Repairing Hunter 40 damage from Hurricane Matthew

[B757Captain]

Vitally necessary boat task done:

I have THE premo spot at the marina! It's absolutely great for the remaining work I need to do as far as access, but it comes with a big drawback - I'm the first boat anybody sees when walking down the ramp! I don't know if you eagle eyed gents noticed that although the hull looks bright and shiny, the deck was filthy - years of yard goo . Well, we can't have that!

Yesterday afternoon consisted of a lengthy session with the pressure washer (I have an electric one, less aggressive than a gas PW, was perfect):

I cheated a little - I did the side everyone can see first! Followed that up this morning and finished the rest. Looks much, much better .

Cheers,

Mark

 

[kappykaplan]

I cheated a little - I did the side everyone can see first! Followed that up this morning and finished the rest. Looks much, much better .

Lookin' very good, Mark!!!

 

[garymalmgren]

A GOOD NEWS story. Well. how about that.

You have made my day Mark.
Thank you.

 

[dmax]

Somewhere on this planet there is the anti-Mark, a complete slacker who gets nothing done to balance out all that you do - man, you keep busy.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Somewhere on this planet there is the anti-Mark, a complete slacker who gets nothing done to balance out all that you do - man, you keep busy.

-Will

 

[B757Captain]

Big Update - the details, part B:

After doing some boat work, re-engining the Dakota and other stuff I found some more spare time!

The wife declared that she would have FIL mound-o-stuff ready by April, so we planned for that. But, I had to find something to do until then. Well, the V-berth could use some love, so:

A little disassembly, a little paint, and a little clear coat:

and the V-berth is on the way to looking better:

I had (and have) a million little and big things yet to do but I was just not digging tackling another big project yet. I did remember that at one time the Admiral had complained about a spot on her car where the clear coat had sun-faded away. Her idea for repair was to cover it with a Sharpie, or nail polish or some other non-automotive demon - us gear heads can't have that! So into the garage:

Note! The picture angle makes the garage look, well, like the FIL's shop. Not so, just a bad pic! I promise! The end result:

I fixed the tiny clear coat spot! Plus a few dents. Plus some hail damage. And I got to play with my painting toys. A win-win in my opinion, and I kept it a total secret until the big reveal when everybody got to SC.

Mid April was the big move and I gotta say, it was anti-climactic! Went like clockwork - though tons of work! I'll save those details for Episode 3.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[mermike]

Simply amazing!

 

[senang]

Glad you are back 757! Was a long wait while in COVID confinement. But even that will be over next Monday (at least during daylight hours over here). Glad Escape Velocity is floating again.

 

[B757Captain]

Big Update - the big move, Part 1:

I thought that over the last year I had developed a talent for politely declining the offer of other people's stuff (mostly junk!) because I had repeatedly been offered said stuff (junk) from the FIL. Didn't work as well as planned . On the front end of my trip out west I overflew NM to visit my folks in Phoenix. All good - the plan was to fly to PHX, rent a car, visit then drive to NM. All good starting out, relatively empty airports, upgrade to First Class (all those miles and FF status from Japan commuting still paying off!) and bus ride to the rental car pavilion. There things went slightly pear-shaped!

Seems that the car type I rented was not available, so the dude offered me a Nissan pickup, same price. Ok I said, thinking it would come in handy in NM. What I didn't count on was: when I got to my parents house, my step-father, upon seeing the pickup says "Since you got a p/u, why don't you take some of the tools and stuff I have in my storage shed?"

, pause for breath and check to see if the lump on my forehead is big enough yet, !! Not enough bang-heads .

Can't say no, right? The problem here is that my stepdad is an old farmer, mechanic, contractor and heavy equipment guy and buys top quality stuff. But so do I, and what he has left only duplicates what I already have. Still can't say no, so off to NM I go with a pickup bed full of even more stuff I have to figure out what to do with!

It got better though. Visit with my folks was nice as always and as a bonus, the best way from point A to B is via the back roads. No traffic and some spectacular scenery:

This is the Salt River Canyon east of Phoenix. After that, a trek through the western reaches of the Gila Wilderness and just past that:

This is the VLA (Very Large Array) outside of Magdelena, NM. Normally it's a miles-long line of huge radio telescopes used for astronomy (and the occasional movie setting). The day I went by they must have been shut down or doing maintenance because I've never seen all the antennas together at one time. Still pretty good sight-seeing!

At this point I'm in NM, prepping for the final move. Stay tuned! Oh, and I did some boat stuff in the last few days too

Cheers,

Mark

 

[B757Captain]

Big Update - the final move, finally!:

Everyone involved gathered - me, wife, BIL and moving gnomes, check. 26 ft. truck acquired, check. FIL sequestered away from moving process, check. Uh, not quite . Well, we tried. The final loading went surprisingly well except for some oddities - FIL absolutely insisted that the Betamax player goes with - of course upon unloading here he said why did we bring that? But overall the hardest part was the 114 point turn to get the truck in the back yard to load. Dang that thing was big!

Fast forward a few days and it's launch day. I had planned 4 days to make the trek, not knowing how hard we could push with an 86 yr old with no recent travel history. I also assumed our days would be dictated by someone else's morning routine (you know what I mean ) and day 1 went pretty much as planned and we made our pre-arranged overnight stop with daylight to spare. And no violent objections . Day 2 started as we predicted but frayed slightly because there were no hotel rooms at our planned night stop. Another hour down the road found us in a fleabag motel, but heck, we're halfway there! Day 3 was a treat because we got off the Interstate and took some scenic country roads. This was all to avoid I-20 through Birmingham and Atlanta. Good time had by all and a great overnight in Auburn, AL. Day 4 and FIL finally got the message that we were NOT going to allow him behind the wheel. And voila!, we are home!

Next morning, unloading gnomes show up and the truck that took us 2 1/2 days to load is empty in just over 2 hours. Yay!! After a few days of helping unpack and move furniture my part is winding down, so back to boat stuff for me!

Next installment, plans for the next few weeks.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[DArcy]

Mark, I have to say that I am enjoying watching your boat come together (fantastic workmanship!) but the moving escapades add another level to this story, thanks for sharing.

 

[garymalmgren]

I am tired just reading.
GIIM (Glad it isn't me)

gary

 

[B757Captain]

I am tired just reading.
GIIM (Glad it isn't me)

gary

I coulda done without most of last year's gymnastics as well! I'm hoping to be able to take a breather - someday!

 

[B757Captain]

Next projects:

With the boat in the water and exterior clean, I've mainly been tidying things up and doing some of the smaller jobs, some of which I couldn't do on the hard. The head sail has been taking up space in the garage, so time to get it back on the boat. Unfortunately the promised calm winds abruptly changed to just strong and gusty enough that I managed to get the sail 2/3rds up the furler before giving up and dropping it on the deck. Tied it down and waited for better conditions. It sat there for 4 days! Damn the wind gods! Got it up finally though.

I took a good look through the garage and attic to see what could be transferred to the boat and have been doing that, as well as giving the interior a good scrub. Next up is draining the 20-odd gallons of old fuel in the main tank. I can't remember whether I added fuel stabilizer to the fuel or not but finally decided it's not worth taking the chance. When I get the tank emptied I'll remove it, give it a good scrub inside and out, then rebuild it's platform.

Once that's done the aft cabin can be mostly buttoned up then it's on to the next project.

Now, here's my current conundrum - I have a good weather/temp/humidity window for the next week or so, favorable for painting the Dakota . This is both good and bad; I wasn't quite ready to start on that(mentally, physically or emotionally!) but if I wait much longer I might run into trouble. I am, after all, doing a "backyard" paint job, albeit in the garage. I can't properly control the garage temps and humidity during the heat of the summer and mayhem might occur if I wait much longer.

Added to that is that this paint job will be a complete color change. I've already got the engine compartment done but still need to paint the door jambs, inside of the hood, and the bed will have to come off to get between the bed and cab. Add to that, the Dakota will not fit in the garage and leave me room to work around it! So the bed will have to come off anyway and be prepped and painted separately. Along with the bumpers, grill and fender flares. Just a little more work than normal .

I am still contemplating whether to start, but am leaning that way. Heaven help my shoulders - glorious, glorious sanding!!

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Capt Robbie]

Mark,
you put the energizer bunny to shame !
How do you keep your energy level going?
You are absolutely amazing

 

[nightowle]

I'm always eagerly awaiting the next update. Thanks for this one! Conversely, I have a few boat jobs I work on at once -- and take waaaay too much time on each one.

 

[B757Captain]

May Update, Pt. 1:

Hi gents! as you can tell, May is in the books and though most of my planned work got done, it has taken much longer than anticipated. Reasons for delays are - not in order - attempting to rebuild the home life for the admiral and I, dealing with FIL daily drama, and repairing/restoring my physical and mental stability!

I did finally get the main fuel tank out of the boat:

The trouble turned out to be a yard issue - the old mgmt had a liberal policy concerning access the the old oil/fuel drum. New guys not so much so I had to find an alternate disposal sight for the 25 gallons or so in the tank. The local recycle center has a disposal drum but how to get the fuel there? I wound up draining the fuel into the spare 5 gallon can I have (plus a few old 1 gallon oil jugs) so the fuel left the boat 7 gallons at a time. And the recycle center has a weekly trip limit so I could only go 3 times a week! Needless to say, it took over a week to get the tank drained, but it's out now and I used the pressure washer to clean it inside and out. Now to rebuild the platform and it can go back in permanently.

The bulk of this month has been painting the Dakota. Though I really like doing this kind of stuff it can start dragging. Which it has!. I won't bore you guys with much of it (unless asked) but I have to pass this on, with the following question/statement/rant -

HELP ME UNDERSTAND!?!?!

The Dak had one bad area on the body - which I knew about (I thought) - where it looks like one of the POs side-swiped a gas station post or something on the drinker's side. All ok, I can deal. But as I start digging in to repair to MY standards I find this:

Here's a portion of the bondo I chipped off before giving up:

Some of it was close to 1/2 inch thick! I'll repeat - help me understand! For the non-body work fellas out there, glopping on bondo that thick is disastrous. It will crack, fall off or otherwise eventually fail - which it had, thus why I dug into that area. The repair dude made a conscious decision to not do the repair correctly and instead take what he thought would be the quick and easy way out. Ok. Take a deep breath and remember that failed automotive and bodywork guys migrate to shady boat repair yards (or vise-versa!).

After chipping enough bondo out of the bed and corner to make a fair size pile I sat back and regrouped. The main reason this kind of thing torques me is that just about the entire area is accessible from the backside - and the entire bed area is, so it's easy to get a hammer back there to pound it out and rework the panel. I did that on the cab corner (plus using the stud gun to assist for a few spots) and got the cab back to only needing about an eighth inch of bondo for final shaping. Took literally 20 minutes of metal shaping and two swipes of filler. And I'm nowhere near an expert in body repair.

The bed - different story. Three and a half of the bed corners needed attention, plus the PO had applied some of that crappy Autozone brand of roll-in bed liner (which was peeling off so needed to go away) so I decided to hit the easy button on the bed and did some searching. Found this:

Absolutely pristine bed on a truck at a salvage yard. Well worth it to not have to do a bunch more bodywork! They even let me swap out the beds in their yard!

So now the Dak is painted except for the tailgate and fender flares. Took longer than I expected but almost done so I can reconvert the garage from a paint booth to a woodworking shop and get back to the boat!

Cheers,

Mark

 

[nightowle]

So, out of curiosity - why did you wait until this stage to remove the fuel tank? You have to work around all your nice newly built cabinetry. Meanwhile, thanks for the update. Leave the truck alone for June! There's boat work to be done.

 

[B757Captain]

So, out of curiosity - why did you wait until this stage to remove the fuel tank? You have to work around all your nice newly built cabinetry. Meanwhile, thanks for the update. Leave the truck alone for June! There's boat work to be done.

Well, best answer is out of sight, out of mind? Dealing with the tank just got pushed back farther and farther on the rare occasion I remembered it .It's not a big deal, the tank (empty) is surprisingly easy to move around and I did remember to account for its size when I rebuilt the doorway openings.

 

[jssailem]

Mark I can understand your thinking. "What were they thinking"? The answer, I suspect, is they were not thinking when they opened the can of bondo.

Nice find in the yard.

Great info on your fuel tank. Thanks for all the sharing of your work.