95 H26 Revamp "Dark Side Of The Moon" is reborn

[Astrozombie]

Just wanted to post some pics of work ive been doing to revitalize my H26 that was handed down from my dad. I always enjoy looking at other people work on forums to generate ideas and such. questions comments welcome.

Starting with the companionway, sanded, refinished, wet sanded and polished, polished the lexan as well. Installed new B&G system with wind speed, wind direction, boat speed, depth and temp transducers. The compass has since been replaced as well.

Nmea 2000 backbone for B&G system. Hole cutting was a little shaky on the B&G

New interior sparker install, one on both port and starboard sides, the storage box acts as a speaker box giving pretty good sound. Notice the condition of deck insert.

Deck insert refinished, still needs sealant around the edges. I was able to remove the entire piece and take home to refinish. I do believe that most boats this wont be possible due to heavy silicon used to seal insert in place. I have since also refinished the head wall and teak step.

New power board installed, on the original power board there were 2 double pole double throw switches, one for manual bilge pumping and the other for mast/steaming lights. I separated the mast/steaming lights circuit into 2 separate circuits, I haven't labeled yet, I want to test at night and make sure the labeling is correct. The bilge pump that I installed is an auto pump, every 5 minutes it kicks on and checks for resistance in the motor which would be a sign of water, if resistance is detected it will continue to run until no resistance is felt, so the bilge switch here is purely a manual pump switch.

table refinished, the trim hasn't been installed still need to wet sand and polish final finish. all wood was done with cetol marine natural teak, 3 coats. notice the cushions are heavily soiled, I scrubbed like crazy with everything under the sun but the ticket was grill cleaner, took all the soil off in no time.

A custom console for VHF and stereo, I would have rather used a teak plank to fashion this from but my impatience got the best of me, I stained the wood best I could and the finished with cetol marine. I installed 2 led strips on the bottom on the plank with a switch on the side to light the stairs at night, the stereo is a marine stereo Bluetooth enabled. all wiring is hid up the stair post and on the back of the console for a clean look.

lastly, the cabinet doors, removed, sanded, 3 coats cetol, wet sanded and polished with high speed polisher. Turned out to be a lot of labor.

Hopefully yall enjoy the write up, it has been a labor of love and pain. Im headed outside next, with a solar mount, complete boat polish, traveler replacement, rudder restoration (wobbly tiller) and various other odds and ends. hopefully before long she'll be better than brand new and looking good for hopefully a trip to Catalina island this next year.

 

[JohnVTX]

Nice work

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

lastly, the cabinet doors, removed, sanded, 3 coats cetol, wet sanded and polished with high speed polisher. Turned out to be a lot of labor.

Yes, wet sanding and using a high speed polisher are definitely a lot of labour and nothing, but nothing, can compare to the professional finish it produces.

Very nice work.

 

[Astrozombie]

^ Very nice, I was afraid to do my deck insert that way kept thinking id slip and bust my head on something. Does it make for a slick surface?

 

[twodzusfittings]

Very nice. Great work. I think if you would like to tidy up the rear of the B&G you could use some AZEEK board or Trex and either create a one piece or a mitered four sided piece. It would just finish it off really well.

 

[Doug J]

Very nice work! And inspirational! I'm working on my new-to-me 94' H26 as well. Love the woodwork! Please keep posting pics as you go along. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

So, when you removed the flooring to refinish, did you sand it down? Do you think it would be possible to refinish without removing it? I'm afraid I'd destroy mine if I try to remove it.

What process did you use to polish the Lexan?

On mine there is a strip of wood on the edge of the Lexan slider, did you remove yours for refinishing?

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Doug;
First never use acetone or anything that will harm plastics. To polish takes some labor.
You can wet sand using the higher grade wet and dry using water. I use to start at 300, 400 and then 600. I used 3M Finese It in the compound, not the liquid type going over it with a low speed buffer making sure you do not press hard on it nor in one area for a long time; otherwise, you will be burning the lexan. I would do this if there are deep scratches.

If you only have fine scratches, then use the compound only and it will do the work but will take several tries. Never go over 1000 rpm on any buffer. As for waxing, some have done that but not sure what wax would work the best.

I would take the slider or lexan off if doing the whole surface. Yes remove the wood handle and clean off the old caulk and put back new caulk around the screws and along the entire underneath of that board to insure no water coming thru. I used archittecutal grade 100 % silicon and clear is suggested. clean off excess with alcohol only. You may also want to recaulk the piece of wood on the top side of the lexan used as the stopper.

As for the floor if orginal or the actual teak and holly sole, clean it as if you are cleaning teak. Let it dry and then apply your varnish or whatever finish you want to use but for the first coat, cut it by half as it will soak into the pores to fill those up and lightly sand. If sanding the sole with the original or actual teak and holly sole, just be careful not to sand much as it is lamenated plys glued together. The later flooring is a composite and much more durable. The flooring is glued down and removing that will cost you a new piece so in otherwords do not try to remove unless you plan on replacing it. I use liquid nails trowled out and then weighted the floor of course covered with weight for 24 hours. In addition, seal the lip with pure silicon or the stuff used for the windows

As for the gel coat, it too is a plastic paint of sort and should be buffed too with a low speed buffer as well following my suggestions above

Hopes this helps you.

 

[Astrozombie]

I did sand it, very lightly though as I was afraid of taking to much off, after sanding I scrubbed the crap out of it with a non toxic wood cleaner. I initially was going to refinish in place but found that I could remove it. There was a ton of silicone used to seal it to the deck had this not been dry rotted I would have never been able to remove it, I don't think your case will be the same. If I were to do it in place I would have taped the surrounding area off to avoid scratching while sanding and spillage of any stain. other than that it should be pretty straight forward. For the slider, I removed the wood trim/handle and then removed the entire piece of lexan so I could place on a stand. I used a compound polish with a wool pad then a polish with a polishing pad using a high speed buffer, be careful though, its easy to burn the lexan with a high speed buffer and wool pad.
hope that helps feel free to ask any other questions.

 

[Doug J]

Thanks! refinishing the floor and companion way pieces is on my to do list.
Keep those pictures coming - love to see the progress!