2002 SANTE resto project

[gobluemike2142]

Just. Wow.

Nice work T. As a new owner of an older Nautique ('96) I'll look forward to your progress reports.

[t.franscioni]

Just about got the entire interior and sidewalls sanded down. Next step is some fiberglass work and filling any weave still showing prior to gel coat.

[GravityBad]

Thanks for sharing the restoration link. Very impressive! Looking forward to the rest of your (our) journey.

[t.franscioni]

You bet! I will certainly be paying tribute to your help here soon hopefully.

[funkster]

With all due respect, it seems like you work on this boat more than you use it? Is this just a hobby? No way is any bow carpet that you never see worth a year off the water to me. It looks like you're doing excellent work and thank you for sharing but I would start to question return on investment how deep you have dove into this resto.

[t.franscioni]

Yes it is exactly that... a hobby or as my family calls it a sickness. The return on investment is pretty bad so far.

[funkster]

Well,it's kinda like that old Metallica song, some men like the fishin', some men like the fowlin'... my hats off to your attention to detail. You're doing amazing work!

[CincinnatiCC]

Really impressive work. Can't believe how far you've come.

[t.franscioni]

Came across a crack in the fiberglass at the corner where the engine mount stringer ends and meets the main hull stinger. I thought maybe it had been the result of some damage that I had missed early on when I bought the boat. Iv known about this crack when I began this project and always wondered what caused it because the bottom of the hull didn't show any signed of repair as if it had hit something nor did any of the components inside the boat. After some feed back by fellow members I learned that this was something that had been a warranty issue on these older Nautiques. Basically what happened is in some of these boats where the foam core was poured it didn't fully fill these corners and so when the fiberglass was wrapped around these corners it didn't have enough contact with the fiberglass laminate and so it created a weak spot in which over time cracked. You can see on the good side the factory fiberglass job shows pin holes and voids but nevertheless held up over the years. Because I had one of these cracks in one side I decided to go ahead and take preventive measures and grind out both sides and will fill with west systems epoxy with silica filler then reshape the corner and glass over it with plenty of layers of weaved glass which is much stronger than the CSM glass used by factory. Hopefully this prevents any cracks from forming in the future.

[t.franscioni]

Changed plan, not going epoxy filler because id have to lay up the glass with epoxy resin also and read that epoxy is not always compatible with gelcoat. So will need to stick with polyester based resin which is what the factory uses I believe. Found some pour foam which is similar density to the foam in the hull core. Made some molds out of modeling clay and restored the foam I had to sand out. No more voids in these corners so the glass should be much stronger now when I lay it up over the foam after sanding it to shape.

[t.franscioni]

Pour foam expanding. I know, who cares.... this build thread is functioning as my boat build documentary. Useful perhaps if it's ever sold the buyer can look up everything that was done so hence the overkill of postings.

[brit_hunsicker]

Every 4-6 months or so I have to come back to this thread to see the progress. This has to be the most in depth restore to an early SAN ever done. I might cry when I see the first picture of it on the water.


Sent from my iPhone using PLT Nautique

[Zpenter]

Sir you are amazing when you start a project! My prayers go to your family to support you the rest of the way!!!! Keep up the good work!

Ps now would be a good time to put the first C.A.T.S system in a 210 nautique.... lol

[Jules210]

I started reading this...and saw the date. I figured I would see after pics when I got to page 11..... I need to see the finished product!!!

[t.franscioni]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. I put this project on a couple month hiatus as it's summer time and Im too busy enjoying the lake in my free time. I'll get back to it soon enough, not much left then do, a little fiberglass, gel coat, seadeck then just put it all back together.