Spring refit

[TollyWally]

While I almost always just lurk, I've always enjoyed and learned a lot on this site. I thought I'd share a little about my upcoming efforts to keep my boat as trouble free as possible for maximum enjoyment. I have an older 28’ Tolly, repowered with a newer 7.4 liter Volvo/Chevy turning a velvet drive.

This springs' annual refit includes the following planned maintenance and upgrades. I will be pulling the exhaust risers, installing a rather modest new Furuno depth sounder, installing new handrails on the front of the cabin, rigging a freshwater washdown system in the aft cockpit to accompany last years saltwater system, a few minor electrical upgrades, new zincs and misc. hoses. And sadly, a new headliner, replacing the one that was in the way of the handrail access. I pulled the boat last week and will commence this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who makes site so informative and enjoyable. I’ve noticed at least as much knowledge and a whole lot less “attitude” than most other sites out there in the vast world of cyber marinas and boatyards.

TollyWally

[heymagic]

Sounds like fun, except for the headliner. We gots plenty of attitude though....you just got to get to know us :D

[Go Aweigh2452]

Attitude, yes, but we all realize that everyone has their own opinion and though we do disagree at times, we do listen... We've all been to "those" sites that bash and bash some more... that's why we are here and not there...

Good luck on your HUGE project...

[Tedster]

Yup I think you will find REAL boaters here with REAL knowledge rather than all those "wingers" on other sites. Great to hear you are keeping that Tolly going strong. Ted :D

Hopefully you've got a digital camera or access to one. It's always cool to see folks breath new life into their boats and seeing all the "sweat equity" is nice as well. Post pics! :)

[Numbknots]

Welcome TollyWally,

Lots of attitude here (All good of Course). Great to see yet another wonderful "Tollycraft" aboard.

On my way to Olympia today to spend 3 days on the "Numb Knots". If the weather cooperates we are taking my daughter and her boyfriend for a short dive trip in the South sound.

Regards,

Tim

[tolly28]

Welcome! Glad to see another Tolly guy! What year is your 28? We have a 1970 28 Express that we love!

Would be great to see some pics!

Steve

[TollyWally]

Update

I'm just about done taking it apart and ready to start putting her back together again. Risers and elbows cleaned up well enough to re use. A little ospho and some paint, good to go. Those swedes sure are proud of thier parts!

My existing exhaust hose was in 2 pieces on one side of the motor. At first I thought this was a little hokey but after having to cut off the old hose I can see the sense in only having to replace a short chunk of hose each year.

This weekend I need to glass in the old transducer hole so I can redrill a new smaller hole for the new transducer. I am going to make the job a little easier with a new deck plate for access. The existing access point could work , and is hidden, but I am getting too old (or possibly smarter) to put up with the aggravation of clumsy access. I want to pull out some of the foam core around the patch and it will be cleaner using a hole saw rather than hacking at it semiblind with a p grinder.

I am also going to glass my existing handrail holes closed. I found some pretty cool hand rail parts from New Found Metals, quite a bit classier than the typical stuff. They take 1" stainless tubing so they will be a little bit more hell for stout than the stock rails. I am thinking about glassing in some extra meat in the cabin roof on the underside for the rails. I use my rails for tying off bumpers and have been toying with the idea of putting some dedicated cleats up there for that. We'll see.

Last year I redid the cockpit drains, replacing the pathetic little itty bitty stock ones with 1 1/2 " units. It turned out pretty nice but what I really wanted were scuppers, still do. I probably will leave that alone for another year though.

I opened up the fresh water system today but had the wrong size T for the freshwater washdown. Plumbing always seems that way.

Scraped and osphoed a few things, getting ready for a little paint on a pump and hot water heater. Hope for more progress this week, wish my customers shared my priorities! :)

Wally

Sounds like you're almost there. That Ospho is pretty neat stuff huh?

[Randygh]

What is Ospho? Where do you get it?

[TollyWally]

Ospho is some magic juice that helps defeat rust. I can't remember what it is chemically, maybe phospheric acid.

To use ospho, scrape off the loose rust and paint with Ospho. When it dries the rust is either black or gray and dusty. I give it another coat just to be sure, let dry and then paint. It is not perfect, but if you give something a coat every year or so one may extend the useful life of an otherwise rusting marine implement for many years. Commercial fishermen swear by the stuff.

You can probably get it at the hardware store or an idustrial supply outfit. A quart bottle lasts me forever so I can't remember where I bought the last bottle.

Wally

[Webjammin]

Phosphoric Acid is exactly PhOsphoric is.

Another product that is used in the marine industry is Corroseal http://www.corroseal.com/corroseal.html which is waterbased and is a little friendlier on the nose and the enviroment.

Bob

[3788sam]

Don't remember the name of the product,(sounds like what your talking about) but when I lived in MN we used the same kind of stuff. Work great on all the rust buckets up there. Turned the rust into a hard paintable surface.

[Go Aweigh2452]

All hardware stoes I know carry the stuff. I'd try to stay with the oil based though cause otherwise it'll rust through the waterbased type faster. I tried both on my house. Stupid contractors stapled my cedar siding on in some places with steel staples and they bleed rust very nicely... right through the Ospho water base but not the oil based... So depending on where you need to use it will depend on how much your snout can stand... :lol:

[TollyWally]

An annoying setback

I was attempting to put my exhaust system back together Saturday. The Swedes sent me the wrong gaskets. I didn't really examine them too closely when I picked them up...My mistake.

I did successfully glass up my existing handrail holes though. I also got phase one of the "glass up the old transducer hole" completed. I removed the old foam core around the hole and resin coated the surrounding foam. I glassed several layers of mat and cloth over the hole from the inside and the same from the exterior.

My next step, a little glass putty on the outside and alot more putty on the inside. Then glass over the interior skin and final tuneup on the exterior of the hull. A lot of work to make a large hole small, lol.

Wally

[heymagic]

I assume you're talking about the riser gaskets, just went through that last week. They sent long rectangular gaskets and I needed the nearly sguare ones. Gene

[TollyWally]

At long last...

Splashed a week or two back. New depthsounder, freshwater washdown,
shaft spurs, zincs, fender specific cleats, 1 new riser and new exhaust hose installed. Minor glasswork and bottom paint tuneup completed. Gosh everything always takes so much longer than you think!

Next- new headliners and handrails