BERTRAM 28 CENTER CONSOLE CONVERSION

I thought of teak but my son flips out we the old school look. Doesn't get it yet. Added a little sharp to the back of the pod to soften the edge. Used a piece of 3" foam and shaped it with a hand saw and block. Need to route over the edges and glass it up

That foam sure came in handy. Looks cool.

Cut the front seat shap out. Need to get the material for the seat and back rest surfaces. Suddenly it looks smaller.

It looks very good. Looking forward to seeing what you have planned for the seat.

Looks cool! Electronics location will be nice and shaded
How about a hatch under the seat for quick access to below?

I put the console in the boat to see how see looks. Also put the fish box in but did not glass it up.












You can see the size relative to me. I am 6'1" if you don't count my hair which is standing straight uo :?


Shot of the fish box.

Looks great! Love to see all that space. The top is going to make it look even better.

I have made quite a few temporary molds using MDF but never a "production" fiberglass mold. So I thought I would do one for my hatch gutters and hatches. So I started with a MDF mold that I used a Teflon tape called tacnion to release it. You can just seal and wax it too and that works. Or you can prime it with something and wax it.



Then I built a part off it to serve as the plug. Notice all the lines created by the tape.




Then I fixed all the imperfections then sprayed with durateck. Nice product for this type of work as it flashes off fast. I used the tan colored stuff. I then sanded with 320 to get it fair. Then used 800, 1200, 1500 wet or dry to get it polished. Then I used rubbing compound to try and get it even better. This is a tough part to do body work on as the gutters are deep and narrow. Hard to spray, fill and sand. I got it as good as possible with the plan I would wet sand the mold. I decided to use PVA to ensure I did not hand the mold up on the plug. Using that pretty much guaranteed some wet sanding and polishing. So then I sprayed tooling gel coat in the mold in three builds about an hour apart. I did use a mil thickness gauge to check my film thickness. I was getting about 8 mils per coat. I cross checked this with a chart that showed coverage/gallon. Once the gel coat kicked for a couple hours after the last coat I started laying it up. I did two skins of 1.5 oz mat. And let it cure overnight. Next day I built up three more layers. I reinforced it with plywood and let it cure.



So then I trimmed it and pulled it apart. Used wood shims to start and separate it then continued to work it apart. This is the un-finished product. Need to wet sand and buff.



A note on the PVA. I read a lot about molds or the first few parts sticking. From what I learned the gel coat has some free on linked polymers that exist until to mold is used two or three times. Wax will not always create a barrier between the new gel coat and the gel coat on the part but PVA will. So using PVA the first few times is safest way to prevent a stuck part. That, like everything else, is one theory/recommended proceedure.

It looks really good. PVA is always a safe bet, it fills a little of the texture. Did you spray the PVA?

Joel

I did spray it. It is hard to get a good result on these because of the tight deep spaces. I do need to wet sand and buff a little. Should be ready for part 1 in a couple of days. Place your order now

DAYTRIP wrote:I did spray it. It is hard to get a good result on these because of the tight deep spaces. I do need to wet sand and buff a little. Should be ready for part 1 in a couple of days. Place your order now

I will take one, at least We will put them up on the store for sale

Sounds good. I am going to make the smaller size too. Need to cut the plug down.

Did a first coat of fairing putty on the hull sides. Using a 4 part micro balloons:1 part cabosil mix with epoxy as the filler. Did a lite grind to knock down the thead on the biax. Then did a tight drag to make a thin coat. Lite sand next.

We rolled the boat today. My buddy David has big boy toys so it made it pretty easy. We found that the CG is very low. She did not like going over! She is back at the house and ready for blasting to remove the bottom paint. Overall there isn't a ton of paint on there. Once blasted I will see what I have to work with. Hope to get it prepped and painted before the end one the year. It was a great test of the bracket! No crounching sounds

Got the bottom blasted off yesterday. Used Mike at South Florida Surface Restoration. http://sfsrestore.com/content/west-palm-beachmarine-sandblasting-dustless-blasting-west-palm-beach/ He uses a process that mixes recycled glass with water vapor that results in little to no dust. Did it in my moms back yard in 15 mph winds and no issues. This process allows him to dial down the pressure to what is needed vs a straight 120 psi. It was great to watch someone else work on the boat for once!








Today I checked out the blasted bottom. Found what I originally had planned on but not hoped for. Gel coat full of little blisters about the size of a dime at most. Almost like air between gel coat and mat. So I am grinding it off. I think by the time I play around filling the tons of hole I wil be ahead, and have a much better product if I get to glass and then float coat it with epoxy and filler. The aft section that is ground now will get glass as there are many old thru hulls to go over. I glassed them from the inside already so I plan to fill the voids with epoxy and milled fibers then glass over top. The first shot is the left side of the photo ground and the right as is. The bottom is ground both sides. If you look you will see two liner areas that I went down to the roving. These are the stringers lines in the engine area. Stress cracks in the gel coat and the mat. Nothing in the roving. So I will add extra their to build back up. Also did the same thing in the area of the strut pads. They were ok but figured I would make sure.

Let me tell you that flipping a hull over to work on the bottom is the best thing you can do as far as efficiency. I ground that area off in 2 hours. It would be 6 if you were doing it overhead I bet.

Put two layers of 12oz on the areas I ground down yesterday. It was tough in 20 mph winds! With the help of my brother we got if done.

Got the gel coat on the stbd side ground off yesterday. Today I checked the areas to see what kind of work I need to do to get things ready for paint. It is very fair. I am thinking the areas that do not have new glass can be done with high build primer which is huge.

I wish I had seen this before we spoke. Yeah, this is a lot easier than what I had in my head You should be able to fair that out in one pass, then go right to highbuild primer

any progress on the hatches?

I have the one that will be the plug for the smaller version on the mold. Need to finish and pull. I will call you tomorrow.

Got the balance of the gelcoat off the bottom last weekend and today I did a first fill coat. I have learned multiple thin coats is the best and easiest way to fill and fair. The aft 12' has a new skin of 2 12oz biax so it will take a couple fills. The forward part is just a skim to level the grinder marks. Hope one will do it

DAYTRIP wrote:Got the balance of the gelcoat off the bottom last weekend and today I did a first fill coat. I have learned multiple thin coats is the best and easiest way to fill and fair. The aft 12' has a new skin of 2 12oz biax so it will take a couple fills. The forward part is just a skim to level the grinder marks. Hope one will do it

Nice, the bottom will be sealed up forever. I can't remember if you are going to paint it while it's upside down?

I will paint the bottom but not the sides Joel. Plan on using that Vc performance below the waterline. Got the back half faired and filled again yesterday. Should be good to go after this sanding.

Been slaking on the post! Got 4.5 gallons of primer on the hull over the holidays. Doing some detail work on the chines then on to the VC performance.

Toying with Tower ideas still. Kinda liking this one. the second one I have is a "gap" tower that I really like but no real way to trailer it once I do that. Makes it about 30" taller so not sure it is worth the loss of flexibility. Last drawing is the overall layout in the boat.



GAP TOWER