Turning the ugliest boat in Costa Rica into a respectable 28' Center Console Diesel

[GringoJohn]

Easily the most tedious job of building my new Quepos Fishing Boat, we put the first part of the cap frames on the side of the boat today. I cut them all out yesterday which was a job, but putting them on and lining them up was quite a task today.

Here's a shot mid day. We put the stick across side to side to line up the angles. They were pre cut before i glassed them, but we still had to adjust them a bit.



Then here was when i finally finished them:



And a front view



and then we glassed them in:



We left the next piece on the table drying for tomorrow to install, we might get the cap on tomorrow, we'll see?

[I make oil]

Looking good.

[GringoJohn]

Originally Posted by I make oil

Looking good.

Thanks!

[GringoJohn]

Not as far as I'd thought we'd get today, that was really tough finding good lines. I cut the pieces out of the foam and they were pretty straight, but after glassing them, recutting them, and then sticking them to the wall, they weren't straight anymore and it took all day to line everything up and get the knee rail stuck on. But, i was happy how everything turned out. In the front, we are doing a different system, and we have some stuff on the table drying to install tomorrow, and then in the middle of the transom, we are going to try to do a cool live well, so i left a space open for that.

[swamp snorkler]

That's the tedious labor intensive part. Looking good Gringo.

[TidewateR]

it's coming along nicely!

Do you plan on adding any sound dampening material to the inside of the motor box?

[GringoJohn]

Originally Posted by TidewateR

it's coming along nicely!

Do you plan on adding any sound dampening material to the inside of the motor box?

Maybe ? I'll probably start it up and listen to it first, i think the foam core should help a little?

[GringoJohn]

This is how we decided to build the front cap. I was going to do the frame think like the rest of the boat, but i don’t know how to calculate out all the lengths with a section that is curved (I guess I could figure it out with google and math, but that wouldn’t have been much fun). And this way we have an anchor locker up front, and a nice solid back to the front bench, and it makes it a little stronger because up front we are going to put the tie offs for the mooring that the boat is going to sit on. Here’s the progression:

We started with just a cap that we made from tracing the outside of the boat, and then tracing our widths from the outside in, and then making the door jamb for the anchor locker. We glass this side (the bottom) and will leave the other side bare so the foam stays flexible until we put it in place.



Then in the morning we were trying to line up another piece and Harol commented that he wished we had 10 squares. So i got a piece of plywood and we traced the square and cut out some more.



Then with those in place, we wrapped a piece of foam around the inside of the wooden squares. we measured the highest part and made all the foam the height of the highest part, we’ll put it in the boat and then trim it down little by little until we get it to fit



And then we glassed the bottom part of the foam to the cap



Tomorrow we’ll have that in the boat probably early. While the top was drying, we went ahead and stuck down a couple of the back caps:

[GringoJohn]

Today was productive day here in Quepos Costa Rica, but man this border just eats time. I started today off with me finishing up the cap.



The top outside edge is just rough cut, that's why it's a bit not straight, but that's an easy fix Monday.



While I was cutting foam, Harold was up front installing the front bench backrest.





Usually it's me Harold and a homeless guy working on this thing, but today the homeless guy was super drunk, so it was just the two of us today. I went ahead and finished cutting all the pieces of the borders for both sides, and the last three pieces are drying on the table, we glassed the bottom sides. While I was doing that, Harold rounded the edges of the border that we have installed and it looks massively better!







We both died about 4pm today, usually we work a bit later, but we were both out of gas. This Quepos Fishing machine is getting close to getting wet, I am going to spend an hour or so tomorrow sticking down the last cap pieces, so Monday they will be dry, we can sand everything and I think finally we'll get the border glassed. Then next week I have to do some work on the rudder / piston installation, then we are going to install the last bit of floor in the back, build the live well, put in a couple of motor breathers and somewhere in those goals, the clock is going to run out and I'm going to have to wait until October to finish

[GringoJohn]

Today stunk. We really hit it hard in the morning and got everything rounded off and even and ready to glass, and then for the first time in months, we got a daytime super storm! Usually here it never rains until 4-5pm at the earliest, but today right at lunch it came down hard. And our roof isn't really in good condition Anyways, here's the last pre fiberglass pictures:







And here's all the fiberglass cut and ready to stick on!



And here's a monsoon picture...Maybe tomorrow?

[swamp snorkler]

Looking good, she has some really nice lines, hopefully you enjoyed your afternoon off.

[GringoJohn]

Not really, I kind of went home upset, I was looking forward to getting everything glassed up. We're going to hit it hard this morning though!

[GringoJohn]

Today was a bit better. We went after the glass first thing in the morning and had everything glassed in by 9am.



And with the hot morning sun here, that was pretty dry by 10:30 so we went ahead and painted on resin with MicroSpheres to fill in all the bi axial weave.









And while the guys were doing that, i started on the steering piston / rudder bracket install.



We started with putting a piece of 1/2 corecell on the transom, then three layers of 1708, then another 1/2 corecell, then 5 layers of 1708. The idea is we are going to take a hole saw and pull off the outside layer of corecell where the bolts go through to hold on the bracket, and then put the foam back in and glass over it from the outside, hiding the bolts. I'm not a very good explainer, but as we progress I'll post photos and it'll make more sense. Here's the finished transom ready for the bracket:



And then i broke out my Ghetto welding skills and started welding some 2 inch stainless that was in the shop to make it 4 inch and started building the bracket!



I'll post some more pictures tomorrow, this looks like it will be our last week of intense work, i will probably do stuff by myself, but the pace is about to slow down so i don't burn much materials. Got two days left, I have to bring a friend to Panama on Thursday so not much time to get this thing together!

[GringoJohn]

Wow, today kicked my butt. I'm not really a welder, but I've always had a welding machine and I like making metal puddles, but today was a lot of welding! In order to put the back section of floor in, i had to build the bracket that holds the rudder on one side and the piston on the other. And then something I started doing a couple of boat back is I also weld a bottom part onto the bracket that has two screws through the hull and where the zinc goes. That way the steering piston and rudder are hard wired to the zinc and last longer. Here's what we started with, this was 2 inches wide and yesterday I welded the pieces together to make them 4 inches wide:



Then we drilled alot of holes, in the metal and the hull. I didn't put them in a straight line as I thought this would be stronger. The two ends are in the middle so they sit good, but the middle I staggered.





Here a picture of when we only had two screws mounted and we were drilling the others. I always try to drill everything in place and weld it assembled. We then went with a hole saw on the outside to take off the first layer of glass and foam to hide the nuts.



And then we actually took our time and lined up carefully the top rudder support and I welded it in place.



Then i added the bottom part where the zinc will go, welded all the screws in place and took everything off to finish up the welds. I tacked it in place, but I don't want to cook my corecell, so we had to weld it outside the boat. While I was tacking everything (with it touching the hull), somebody was spraying the hull with water, we made lots of steam.



Since I'm going to Panama tomorrow and Harold can't weld, we put in a late day. I'll post daytime pictures when i get back, but in the meantime here's some finished pictures taken with a flash





We mounted it in with really thick resin and cabosil behind it to really give it a good base, it fit pretty flush, but the putty will make it stronger. And we grinded the back of the stainless with 36 grit and cleaned it a bunch with paint thinner to make sure it got a good bond. And then we filled the outside holes with resin and cabosil also, to hide the bolts!





And now I'm home and going to bed! No pictures tomorrow as I'm out of country, but we'll post some more up here Friday!

[meaux fishing]

you dont have to be a good welder, you just have to be a good grinder

[GringoJohn]

Yep, that's the first rule of ghetto welding, grind of the bead and nobody will know!

[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by GringoJohn

Yep, that's the first rule of ghetto welding, grind of the bead and nobody will know!

I was a welders helper for a while... I know the rule all to well lol

[jl8200]

That doesnt look like a bad welding job to me but whatcdo I know.

[GringoJohn]

Lots of work, but not a lot of pictures. We got the last section of floor in, and then built the whole bottom part of the live well, rounded the edges of the live well and then glassed it in thick to the transom. We put 3 layers on each of the 4 corners where it ties into the back so that it will support the transom.



We started fitting the deck hatches, they still lack some work, but at least we have them cut out and stuck together. They are 1 inch thick, so we had to stick two 1/2 corecell layers together to make each hatch.



Then we cut the hole between the motor box and the bathroom where the engine will draw fresh clean air. That also helps keep the bathroom air from getting smoky, the engine will cycle the air in there often. We are making a 4 inch fiberglass tube right now and it's drying, but the idea is to connect a hose from the intake turbo to the wall, not just leave a hole there, tomorrow we should have the intake hose connection installed. In the bathroom, we are making a box with holes in it where the motor will suck air from.



And then we started building the fresh air intakes on the side of the hull, they are boxes and then I'll put a blower on one side of the motor to pump air out the side.



And I think I'm going to try to do one more week of work. In one more week, I could have everything glass built and only have fairing left, and probably knock some of that out as well. And I'll be closer!

[I make oil]

When you watch something like this it helps you to appreciate why boats cost so much.