassed alu svo tank is watting for a test fitting. shot 3 the salon floor is all down no missing hatch to fall into!!!!

seals and tanks and stuff

so photo 1 is the two 60 gallon SVO tanks being glassed for to prevent rot. shot 2 of the seal installed and shot 3 is the bunks going in and the two shaft seals

some mor installing

shot 1 the first SVO tank is in place with a lot of room to get to the drip less seal. shot two both the tanks with there fresh coat of awlgrip are bolted into the glass bunks and ready for pluming. and the last photo shows the cruisair cooler installed in between the two SVO tanks..

Soon I be putting the stainless rudder housings and 3 cable master systems. And pluming the fuel, helm, and controls I have ordered & will be going with all 316ss tubing all in 1/2 inch for the helm and 5/16 for the controls all .035 wall copper is .032 and telaflex tells me it will work so photos soon. I be putting her in the drink to let the hull settle so I am happy about that

stainless tanks

I do love stainless just not the cost of material and labor. I need to buy a tig welder and start to play with it. I payed more for the 1/4 inch stainless then to have the houseings made. but I think a tank will be the other way around.

the main tank has 5 alu panels inside it, they are as old as the boat are not bonded and have not rot at all I cut 6 holes 12x12 in my tank to inspect it for damage. there was no damage to the glass or the alu panels.

my thinking is that the gas fumes keep any salt air from being able to get in to the tank keeping the alu as fresh as it was over 30 years ago. this may or may not be the same for diesel and water or wast. maybe the green hose of an in closed tank dose not allow all the evaporation it produces to vent as fast as its created keeping salt air from coming in contact with the inside keeping the alu good as new or may be not.

on a nother note I pulled an old dart convertable down from some where to cut up. the only part of the car that had no rust at all was the floor I mean there was no top on it, it was drove on salted roads. well I'll tell you why the guy covered the floor with fiberglass resin no cloth just painted it on and know what... my torch met a lot of cars but this had the worse rust I have seen every panel but the floor was rotted and I mean every.... but the floor was rot free. who'd a thunk it.

installed cablemasters

so I got all three cablemasters installed two 30 amp and one 50 amp

cable masters

I had some shots of the system with the cable in the systems as we pulled all the cables in but must have lost the photo

cockpit hard top

well I have to put the tower on to rig the pluming in the boats and I want a cockpit hard top to get me out of the sun and hold up the tower & 4 or 5 guys. so I started building it today. I used the inside of the fly brige hard top as a mold. I used the flybrige floor to make the flybrige hard top so it an exact copy and the cockpit hardtop will extend the floor 7ft when in the down poshion. Its 16mm nita core with 3 thick layers of glass on each side fallowed by 1/2 dyvinacel and 3 more layers of glass. the 1st shot shows the nita core with 3 layers of glass sitting in the hard top...more photos to fallow.. the 2nd shot is of the dyvincel foam core being pressed to wet fiberglass on top of the nita the 3rd shot show how it will fit plush to the fly brige floor or salon roof...

I flipped it over and glassed the top also to day but the rain starrted moving in and had cover the project till to marrow whel well test fit.....

hard to test fit

with onl layer of glass on the top side of the hardtop we test fitted, the first shot shows the top sitting on some saw horses, the second shows how far to will extend and the third shot is of how it will line up with the existing top...

stainless rudder housings

the first shot shows the two housings installed the second and 3rd shots show where the ram will end up and I will need to add a plate to bolt the ram on..