February 17, 2011

Being warm out I’m looking for things to do. Anything no matter how small just to get it out of the way. Still waiting on some stuff for the other project I have going on that would have filled these couple warm days in the middle of February so I came up with this just to fill in a little of that time.

Never did like letting this winch just sit out in the weather so after a year and a half I took the bag that the Monza's boat top came in (not like I was going to use it for anything), cut it down, added a couple snaps and a draw string to be able to snug it up and this is what I got. Not bad for 20 minutes work with a sewing machine.

With nothing better to do and needing lights for the 19’s trailer I thought why not replace the ones on the race boat trailer. Ya, that makes sense.

Just trying to get the trailer done awhile back I just bought a set of lights not thinking about it. After I installed them it dawned on me that they were no where like the originals but they worked and I moved on to other stuff.

Now, like I said, I need lights for the 19’s trailer so being the lights on the R/B trailer have been used about three times I bought some that look exactly like the originals and now I can use the lights off of it on the 19’s trailer.

Been fooling with these things off and on for months.

After many tries I think I have something I can work with and not loose overboard at the same time.

A two piece flip lock with a bimini top, spring loaded pin with the top removed and a lanyard.

Now that was simple.

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Ya, I went off the deep end once again.

Ever since Ferd came up with the original strut just 4 days after I spent 10 days making another borrowed strut work it has eaten me alive and the whole time as the right strut sat in front of my work bench for the last six months and not where it belongs, on the boat. I had another boat’s strut on it along with the pad I had to build. The pad would not affected running of the boat in the water but I was afraid of people seeing it when on the trailer. “What’s that” as they pointed and laughed.

The only thing was holding me back was I know how the pad was built. It was not going to come off easy. Finding the original bolt holes also was going to be a trick. So I pulled the rudder and driveshaft and then spent about 4 hours slowly destroying what I had built. Got it down to the original pad height more or less. Then had to add a couple layers of glass to build it back up where putty was used before. Found the outline of a few of the eight holes that needed to be drilled out for the original bolt pattern. Then as I put a layer of glass on the top I will drill them out from the bottom and vice versa with the bottom layers. Got the strut lined up and bolted in place. Then proceeded to fix the fiberglass around it. It was not the bad. The Bondo make it look worse then it is and no I didn’t just fill it with Bondo. All necessary glass work was done first and then fiberglass Bondo was used for the most part. Just using the red Bondo for a final coat. Should be able to finish it up tomorrow.

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