Cable Tray

The glass work on the stringers in the front is done and the cable tray is glued and screwed in place.  It went together extremely well.  Now I have to let the PL glue dry for a couple days before I can start glassing this stuff all in.  I also need to mix up some "peanut butter" and put a radius on all the sharp inside corners.

Ribs

The ribs are now all glued and screwed in place.  I used Gorilla glue and a dab of silicone where the screw exited the rib to help seal it up.

The new motor mount is also glued and screwed in place and the top of the stringer has been cut down to match.  This is a strange design, but I'm not gonna change it.

New Floor

The forward 2 sections of the floor have been cut.  I decided to use exterior grade plywood rather than marine grade.  I'll put a coating of resin on both sides and all the edges to protect it, so it should last a good long time.  There is still a bunch of glass work to do before these can be glued and screwed in, but it feels good to see it starting to take shape.

Ribs and Glass

The ribs that support the floor are all cut and marked.  These will be glued and screwed to the stringers then glassed in eventually.  I also go the motor mount and the support for the aft edge of the floor where the ski pole used to sit cut.

You can barely see, but the glass work at the very front has been started as well.

Cable Tray

I have the bulked and cable tray pieces all cut.  I have some fiberglass work to do before I can install them, but they do have a layer of waterproofing resin on them already.  I made sure to slope the tray bow to stern.  That way if water does get in there it will drain to the bilge.  I don't think Moomba did that from the factory.

New Stringers

Now that the PL glue has had 48 hours to dry, I have put a waterproof coating on the top and sides of the stringers.  This will also help keep the resin from soaking through the 1708 glass mat and into the wood when I start glassing the stringers in.  I'm very happy with how well the new stringer has turned out.

New Stringers

The old tabbing on the port side has been ground down and the new stringers have been cut and are bedded in PL glue.  I still have some grinding to do on the starboard side tabbing, but I need a brake from grinding.  The bottom of the stringers was coated with fiberglass resin to help waterproof them so this does not happen again, at least not very quickly.

Removing the Tabbing

The old tabbing the held the floor to the side of the hull has all been cut away.  There is still a slight lip left that will need to be ground down before the floor can be tabbed in again.  I may do that next just because the shop is already a total mess.  But I'm getting really tired of cutting and grinding fiberglass.  I can't wait to start putting this thing back together.

Grinding

I got all the old tabbing that held the rotten stringers to the hull ground off today.  The carbide wheel from Harbor Freight is doing a great job.  This would have taken way longer with flap wheels and who knows how many I would have gone through.

Removing the Stringers

I got the front section of the starboard side stringer cutout today.  I also got almost all the rest of the foam and decking cut out from under the dash on the starboard side.  The last little bit will come out when I cut the old tabbing out that held the floor to the side of the hull.  Next up is to grind and prep everything for building the new stringer.

Removing the Stringers

The entire port side stringer had to come out.  It was like mush.  As I cut the fiberglass out, the wood inside would crumble in my hands. I still need to cut all the old tabbing off around the edge of where the floor used to be.  I've read that the gray filler used on these boats will eat sandpaper alive, so I'm going to try a carbide wheel I got at Harbor Freight.

Removing the Floor

The rot under the floor continued all the way to the bow, so I decided to cut the entire floor out.  The foam under the starboard side had some water, but there does not appear to be any rot aft of the driver seat.  So that stringer looks good.  I have taken all the ribs off both stringers already.   It looks like the front section of the starboard side stringer has some rot, so that will need some work.

Removing the Floor

This is under the spotter seat on the port side.  It was also very soft and all the foam in here was completely waterlogged.  The floor on the driver side is pretty solid, but I still need to keep cutting my way forward.  There is a ton of rot under there and I don't see the end yet.  There is also evidence it may have gotten into the stringers.  You can see the missing rib on the left side of the stringer.

Removing the Floor

The worst of the soft spots was on the port side next to the engine, so I started cutting there.  It turns out the entire side was completely rotten.  The foam is water logged, but I don't know if the stringer is bad or not yet.  I'll have to just keep cutting my way forward until I find the end of the rot.

Floor

I knew the floor on this boat was rotten when we bought it, but we got such a good deal it was worth it.  So the posts for the next couple months will be about fixing the floor and stringers.

Brian came up to the shop today with his cherry picker and engine stand to help me get the motor out of the boat.  The extension on the cherry picker was a life saver!

Getting the Boat Ready

Today I got the tower bolted down, the color sanding done on the port side and the oil changed.  I also got the whole thing coated with a marine wax to see if we can keep if from oxidizing as badly as it did last year.  The wakeboard rack will give us way more room inside the boat.  I'm so glad we did this.

Getting the Boat Ready

Before we put the boat back in the water there are several projects I want to get done.  The first was to strip all the stickers off the side of the boat so I could color sand the years of oxidation and faded gel coat down and polish it back to a nice bright yellow.  Next year I plan to paint everything above the rub rail.  Its not in very good shape.

Then, I found a guy on eBay that will custom cut large vinyl stickers.  So I drew up a set of stickers that are found on more modern Moomba boats and had him cut them for me.  Most modern Moombas have 1 or 2 color swirl logos, but I added a drop shadow to the lettering to make it stand out better.