'56 BellBoy Re-Restoration (Step by Step)

[MikeR]

2004 BB restoration photos

Hi Mark, here are some of the photos I have from Rod's restoration. Bear with me as I've not posted anything here before.

[Mark_Denis]

Thanks Mike, Rod did a great job on the original resto. All of the structural work is still in perfect shape.

I'll add those pics to my Bellboy file...

What ever happened to that cool little R/C BB that you made?

[MikeR]

Mark, I still have it - that's my profile photo. My only remaining classic boat, and it's too small to even ride in! Oh well, it sure keeps the memories alive.

Say, from the first photo in this thread, I assume you must also have some photos of Art Nordtvedt standing in front of your boat at the Lake Whatcom 2004 event? If not, let me know I can post them too.

-Mike

[Mark_Denis]

Okay, back to boat work. I got side tracked a bit with my real job and haven't had much time to work on the boat the past few weeks.

Mike, yes I would love to see any additional pics of the boat with Art if you have a few. I only have one that I found on your angelfire page.

http://www.angelfire.com/wa3/bellboy/

So now its time to go crazy with the spot putty. Let me warn you, it looks like I went a bit overboard here. It's all part of the plan though...





I applied a thin layer of putty everywhere a low spot was visible from the previous block sanding . Yes, theres a lot but it is fairly easy to sand off. Much easier than sanding bondo! I ran out of putty and had to go buy another tube of it. Of course, I couldnt find the same stuff and is why you see two different colors of putty.

If I remember correctly, the professionals call this the "skim coat".

IMPORTANT: Spot putty is not designed to be used for filling deep imperfections. If your low spot is more than say 1/16" you're better off using body filler.

Now it's time to block sand again. Sand until the spot putty blends in smoothly with the prime coat. Remember I said this was labor intensive right? We still have a ways to go...











While I was sanding I ran across a hairline crack that I somehow missed earlier. Argggg! It's small so I was almost tempted to prime over it and let it be. Eventually I convinced myself that it would be a shame to do this much work and then take a shortcut in this one area. Lets fix it!



You can see the crack in the picture above. Its in a corner close to the transom. This is a stress point so if I had left it the way it was it would have just grown bigger. First step was to grind down around the crack to give the new fiberglass something to adhere to.



Next, I add my fiberglass mat and resin. I try to get it to form as closely as possible to the original hull line. Less work when its time to sand...





The picture above shows the repair after final sanding. It blends so well no body filler will be needed.



Okay, back on track now. It's time to apply ANOTHER coat of primer. Yep, we still aren't quite done. This coat will be the same epoxy primecoat I used before. Good news is, this should be the last time I need to apply primer. This will act as the sealer for the final paint job.

Time to mix some primer and get suited up! Again, safety is important so make sure you use your respirator.





I mixed this coat a little wetter (more reducer) to try and get a very smooth finish. When the primer is still wet, you can really start to see how nice the hull is looking.












Next step, final block sanding. Yes, we have to do it one more time. It should go much quicker though since we have the hull pretty straight now. A final block sanding with 400grit and we are ready to paint!!!

Thats it for now, more updates in another week or two (hopefully)...

[ricphoto]

Hey Mark...

Thanks for the tip on spraying a darker color to help spot the hull...I just tried it the other day on my new transom and boy did it help me see what I thought was flat wasn't...

repeated twice and I think I'm pretty close...wish I'd seen this post before I did my "skim coat" with fairing putty...that stuff looks much easier to work with...

Thanks for taking the time to do this...it's appreciated

...Ric

[Mark_Denis]

Wow, I've been slow the past few weeks. Finally some more updates! Lucky for me the weather has been nice. I should be able to finish painting before it gets cold.

The block sanding is now complete and we are ready to clean the hull for paint.

Here are a few pictures after it was wiped down with wax and grease remover and the top of the boat masked off.









Notice in the above picture I removed the wide spreader bar that was holding up the bow. I replaced it with a heavy duty clamp instead to give more room to get the spray gun around the front of the boat.


Now, let's mix some paint!

The bottom of the boat is going to be a light mint green. I'm going to mix the color myself using two different colors of Interlux Perfection. This paint is only available in standard off the shelf colors so I'll have to play with it a bit to get it close. I start with "snow white" and "jade mist green".





I wet sanded and buffed out a small section of the BB18 to use as a color match guide. After some trial and error I came up with a mix that came pretty close to the original gel coat color. In the picture below you can see the progress until I came up with something acceptable (red arrow). I made sure I took accurate measurements of the colors in case I need to touch up the paint in the future. Measuring in ounces makes it easy to keep track of the color mix.



Now it's time to get serious. I think we are just about ready to spray some color! First, I wet down the concrete to keep the dust down. After that I ran a tack cloth over the entire boat to make sure the surface was dirt and dust free.

Next step is ventilation. I used two $10 Wal-Mart box fans and taped furnace filters over the inlets. These fans draw outside air into the shelter to create a positive pressure inside. The air coming in the enclosure escapes through the gaps in the tarps. This ensures no bugs or dust from the outside can enter the tent.



Finally, we need good lighting. I have three sealed beam halogen work lights placed under and off to the side of the boat. One light is on a tripod so I can move it with me as I go. It's critical that you have adequate light so you can see the wet edge as you spray. If you can't see the wet edge you will likely miss areas or worse potentially apply too much paint creating sags and runs.


And now we paint...



I followed the Interlux instructions and started with one medium coat. Let that get tacky then follow with a second full coat. Finally a third coat to top it off. I couldn't take pictures of every stage between coats due to time constraints so I took some after the final coat. Here’s how it looks after spraying today.













Overall, it came out very good. Even with the initial prep there is some minor dust in the finish in a few spots. A light wet sanding with 1200 grit and a buff will make it pretty close to perfect.

Next week I'll mask off the bottom and spray the darker green over the top of the boat. It's getting closer! More updates as they happen...

[timw]

Mark, love the color, nice job.....
Tim

[Mark_Denis]

Thanks Tim. I'm a big fan of the two tone greens they originally used on these boats.

Here's a few more pics today after removing the plastic and lowering the boat in preparation for painting the top.

[Mark_Denis]

Christmas in September...

I made a trip to Queen City Plating in Mukilteo today to pick up the parts that were re-chromed. These guys do excellent work!

Tim, the original BB emblems I got from you turned out really nice.

[timw]

Hey Mark..wow those emblems sure look alot better than when I shipped them to ya..nice job, your boat is looking great..

raising the bar...

Nice work Mark, between the paint and budget blowing chrome that old Bell Boy is gonna shine! Looking forward to seeing the twins hangin' from the rear. The naughty stepsister '55 BB16 that we stole from Marty is next on our project list.

Bravo,

Greg

[Mark_Denis]

Thanks Greg, maybe we can get both of our BB16's on the water for next season. If you need anything let me know. I owe you one for the twin controls.

Thats the great thing about this club. You can usually find someone who has (or knows where to find) exactly what your looking for.

[Bigfoot]

Your doing a great job, Mike

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Gorgeous...

Mark -

The Bell Boy's going to be such a little gem when you're done. (Hope you're not afraid to use it afterwards--it'll almost be too perfect!)

Did you have to play around a bit in order to get the paint-reducer-catalyst balance right with Perfection? We found, when we shot John Delanoy's 16' Bell Boy, that it took some experimenting to get the right combination.

- Marty

[Mark_Denis]

Marty,

I did a lot of research online before attempting to spray this stuff. One thing I learned is not to rely on the instructions printed on the can. The Perfection pro manual and technical bulletin (available on their website) gave much more detailed guidelines for the mixing. I ended up reducing the paint/catylist 2:1 then adding 35% of 2316 reducer. It flowed out very nice. You can add up to 40% reducer if needed to help it flow out better.

If its really hot (above 80 degrees) they recommend mixing 2316 with 2333 reducer to slow down the cure.

I found that playing with the gun settings was just as important to get a good finish. 33 PSI at the gun (HVLP) using a 1.5 tip worked very well.

This thread on another forum was also very helpful: http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/012208.html

And yes, this boat will definitely be used. I'll just be a little more careful at the dock...