MiToS re-built/fit- versilcraft Mystery43

[jfm]

You're not going to let me live that one down are you!

Oh no Petem! It hurt me to my very core! Since that exchange I have had a major rush on and prepared 20+ detailed drawings for deck furniture manufacture and such like. I've a would post them if I had time. Factory visit tomorrow

 

[petem]

Oh no Petem! It hurt me to my very core! Since that exchange I have had a major rush on and prepared 20+ detailed drawings for deck furniture manufacture and such like. I've a would post them if I had time. Factory visit tomorrow

Excellent, keep finding the time! We love all the detail and it's really cool havin projects from you and Vas (no offence) at with end of he spectrum.

Vas, just like JFM's project yours is starting to look like a boat. Keep going!

 

[burgundyben]

I know I have harped on about this before, you need to get those window frames out and get the epoxy right up over the edge of the ply and into the inside.

Unless you are painting it black? Why the Grey? It'll be a mare to cover with white?

 

[jfm]

I know I have harped on about this before, you need to get those window frames out and get the epoxy right up over the edge of the ply and into the inside.

BB, I think Vas has done this and followed your advice 100%

 

[vas]

Imho Vas the greys you are mixing are too dark. Seems to me you need to be in the 3-20% black range to get lighter grey and then some areas of darker grey. I'd expect there is quite a differnce between say 3% and 6%

yep, seems that the scale is logarithmic and not linear.

Next attempts will be
3
10-12
80

Later on, when you get to exterior upholstery, I can help you with silvers and greys if that's what you choose. I have samples here of just about every grey and silver vinyl, movida and sunbrella here and I've made all the selectiosn for Match 2 so I'll happily post the whole lot in a parcel to Volos when you're ready

Thanks JFM!
Looking forward to the day i'll be too busy choosing textiles

I know I have harped on about this before, you need to get those window frames out and get the epoxy right up over the edge of the ply and into the inside.

Unless you are painting it black? Why the Grey? It'll be a mare to cover with white?

BB,

JFM is right, I'm following your advice fully
I've already removed the two saloon windows, repaired and replaced parts of ply around the edges, epoxied the lot (a couple of coats of CPES) and temporarily put the frames back in place.
Once I cover up the whole boat, I'll remove the rest of the windows, repair ply, epoxy and refit. May actually do all the epoxy coats and the two pack polyurethene painting and cutting now on them and fit the windows properly with new seals.

And yes, the lower helm windows originally had black surrounding, I'll do the same, hence the dark epoxy

Only problem I have regarding the windows is finding new seal, posted the section (I think at least) a couple of weeks ago and found a company that for 200euro can create a mold for me to construct new seals. Not that cheap but may have to resort to this. Original seals are a no-no after almost 40yrs...


And a bit of progress although we are unfortunately now down to winter (with a chilly NW wind aligned to the aft deck) and temps down to 2-9C

Took the stanchion supports to the welder and after an hour or so with a file and 80grit paper I sort of smoothed ONE of the 40 odd welds. Took it in Athens to the guy that did all my chrome plating, but he immediately stopped me. He argues (v.reasonably) that no matter what you do, tig welding will leave small heat/gas related imperfections at the borders of new/old material. That means that no matter what I do, I wont be able to get a smooth finish non porous and good enough for anodizing.
So anodizing out of the question and according to him only decent option is powder coating. It comes with the danger of paint flaking where the stanchion enters the conical support, but not much one can do about that...

Looking forward to hearing EMEs magic chemical and was also thinking of ordering a small portion of epoxy liquid aluminium to try filling the tiny holes. We shall see.

Ah, and by the way, MiToS is now a full year on the hard (was lifted first week of Dec 2011), definitely don't want to be posting in this thread same day next year without having spent sometime in the summer in the water!

cheers

V.

 

[petem]

Vas, I worry about the time you're taking on the Stanchion bases. I understand you're on a budget and want to keep the boat as original as possible.

If there the end result of refurbishing them was going to be perfect it might be worth the effort. It doesn't even seem like they are that well designed. Wouldn't it be better replacing them with some nice new ones and use the time saved to move the rest of the project on?

Sorry, if this sounds negative - it's not meant to be.

Pete

 

[rafiki_]

Vas, I worry about the time you're taking on the Stanchion bases. I understand you're on a budget and want to keep the boat as original as possible.

If there the end result of refurbishing them was going to be perfect it might be worth the effort. It doesn't even seem like they are that well designed. Wouldn't it be better replacing them with some nice new ones and use the time saved to move the rest of the project on?

Sorry, if this sounds negative - it's not meant to be.

Pete

Pete, I tend to agree on this. Huge mission to get the old stanchion bases perfect. Do they need to be perfect? If yes, buy new ones. I think this will be cheaper.

 

[BartW]

Pete, I tend to agree on this. Huge mission to get the old stanchion bases perfoect. Do they need to be perfect? If yes, buy new ones. I think this will be cheaper.

+1
and more flexibility in choosing the right fit for your app.

new ss stanchions and fittings and railing, will give the boat a totally "new" look

 

[vas]

hm, I could possibly agree with the three of you gents, BUT,

• I really like these conical stanchion supports!
• I find them exceptionally clever
• I like the fact that with the three headless_whatever_JFM_called_them_screws I can regulate and tilt/roll/pan (ok, not quite ) the whole railing and get it properly aligned.

+

• I've only spent 60euro on the whole stanchion rebuilt and 5h and that's mainly checking options and thinking/testing methods
• A new whole set of stanchions/railings in ss for MiToS would be close to 3K I'm told and no way I'm spending that right now

Once I test clean/polish the actual stanchions and a bit of railing and establish how much effort is needed and aproximate result quality I'll be able to judge.

Mind have only spent 2h on MiToS over the last 6 days and another 2h at home working on the supports

Bleeding freezing cold out there, waiting for Southerly winds

cheers

V.

 

[vas]

not much happened over the last week due to the lovely weather, not! and me having an awful lot of real work to deal with

Two things to report before I dash off to Athens for a couple of days:

all railings back in place, not all stanchions in place yet. All f/b ones will be on Monday as I failled miserably in removing the M8 bolts out of the alloy supports, all bar one were solid as a rock and no matter how much hammering/wd40/heating I treated them with, wouldn't release. So off to the machinist to be redrilled on the lathe

you can also see the repairs on the f/b deck all complete, just need a bit more sanding, a few more coats of epoxy and then the final layer of teak in June...

George did the edging of the superstructure over the deck which was carp and on the port side was done using insets of teak on the stbrd side decided to go for the "proper" job of making shapes as needed to fit the gaps and fill them with epoxy. Took me on Wed something like 2.5h to sand (40-60grit) the sundeck ending to the deck down to a reasonable finish (you can see that better on the last pic in this post).

Cut and cleaned the port engine intake. Was a real mess with lots of glue stuck on rotted ply, screws all over the place, awful. Now down to clean/replaced ply waiting for an endplate to be fitted.

This the salon outside wall on the port side, not sanded that yet. Winds are N, NW and that's where all the cold stuff come down, so bleeding freezing!

all bow railings are in. There's an issue with the modified by the PO bow roller mounted support for the central railing, probably has to be redone but will think about it. Also at the anchor light it's obvious that the railing is bent so need to straighten it somehow (a log across and a rope with a bloke on the ground pulling and another on the bow sitting on the stbrd frontmost railing seems to be the best idea up to now...)

the stbrd sundeck ending being prepared, note the triangular in section piece of ply in place.

OK, got to leave, next update on xmass eve

cheers

V.

 

[Divemaster1]

Vas,

Looking at this picture, the only real difference between MiTos and Navigator bow railing setup is that our two forward stanchions are angled forwards and provide support further forwards than when they stand up straight like yours.... this in turn removes the need for the central support at the bow which you have....

Great progress by the way and great to see the proud craft transforming back to her former glory and getting the attention she deserves!!

 

[Third mate]

Who said Vas could go on holiday ???

 

[rafiki_]

Who said Vas could go on holiday ???

He says it is too cold for him to work, must be about 20c

 

[vas]

Happy new year everyone!

you're just being jealous of our warm climates aren't you?


temps are indeed low (2~5C), came back from a week in Istanbul yesterday late at night after an 10h drive and spent the day sorting out things at home.
Not much will be happening over the next week as I'm up to my neck with real work stuff and they're expecting snow over the w/e.

will be working outside stripping paint off the hull and inside cleaning hull, frames on the cabins testing integrity and preparing for reconstructing the whole lot.
Too cold to touch engines (planning to remove and clean all heat exchangers) so that is postponed for March

The 8X14m cover I fitted on the 27th survived some serious wind on the 29th (50-60kph W) and a 24+h downpour so I'm happy.

Just give me sometime to recover from the food and catch up with work and I'll start posting again

cheers

V.

 

[rafiki_]

Welcome back Vas. Popped over to Rafiki on the river today, but the Severn is now about 1 mile wide at Upton

 

[vas]

hello,

first official day at work (only couple of hours though...)

weather was fantastic 14-15, sunshine all round, couldn't miss it!

spend sometime checking securing and retightening the tarpaulin which survived some 50kph gusts on the 29th and couple of days ago, so happy with it.

then spend an hour scrapping antifoul, primer and various carp off the hull on port side, continuing on work I've done back in June (iirc) whilst chatting with next boat neighbour that came around to check how things are...
Don't expect much progress, it was mainly the warm up for the year

I reckon I can do 1sqm per 2h, but we shall see. Chines are costing me lots of time

Finally, a good thing running the same BMS @ home and boat is that following a major cockup i managed at home that fried one controller that's now back at the factory for repair, I removed one from MiToS and took it home for reprogramming and fitting there

Proper 3-4 day a week work should resume the week after following a truckload of deadlines I should meet over the next week or so
Awful thing this real paying money work at times

cheers

V.

 

[rafiki_]

Thanks for the update Vas. The a/f looks like another mission. Is this not a job for a rotary sander? I understand the toxicity of the dust, so how about a project for a couple of your students?

 

[BartW]

You're a very brave man Vas,
and I'm sure that us who are desparetely waiting for updates and pictures,
motivate you for continuing this challenging project

best wishes to you !!!

 

[vas]

Thanks for the update Vas. The a/f looks like another mission. Is this not a job for a rotary sander? I understand the toxicity of the dust, so how about a project for a couple of your students?

nah, got to find students that really like me too much and I hate them immensely. Not easy to find either I think

In the past I 've tried scrapping, just hurts the arms and progress is not blindly fast tbh...
Sanding OTOH with a 40grit 125mm scratch on on a small angle grinder was a disaster with me coughing and eyes hurting for a couple of days although I used secure safety googles and breathing mask. So never again! (and was only for an hour as well...)

so I see it as an exercise for the cervix syndrome I'm suffering a bit. A way to break away all salt deposits and work out the poor body after siting so many hours working in front of a screen Maybe should design a scrapping helmet so the neck muscles do a bit more work

Weather is brilliant to day with glorious sunshine and 14C with no wind, but not gone to MiToS as I'm helping the preperations for sons 12th bday (I guess one of the last that wife and I will be participating, so trying to make the most out of it!)

cheers

V.

 

[vas]

You're a very brave man Vas,
and I'm sure that us who are desparetely waiting for updates and pictures,
motivate you for continuing this challenging project

best wishes to you !!!

Bart, brave is a dangerous word as the typical connotation is stupid

I just enjoy a decent sized challenge.

Happy new boating year for all!

V.