After sitting out in the desert sun for who knows how many years, the factory varnish had suffered quite a bit. With my new Dewalt Random Orbital sander in hand, I began what has turned out to be a lengthy but rewarding varnishing project.
Pictured to the right is the aft thwart seat from our 15 foot boston whaler project boat. The wood is African Mahogany and I knew that under those peeling layers of varnish was a nice piece of wood.
I began by lightly scraping as much of the old varnish off as possible but quickly decided that I needed to break out the new sander. A couple of 80 grit sheets later I had made progress but it was time to try some chemicals. The citrus strip sounded like a good option but it took a few rounds before I could really see any progress. Once all the varnish was removed I mixed up some Oxalic acid and bleached the wood. This really evened out the tone of the wood and I was starting to think that I might someday have a nice looking seat on my hands.
When I got the boat back from having the new motor (Yamaha F60 4 Stroke) moun
ted, I stripped the entire interior and began stripping the varnish with a heat gun I purchased from Harbor Freight (I have dubbed it the Walmart of tools). This worked extremely well and I didn't end up using any of the citrus strip on the console, forward seat or deck cleat. I bought some new mahogany from Dixiline to replace the side rails. I skipped bleaching the rest of the wood although I'm wishing I would've at least hit the console.
We have a couple of coats of varnish/thinner on both seats, console, side rails and deck cleat. It is starting to look really nice and the new side rails don't look all that different from the 20 year old, sun-baked seats.
We're ready to start brushing on the 100% strength varnish (Captain's) just as soon as I find some free time. I'm shooting for around 5 coats on top of the 4 partial strength coats that the wood already has. I'm hoping that a good cover and periodic maintenance will keep the wood looking good over the life of the boat.
Next up: Cleaning & Patching (why do people screw so many things into boats?)
With Amy's help and her keen ability to make sure things are straight and look good, we installed the throttle control on the side rail. The steering assembly went on without a hitch and the tachometer installation was pretty straightforward (at least I think it was). I just matched the colors from the tach to the colors on the throttle control. I was one gas tank tie-down short so I fabricated one out of an old piece of cutting board I had lying around. After some help from the good people at San Diego Marine Exchange to help me fix the threads on the gas tank, the gas tank is in the boat and ready to be hooked up. I bought some webbing material and some clips to make a few straps to secure the tank in place.
This is what the boat looked like the night I brought it home. Pretty nasty at the time but I knew there was a solid boat underneath all that grime and peeling varnish....
Here are a few shots of the boat after some light wetsanding and compounding.
It has been over a month since I last worked on the interior so I thought it was time to get back at it as I can't rig the steering, throttle, etc. until the interior is installed.
After sitting out in the desert sun for who knows how many years, the factory varnish had suffered quite a bit. With my new Dewalt Random Orbital sander in hand, I began what has turned out to be a lengthy but rewarding varnishing project.
ted, I stripped the entire interior and began stripping the varnish with a heat gun I purchased from Harbor Freight (I have dubbed it the Walmart of tools). This worked extremely well and I didn't end up using any of the citrus strip on the console, forward seat or deck cleat. I bought some new mahogany from Dixiline to replace the side rails. I skipped bleaching the rest of the wood although I'm wishing I would've at least hit the console.
We're ready to start brushing on the 100% strength varnish (Captain's) just as soon as I find some free time. I'm shooting for around 5 coats on top of the 4 partial strength coats that the wood already has. I'm hoping that a good cover and periodic maintenance will keep the wood looking good over the life of the boat.
Having grown up with on an old 13' Whaler, I've always wanted to own a 15' Whaler. The ride on the 15 is leaps and bounds better and the larger motor makes wakeboarding a breeze.
Turns out the 17' had a 90HP Yamaha on the back and not some measly 40. It didn't have a center console but the seating arrangement looked pretty accommodating and it quickly began to grow on me. A quick scan of the boat revealed that the boat and motor were from 1990. An 18 year old Whaler is no big deal but an 18 year old outboard might be on it's last legs if it hasn't been cared for properly. The boat needed a new trim motor, new cables, new gas tank, full tune up, etc which I approximated at $2000 just to get it running. After a quick consultation with my brother in North Carolina, I had decided that $4000 would be my limit since I had no idea how the motor had been treated or if it even ran.
