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Wray is at it again! He has been yearning to get back on the lake after 50 years. The ProShaper Comet will be a while before it is finished, so we are now also working on the Wellcraft as it's in much better condition. After cutting out most of the floor and the foam Wray goes over the next few steps to get it ready.
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0:10
hi it's ray from
0:11
pro shape a workshop and as you can see
0:13
we're in a boat not a car
0:16
you saw the earlier videos we did on the
0:19
century resorter
0:20
we got that all blown apart and it looks
0:23
like the bottom's really bad
0:25
it's probably worse than i figured but
0:27
i'm a sucker for that boat and i says
0:29
well
0:30
that's going to be a not a short-term
0:32
project but a long-term project so
0:34
we're going to pull it in the shop and
0:36
really pull the bottom all apart but
0:39
in the meantime when i bought that
0:41
resorter
0:42
which was very little money basically
0:45
just a time to go get it
0:47
and that seems to be a phenomenon out
0:49
there in facebook marketplace uh
0:51
a lot of boats today used boats that are
0:54
still got a lot of life left in them
0:56
are basically being given away for or
0:59
very little money
1:01
so when i got back from picking up that
1:03
resorter
1:04
i looked on marketplace and six miles
1:06
from my shop
1:07
there's a little lake there and this
1:10
boat was for sale
1:11
and it was purchased by somebody that
1:13
had intent of fixing it up and stuff and
1:15
they didn't do anything
1:17
and it's been sitting outside in the
1:18
weather since 2015 i believe that was
1:21
the last year it was registered
1:23
and my experience with boats uh goes
1:27
back to the 60s
1:29
and uh well right to the 1970
1:32
and after that i've had like a 50-year
1:35
hiatus with boats and being on the lake
1:37
i grew up on lake when cigarette and
1:39
shrewsbury mass
1:40
and i've got a hankering to after 50
1:43
years to get back on the lake
1:44
maybe have a couple good vacation days
1:48
next summer
1:49
so the century is not going to let me
1:52
get to the lake
1:53
probably next summer because there's a
1:55
lot of work there so i i saw this boat
1:57
on facebook marketplace is a 1987
2:01
wellcraft uh i think it's a 19-footer
2:05
and it's got a little small cabin in the
2:08
front mark is filming from the cabin
2:10
and and it's very uh a common problem is
2:14
what happens
2:14
is some mechanical problem might happen
2:17
to the motor or whatever and then people
2:20
who paid really good money for this boat
2:22
i can't imagine what it was
2:23
bought for new and it's a really nice
2:26
boat
2:27
but they might have had a motor problem
2:28
in this case here we found out the fuel
2:30
pump was bad
2:32
so uh we we it turns out the carburetor
2:36
was all plugged up on it too
2:38
but we primed it with a little gas and
2:40
the motor started right up but we
2:41
couldn't keep it running so we're
2:42
rebuilding the carburetor we got a new
2:44
fuel pump
2:45
and it sounded like the motor didn't
2:47
have any major problems there was no
2:50
knocks or anything apparent
2:52
so and it doesn't be apparent appear to
2:54
be any cracks in the block or anything
2:55
so i think we're okay on the motor
2:58
we've yet to prove that out but what i
3:01
discovered
3:02
was that this is a very common problem
3:04
is what happens is
3:06
people park their boat in the backyard
3:09
and you know they might have a top on it
3:12
but after a year or two the top rots or
3:14
whatever and the water starts collecting
3:16
inside
3:17
and it builds up in the bilge if they
3:20
didn't pull the plug and a lot of them
3:21
even don't even pull the bilge plug
3:23
and what happens is all this plywood
3:27
floor structure that's put in at the
3:29
factory the hull is all fiberglass on
3:32
this boat
3:33
which is waterproof and can't rot or
3:35
anything
3:36
but they put this plywood structure in
3:40
here to support the floor and adds a
3:42
little strength to the bottom
3:44
but it's not a significant strength
3:45
factor for the bottom i think you could
3:47
probably
3:48
drive this boat no problem without any
3:50
uh
3:51
of this floor structure here and
3:55
they make the floor structure with with
3:57
plywood
3:58
and then they encapsulate it in
4:00
fiberglass but they really don't do it
4:02
too good of a job of it so the
4:03
fiberglass is really thin and
4:07
then they they basically make all these
4:09
little cells
4:10
and then they inject foam into them and
4:13
kind of fill them well the intent i
4:14
suppose is to fill it entirely but
4:17
only as you can see that when it's
4:19
exposed to the
4:20
mark's left it's not entirely filled up
4:24
and what does that foam do well it adds
4:26
a flotation element to the to the boat
4:28
so if the boat
4:30
fills with water totally might not
4:32
really sink i don't
4:33
i don't know whether that foams enough
4:35
to keep it floating or what
4:37
but it adds sound proofing also so
4:40
floatation
4:40
sound proofing and also gives some
4:43
support to the floor system
4:45
and the floor system was just plywood
4:48
they mount the fuel tank right in the
4:50
middle
4:51
but they don't have any facility for
4:53
access to the fuel tank
4:55
this is all totally enclosed in plywood
5:00
and then they put into or out to a
5:01
carpet which is glued on top
5:04
over everything so what happens is the
5:07
water permeates the carpet and the
5:10
plywood
5:11
flooring and eventually builds up in the
5:14
in the bilge and starts rotting somehow
5:17
it gets into
5:18
the the superstructure of the floor and
5:20
starts rotting the stuff
5:22
all out so uh to a lot of people this is
5:25
a really expensive project and they
5:27
can't figure out how to do it or
5:29
whatever so it just gets
5:31
goes from bad to worse and then the boat
5:34
is a problem because you just like an
5:37
old car
5:38
if it's a not a collectible car of some
5:40
sort it's still worth a couple hundred
5:42
bucks in scrap
5:43
value but boats the only way you can
5:46
dispose of them you got to cut them up
5:47
with
5:48
chain saws so it's a lot of work so
5:50
that's why people are just
5:52
giving these boats away but there's
5:54
really nothing wrong with the boat
5:56
if the motor needs to be rebuilt that's
5:57
not really a big deal
5:59
it's got the merc cruiser 165 horse four
6:02
cylinder in it with the
6:04
merc cruiser out drive uh and they've
6:06
made you know
6:07
hundreds of thousands of those i bet
6:09
over the years so there's pots available
6:11
for all that stuff
6:12
the interior gets trashed too that's all
6:14
vinyl
6:16
and then we do at the at the shop here
6:18
we have a walking foot
6:20
machine so and i've done a lot of sewing
6:23
one of my employees can sew so we can
6:25
refinish
6:26
all the interior of the boat with a
6:29
couple big rolls of vinyl that we'll buy
6:32
and it'll look like a million dollars
6:34
and
6:35
uh the motor will straighten out and any
6:38
other little detail
6:39
the fiberglass is a gel coat the gel
6:42
coat
6:43
creates the color because it's got a dye
6:45
in it
6:46
and we'll take and and that's that gel
6:48
coat's about a 16th of an inch thick so
6:50
we can sand this with like 1200 or 1500
6:54
sandpaper
6:55
and then polish it with a buffer and
6:58
the paint will come out beautiful put
7:00
some wax on it it's got a lot of
7:01
aluminum trim we'll clean that
7:03
all up and there was a lot of hardware
7:06
there was china source that was made out
7:08
of white metal
7:09
and it kind of just crumbled so we'll
7:11
have to replace a bunch of that we'll
7:13
put back the
7:14
either stainless or brass chrome plated
7:17
trim on it
7:18
and for the floor system
7:22
uh i why the factory doesn't do it other
7:25
than maybe planned obsolescence i see
7:27
that what i'm going to do to fix it is
7:30
i'll
7:30
do like a concrete form deal where i'll
7:33
make some metal
7:34
forms and uh one on either side with a
7:38
release agent
7:40
and these main cross members here that
7:42
you see that they're all rotted
7:44
we'll take in fiberglass those
7:48
we'll put resin in and then some cloth
7:50
and some resin and maybe some stainless
7:52
steel wire or something to really
7:54
strengthen it like reinforced concrete
7:56
is strengthened and
7:58
we'll have the cross members really
8:00
really strong and then we'll make the
8:02
four to aft pieces here for strength
8:06
and it'll add strength to the bottom
8:08
it'll be
8:09
totally waterproof it can't rot it'll be
8:12
all fiberglass content
8:14
and then instead of injecting the foam
8:17
which only did a little section of these
8:19
after we get the superstructure all done
8:21
again
8:23
we'll we'll cut foam to fit each one of
8:27
these cells with a with a band saw
8:29
and that will give the the nice
8:33
sound deadening and the flotation and
8:35
also support to the floor
8:37
and the floor i was thinking we use a
8:41
non-rotting material and i think it's
8:44
tracks that they use on
8:45
outdoor decking which is some kind of
8:48
plastic or whatever it's non-rotting
8:50
i'll put that
8:51
in here and then cover it with with a
8:53
nice
8:54
indoor outdoor carpet that all has to
8:57
have uv protection anything you put in
9:00
here
9:00
so you can see mark has started cutting
9:04
the floor
9:04
out and we're using one of these little
9:07
multi-tools that
9:08
cut with this little vibration action
9:11
and we just mocked it off with
9:13
tape and mark has been cutting these
9:16
cells open and removing
9:17
the foam he's got this side done and
9:21
later on today he's going to finish that
9:23
side and it didn't take long was only
9:25
like about an hour to do this and maybe
9:27
an
9:27
hour to do that and then there's another
9:29
multi-tool
9:31
cutter with a little round head on it
9:33
which allows you to go right to the
9:34
surface
9:36
and we'll cut all this superstructure
9:38
out and
9:39
then it's just a matter of glassing in
9:41
the new superstructure
9:43
and we're on our way to the lake
9:45
hopefully next summer
9:47
i took a vacation in 1985 i think i'm
9:50
due for a couple days off sometime
9:53
hopefully next summer if you're around
9:55
we'll give you a ride in the boat
9:57
it's rae from pro shaper workshop thanks
10:00
for watching
10:07
[Music]
10:12
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