Priming the Decks.

We applied a coat of primer to the top deck and the bridge.  Gregg and I convinced my friend, Mary, to come help us with the boat (we might not have told her we were painting)...

First, we had to sand areas where the old paint was peeling.  To do this, I bought this accessory for the power drill:

Next, we taped off areas that did not need to be repainted (actually, Mary and Gregg did the taping):

We did not have to do too much to prepare the deck for the primer because the primer I chose did not require pre-treating.  We used Amerlock 2: Fast drying surface tolerant VOC compliant epoxy (http://ppgamercoatus.ppgpmc.com/products/pdf/2_PDS_AI.pdf).  This consists of a gallon of epoxy resin and a gallon of cure.  The two must be mixed in a one-to-one ratio.  Once you mix them, you have about 45 minutes before it starts to get tacky.

We used two red solo cups and a measuring cup.  We filled one cup with the resin and one with the cure, then poured them both into the measuring cup, mixed them thoroughly and dumped the mixture into the paint pan.  We started with a small amount because I was worried about the short pot-life.

Apparently the cure is a pretty strong chemical!  It completely melted the red solo cup.  When we went back to refill the paint pan, we dumped some of the cure into the red cup, and it went straight through the meted bottom--all over the place!  Luckily we were doing all of the pouring and mixing over a blue drop cloth that my friend, Beth, gave me.  We were able to scoop up the cure and lost very little product.  Notice the droopy, melting cup:

With all three of us working, it did not take too long to get both upper decks painted:

And now the primer coat is complete (next is 2 coats of the top coat).  The primer is white, but the top coat is tinted to the same cream color as the rest of the boat.  No more stripes:

(I love the pics from Gregg's GoPro Camera!)

I should mention how extremely helpful the folks at KOI in Bellevue, KY have been throughout the painting process (http://www.koiautoparts.com/).  This is the KOI location that specializes in paint only.  John Hopkins has spent hours discussing options and explaining how to apply paints, etc.  They have been wonderful!

Remember that dinghy we found in the warehouse?:

I purchased an air pump from the Ship Store, and after it was scrubbed and inflated (thanks, Gregg Tepe), it looks like this:

We are going to re-coat this with a special paint for rubber and replace the lines with nice, new, orange ones.  Then we'll have a new name applied, and hang her on the back of the boat from the davits. 

This brings me to a very important question...What should I name the dinghy?

And, the best part...a friend of the person who owns the King's Craft across the dock from me saw my blog.  He brought these fender holders to me:

I can't wait to see my 6 new, orange fenders hanging from the her rails in these!  I have really been wanting some of these, and I am amazed that they are exactly the right size, and hold exactly 6 fenders.  So very thoughtful of the person who dropped these off for me.  THANK YOU!!

And the work continues...

'Treasures' Found...

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.  

~Joseph Campbell

Since the day I met the person from whom I am buying my boat, he has told me about the Legendary places he calls His Warehouses.  According to him, these warehouses hold missing parts and fragments of the boat I have come to love--things like: the bench seat for the bridge, davits, the generator, several Bimini tops to choose from, battery charger, battery boxes and other sundry items.

Finally, we made the trip to The Legendary Land of the Warehouse to hunt for treasures.  And...treasures we found (but in the rough)!

Let me start by saying that I am very glad that I have no time-frame for this renovation.  It is to this one decision that I credit my sanity (and my ability to continue to enjoy the work on this boat).

Now, let's look at the treasures we have found so far (there is a faint promise of more to come, as the biminis are stored at another location)...

When we arrived at the warehouse, hoisted high into the air by a massive industrial power lift was a large pile of rubbish.  Ripped and brittle vinyl,  rotted wood, and decaying cushion padding all bundled neatly on a pallet waiting to be loaded into our truck.  This was the bench seat for the bridge.  We looked at it and wondered if it was worth taking at all, but we decided that it could serve as a template if I decide to make my own seat.  At the very least, we thought we would reassemble it and see what was originally there.

We took it home and reassembled it in my garage:

 

The nice thing about this set-up is that it folds down to a bed.  Here is my romantic musing...I love the idea of motoring out to a beautiful little deserted area of the Ohio River and anchoring for the night...light music playing...laying on the bridge and looking at the stars, telling stories.  Now that I have this image in my mind, I am determined to find something similar.

Finding a similar replacement seat is proving to be a little more challenging than I thought.  I have found single lounge seats similar to this design, but none that are 5 feet wide, like this one.  But, as I mentioned, no time-frame.  This helps.

I found this one (and I am going to call to see if I can have a bench-sized one made):

We also found the davits. One of the base pieces is missing and they need new mechanical parts and a new paint job, but I think they will look very cool mounted on the back of the boat with a dinghy hanging from them!  Here they are loaded into the truck:

And in my garage (Notice the paint?  This is what the entire boat used to look like):

We also found the generator.  The one nice thing about the generator is that it is providing me great exercise in keeping a positive outlook.  Bruce claims it works, but it looks pretty bad.  It looks like we pulled it out of the depths of the sea...We are planning to clean it and paint it soon:

We also found the two pieces that the generator sits on in the engine compartment:

And some other parts for the engine compartment:

And the battery trickle charger:

And, the fun, bonus treasure!  This dinghy:

A clean, inflated version of this same dinghy looks like this:

 OK, the Dinghy is a mess and needs some work, but it's fun, and it was unexpected.  I am told that I will get a motor for it soon.  It is a Caribe C12 with a middle console.  I am excited to get it inflated and cleaned up so that we can see what she'll look like.  Then I'll replace the old, dirty line with a new orange one, add some graphics for her name, and she'll look great hanging from the davits on the back of the King's Craft!

These are the treasures we found this weekend.  Definitely rough, and they create even more work, but they are fun.  Until our next journey to the 2nd Legendary Warehouse (where I hope to discover the illusive stainless steel Bimini)...

Not all treasure's silver and gold, mate.  ~Jack Sparrow