Am a sucker for these boats... No4 for arrived restoration last weekend, before the storm. Will do it side by side with No3. Spent a few hours today paint stripping the last vestiges of external paint around the rivets. The fine pattern Trackmark had perished, as per normal and the foredeck is corroded. The dash covering is still intact and the boat had the remnants of it's original 50s style Attwood steering wheel. Hull is OK, some gouges, superficial dents, scratches, a large hole where they normally get one and 5 rivets missing their heads...

This boat differs from No3:-
- it has no structural beams between fore and aft seats,
- the front seat base is further forward,
- the kick panel is smaller,
- front seat has differing bracing where it joins the sides, not sure whether I can pull my stunt of filling the seats with noodles..
- cubby is fibreglass moulded, not ali with a ali frame,
- the bouyancy box under the splashwell is completely sealed,
- differing size rivets are used, with an extra row under each seat base,
- the bow handle moulding is a different design from all others I've owned,
- it's fitted with factory ski eyes,
- transom handles are a different design, riveted to the boat and wider spread (either side of the transom wood) that it's more difficult to lift...
- remote controller bracket is smaller,

Not the most conducive weather to work outside today...

Renovating Pearly Miss is hard graft. It's easy to get the DA out and take too much off, leaving great swirl marks that require hours of detail sanding to remove. I start with the paint stripping and use loads of cheap but resilient brass brushes to work the soft paint off around the rivet heads and bases - with palette knives and dental picks useful tools. It depends what previous owners have painted with, but sometimes it's lead based paint and this does no favours to the aluminium. This one had been mostly stripped, but the external stripe had been well done with proper zinc chromate primer as it's base, meaning little circles of paint needed to be removed from the edges of the mushroom heads.

Days pass by with this mundane activity; followed by sanding with foam sanding blocks that remove dirt and oxidation and easily slide over the external rivets. I prefer this method and only use the Fein multitool sander if areas are stubburn. Sometimes the boats show tiny trails radiating from the inner rivets, similar to snail trails maybe someone can enlighten me...I will ask Mr Harris at some stage in case is a galvanic corrosion issue. I tried some acidic ali trailer cleaner with poor results, but there are a number of excellent US made products that work well and cost little...the same brand here is loaded with carriage cost, VAT, import duties and Post Office 'handling' fees.

The transom has been removed, as has the trackmark, the remains of the late 50s Attwood monkey metal steering system and various screws and deck hardware and as usual required the entire tool chest to hand. These boats have a bow handle that doesn't entirely close off the bow from water, so someone had stuffed a cotton cloth under the handle moulding to stop the spray. In this case it looked remarkably like used underwear and not frilly either..

Gradually the colour is returning - regular jet washing has dislodged the years and years of sand, small stones and dust hidden under the ribs and seats. The 50s polystyrene has been chucked again - useless stuff, esp. with ethanol based fuels in contact. This boat had little under the seats and a different retaining system to the other 3 I've done. Noodles are expensive; it being winter, so the job lot of 24 (150 X 6 cm) I got last time is double the cost and comes in green and black..

Some photos:-

Transom and handle:-

Prepared the hull to take the bouyancy noodles and then started work on filling and fairing the foredeck for paint.

1st coat of primer on today. A few drips from a badly designed nozzle will be fixed tomorrow.

Primer and paint today. Light enough to flip the boat manually.

A change in weather meant I started to concentrate on putting paint on boats...This one is Cessna red. The seat bases from No4 had been removed and the hull cleaned and primed to take the swimming noodles I'd bought awhile back. They were Halloween colours so came cheap and I had a few leftover pink ones. The seat frames on this model are both narrower and smaller than No3, which meant I had just enough to go around, with one leftover that my willing helper decorated and called after a club member (whose other 'half' is the dishwasher brush). I will wait till the end of the weekend for a delivery of made to size ali for reinforcing the seat bases. Was able to double check the transom height (No4 is the only one of the two on a trailer..). Luckily may sample motor has no powerhead fitted, so was able to check it without inducing a hernia..

Ordered more paint and did the final coat on this one. Is easier to spray with the boat canted over; are so light that no neighbours need to be called..The cubbyhole required a lot of work to strip both the blue paint and some form of sticky compound over the mat. They weren't well moulded and someone was tight with both gelcoat and wetting the mat out.