'56 BellBoy Re-Restoration (Step by Step)

[Mark_Denis]

'56 BellBoy Re-Restoration

I decided that today would be a good day to share some of the progress on the BB16 to date. It was unbearable trying to work outside in the heat we had today. This is a great excuse for me to sit on the couch, grab a beer, and crank the A/C...

First, a little history for those of you new to the club. The boat has changed hands a few times since the original restoration was done by Rod Frisell back in 2003. From there, it was owned by Mike Radder, Marty Loken, and finally by me.

Here are a few pictures shortly after the original restoration when Mike owned it:






And here's another while it was in Marty's fleet:




Looking at those pictures you might think I've lost my mind tearing apart a perfectly good boat. You might even be right. My better half would probably agree with you.

What you don't see in those pictures are the numerous spider cracks, faded paint, and even bare fiberglass in some spots. The boat has been used and enjoyed so the wear is really starting to show. What a great excuse for me to refresh the topside paint is what I told myself. And so it began...

First step was to remove all of the hardware from the boat. The original plan was to just fix the top deck (famous last words). As I removed the hardware and really started taking a good look at everything it became apparent to me that if I repainted the top, the bottom would just not look right. It too, had its fair share of fading, cracks, and dimples. So off came the motor, rub rail and all hardware from the bottom of the boat. Now, I was committed. Everything else just snowballed from there...

The good news, now I have a bare shell that I can make my own.

Here are a few pics after it was stripped and the upper windshield was removed:





Notice how wavy the fiberglass panels are in the pictures. This will be fixed before the new paint is applied. The goal is to make it look better than it did when it was new in 56. The new paint will be a closer match to the original green gelcoat.





Next step is to start sanding! I used my air compressor and DA sander to do the initial sanding. I started out with 120 grit but ended up going down to 80 grit to remove the old paint quicker.

Here are a few pics after the DA sanding:







Now it's time to take care of the obvious problems on the hull. Cracks, holes, and all other noticeable imperfections are taken care of in this step. I ground all of the spider crack edges with my air dremel to give the fiberglass reinforced filler something to adhere to and to stop the cracks from getting bigger.









I hand sanded at this point to make sure I didn't over sand the filler. Sand too far and you're right back where you started. I used a combination of rigid and flexible sanding pads depending on whether it was a flat or curved surface, starting with 60 grit and finishing with 120 grit sandpaper.

Unfortunately, I somehow forgot to take pictures of sanding the filler before priming. Pretty basic though, lots of elbow grease and patience to get it right.

And about this time, the project snowballed again...

I picked up another project boat (BB18) from Marty and decided the existing Honda 50 will be used on the bigger boat instead of being placed back on the BB16. Now I had to figure out what to put back on the smaller boat. After some research I decided to go with a pair of vintage 57 Johnson's. To do this I had to modify the transom to fit both motors.

Transom before modification:

Notice the extension Marty installed to accommodate the long shaft Honda (nice job by the way). It's gotta go in order to fit the smaller Johnson's. Out comes the trusty reciprocating saw...



Transom being trimmed to fit short shaft twins:

A bit rough but I'll smooth it out once I figure out how much more trimming is needed.





Transom Re-glassed and sanded:

The pictures make it look quick and easy. Actually took me a few days to get it right... Wear gloves when working with fiberglass!!



Fiberglass reinforced filler to smooth everything out:



And finally, sanding and prime:



To be continued...

[Helmar]

Thats Great Mark.
I will create a forum thread for this alone if that is ok.

Looken Good too

[timw]

Very nice job mark,..so thats what the emblems were for...
Tim

[FINS]

Looks great, Mark! The step by step restoration pictures are really fun to see. I completely understand the "snowball" effect. My wife cringes when I start talking about a "quick paint job".

[Helmar]

Looks great, Mark! The step by step restoration pictures are really fun to see. I completely understand the "snowball" effect. My wife cringes when I start talking about a "quick paint job".

Just thinking here. (yeah, I know, Uh Oh)
If you had step by step on your project, I could put them in an area as a featured item.
Like, How To's or something.

[delvel]

Wow!

Thanks for the documentry. This is what us neophites need.
I'm going backwards in the Forum just soak'in up all the years of knoweledge that the members have thanks all.
Delvel

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

BB16 Restoration

Way to go, Mark! That's always been one of my favorite small cruisers, so it's great to see the hard-used boat getting what it deserves....another restoration.

(Joe, yes, Mark's whole series of photos--including those to come--should be in a Restoration Tips section.)

- Marty

[Mark_Denis]

Okay, time for more updates. From this point on I will try to be a bit more detailed. I'm realizing how difficult it is to tell the complete story without good pictures so the camera will be with me whenever I work on the boat.

One thing I should have mentioned is that the step by step descriptions shown in this thread are not the only way to properly prep a boat for paint. There are many other methods that will work just as well. If you see a better/easier way of doing something by all means feel free to share it with everyone.

Now back to work. For the next few steps, I'm going to focus on how to get a professional quality finish. To do this takes commitment, a lot of manual labor, and tons of patience. Let me say this again, patience...

It's been said many times before and I have to agree that 95% of a great paint job is all in the prep. Spend the time to get it right the first time, you'll be glad you did.

So now we are ready for primer. To get to this step we went through and completed all of the rough fiberglass and filler work. All panels should look and feel smooth with no obvious dips, major scratches, cracks, or holes. Now for the fun part, the first primer coat is always an exciting milestone for me.

I prefer to spray my primer and paints. When done properly, the finish will come out much better and will be less work in the long run. This is just my opinion, I know there are many out there who have had great success with roll and tip.

One thing to remember when spraying is to be safe. No paint job is worth risking your health. This primer and most professional paints contain nasty isocyanates that are harmful to your health. A cartridge filter might be okay for a few applications but I prefer using a supplied fresh air system. Systems are getting much cheaper these days and in my opinion it is money well spent. It's not worth knocking a few years off your life to save a few hundred bucks... My auto body instructor in high school was an unfortunate example of what happens when you don't use proper respirators. I still remember his chronic coughing every day during class.

Here is an example of the system I use. I picked one up on Ebay for about $350 with the longer hose.



Here is a link to his ebay store: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/The-Refi...__W0QQ_armrsZ1





So now, back to prep work. Here are a few shots showing the first coat of primer:



I'm using Interlux Epoxy Prime Coat which is a high build primer surfacer. For this stage I applied 2 coats. This will help fill in minor scratches and give me something to work with for block sanding. Primer also seals the old surface and gives the paint something to adhere to with no worry of chemical reactions. I've seen a few paint jobs ruined because a sealer wasn't used. Fish eyes in your final coat of paint after all of that hard work will drive you mad!

The Interlux Epoxy Primecoat is designed to be used as a sealer when using Interlux Perfection as your final top coat. Other paints may require a separate sealer...



To apply the primer I used a Devilbiss Finishline HVLP gravity feed spray gun. 30 PSI at the gun gave me the smooth finish I was looking for. I found that adding a bit more reducer than what was recommended helped it flow out much better. Also, make sure you have a quality regulator, sediment filter, and water filter on your air line. Water in the air is your enemy.





For the most part, the boat looks and feels pretty darn smooth. One might even be tempted to do a light sanding and go ahead and paint. In reality, if you're looking for that "smooth as glass" finish we still have a ways to go. On to the next step...



Here is how we deal with the numerous low spots and imperfections that WILL show up in your paint job if not taken care of before spraying the final coat.

First, I use a spray can of flat black paint to lightly "dust" over the entire surface of the primed boat.







As you can see, all that is needed is a very light coat. Apply just enough to put some color over the primer.

Now here is where PATIENCE comes into play again. Its now time for wet sanding. This is labor intensive and is probably the biggest pain in the butt of the entire project. Remember though, do it right the first time and you'll thank yourself for doing it. IMPORTANT: Do not use your hand alone with just sandpaper to perform this step. All you will do is sand finger marks into the surface. At minimum, always use at least a flexible foam pad.

To get an arrow straight finish you need to block it out with a combination of different sanding blocks. I don't use the standard rubber block you can buy from home depot. On boats, there are so many curved surfaces you really need something that will fit the contours of the hull. Here is what I use:



You can buy these individually or as a kit from Ebay. I've even seen them in a few Westbay auto part stores. They are made by "Durablock".



This block has seen the most use. Its thinner profile really helps it to mold to the shape of the hull. If I could only use one, this would be the block I would consider a "must have".



This block is great for large flat areas like the top of the deck.




Now it's time to wet sand. The key here is to use lots of clean water. It works best if you have a continuous trickle of fresh water over the surface you're sanding. I used a plastic clamp to hold the hose over the area I was working on. In the areas where that will not work, just use a bucket and change the water frequently. If you don't use clean water you'll load up the sandpaper quickly and will be wasting your effort.

The goal at this point is to sand as much of the black paint off as possible without sanding through to the gel coat. There will be areas where you can't sand the black off. This is normal so don't over do it. These areas are the low spots that you normally can't see with your eyes during the rough prep stage. Just keep moving until you have the entire boat "blocked out". I use 240 grit wet sandpaper for this step.

Again, this will take some patience to do right. So far, I've probably got about 30 hours into the wet sanding alone...



Notice all of the black areas left behind? Now you have a road map of all of the slight imperfections that you can't see when rough prepping. These areas would all be highly noticeable if you would have already painted without blocking.











In the picture above, you can see a good example of how these low spots would have looked with paint over them. This is what gives a panel that wavy appearance we are trying to avoid. Most of the areas are fairly small and not deep at all. There are a lot though. My goal is to eliminate all of them.

To fix we move on to the next step. We need to fill all of these black areas with a quality spot putty. This is the stage I'm at now. Hopefully I'll be able to update more after this weekend.

To be continued...

[timw]

Great pic's Mark, Thanks alot though, because now I look at my hull differently, think'in well I could fix this now......But I will force my self to wait till winter,,,oh and I digg the spreader bar used on the bow... well done.

Mark

That's a wealth of information for the novice and some good reminders for those of us that are supposed to know what we're doing.
The guide coat before wet sanding is a great help as you know. Often wondered about the Dura-Blocks. Good to know they work. I like to put a drop of dish soap in my sanding water in a bucket. Helps keep the sandpaper clean. I still use a hose to rinse as I go. Very helpful information on the paint type. Things have changed a lot since the sixties! LOL Awesome pictures. That is going to be one sweet Bell Boy when you are done. B

[Mark_Denis]

Tim,

Now I'm wishing I had waited until the fall to start this. A bit frustrating to be boatless with all of this nice weather. The original goal (and I think I told Marty this) was to have the boat back on the water by the 4th of July. I've since blown through two more target dates. Now I'm just taking my time, if it takes all year so be it...

The spreader bar is an old bed frame I had lying around. I needed room to get around the bow eye when sanding and priming. Worked great!


Barry,

Good pointer on the soap. I forgot about that.

The Dura Blocks have worked great. Sure beats the old paint stick method...

[Helmar]

Showcase Items

Mark and Brian.

The word I was trying to find was "Showcase" your boat Resto's.

Looks Good Mark.
Keep the good work

[MikeR]

Mark, wow, boat is looking good! What size/year are your twins?

-Mike

[Mark_Denis]

Thanks Mike, the motors are 1957 Johnsons. 35 HP standard RDE models.

I'm planning on color matching them since the red would look a bit odd against the green hull.

Any advice on running the twins? You had twin 25's on it at one time correct?

Also, you don't by chance have any pictures of the original resto do you? I'd love to keep a record of the history.

[MikeR]

Hi Mark, I can't think of any advice to offer on running twins, since I didn't really know what I was doing, (but everything still worked out great). We got 33.6 mph on the GPS running 14" pitch props on the 25's. Running a 11" prop the boat still did 24-25 mph on one engine (with the other engine in the UP position) and two people on board, so if there is any advice, it's to carry a spare prop with small pitch so that if you need to get home on one motor, you can hopefully find a place to change your prop and still get home in good time! But with twin 35's you'll have more power, so that might not even be an issue.

Yes, I do have some pics from Rod's restoration. I will dig them up and post them for you.

-Mike