Time for Spring Cleaning...Bare Naked Nautique

[bmh2208]

Sure enough after I started to get stuff put back in....along came a huge thunderstorm. It poured for like 2 hours straight. Now everything is all wet and spotty again. Maybe I should take it all back apart and start over. J/K. I didn't get a chance to mount the pieces because of the rain. Oh yeah, I also forgot to get the screws chromed so I have to take those. I might throw in some SS ones temporarily. While I was rained in I decided to clean the windshield. I was gonna just clean it real good, but then I decided that it wouldn't of been true to the spirit of this cleaning. So....I took all the pieces completely apart. I was able to really get all the dirt out of the parts, and clean the gaskets really well. The pics are after I had done 2 of the parts. Maybe later this summer I can get it sent off to get powdered. Since I know how it is done now, it will only take about an hour total for disassembly and reassembly. It is actually pretty astonishing how good the windshield looks now. Besides the scratches on the metal pieces, it looks new. Here are a bunch of pics...enjoy! I threw in one showing the whole boat to prove that I am actually getting somewhere and putting parts back on. I got all the grab handles on (the ones not broken), the glovebox lid, all the hardware in the back minus the seats, and the dash.

[smucodes]

Put an EZ-Tent up over the boat and work while its raining. It must suck to have your boat all taken apart in your driveway while everyone else is now taking the hunnies and boat buns out to the lake! I'm sure you have a friend that would loan you a tent in order to get this project done!

[bmh2208]

yeah...and that friend needs to bring it over and get his motorcycle out my garage!

[csparks13]

B, those vents look bad a$$. Its nice to see it all coming back together. I vote more is better for the tower speakers. I will come in on thursday to sand the swim deck. Your comment on the seats is BS, you know my standards are as high as yours on stuff like that. What is the status on all the speakers and amps? Did you order new stuff? Its funny all this started over wanting to put LEDs in this winter and those are no where to been seen. This is a whole new dirrection for Bling. MMATL IGD!

[bmh2208]

So it poured again today. So I was able to clean the gear shift console. I took everything apart (as if any of yall would expect anything different). I didn't disassemble the gauges, however, they probably could use some cleaning on the inside of them. There are a few pieces I need to fix like the breaker switch and the power toggle. Somewhere along the way last summer they fell out of the holes. I'm thinking about overriding the kill switch lanyard. It's not like anyone ever wears it. We actually lost the oem one and had to find one that is so tight to get on, once it gets put on, it's almost impossible to take off. I will probably just replace it with a toggle switch. Overall, it cleaned up pretty good. Looks almost new. The main part was pretty dingy since it sees a lot of use as an armrest for the driver. Here are some pics of the individual parts, the finished assembly front and back.

Cheers!

[Quinner]

Before you eliminate the lanyard you may want to check your local boating laws, some states require that you have one, whether you use it or not, could be a problem were you to be pulled over for a safety check.

[bmh2208]

Finally it didn't rain today. I took the screws to get polished this morning so I was able to finally mount the trim ring and the side vents. Tell me what yall think.

I also got the windshield on. Yeah!!!! It doesn't look like a deck boat anymore. I have some adjustment to do. They are a little too close together and the fit for the middle windshield is too tight. Also, I can't figure out how, but the center one ends up being about a 1/4" too high. I will have to look at it in the daylight.

I also had a chance to check out the led strips I got in. I attached a little sneak peek of whats to come with those.

Peace!!!

[Miljack]

On the windshield, check the hinge, I think it's possible to get the one side put on upside down, and they are a little off top to bottom.
Great work on the detail, wanna do another one?? :-)

On your "chrome" finish for the aluminum pieces, are you having them electro-less nickel plated, or are you actually getting them chromed?
Jack

[bmh2208]

I will check the pieces. It is possible. The middle part was the hardest one to take apart and put together.

These are actually chrome plated.

On another note.....it just started to storm again. Now my freakin windshield is gonna get dirty. Boo hoo!

And another....I got a friendly call from my homeowners association asking me to move my boat back to my spot behind the fence. I'm pretty sure it is the new people that just moved into our little subdivision. I hate when people are too chicken to just come over and ask whats going on and it's not like it's a jon boat!

[smucodes]

If they were smart they wouldnt have called the homeowners....now they will have to stare at your banged up garage door from when I backed the boat through it in the downpoor after the 4th of July.

The LED's look good, thats a nice glow. Its 90degrees today, get it back together quick! Sprayberry came inand snuck out without even letting me take him to Northgate...lame

[bmh2208]

Finally I had some help. Seems like it gets a little bit hotter and people wanna start to help so we can get to the lake. My buddy came down and helped work on the platform. He sanded it and applied a first coat of the sikkens teak stuff. Even after one coat it look stellar. I still have about 3 more coats to go working my way up to 1500 grit sandpaper. They also got the swim platform brackets and got them prepped for paint. If they were stainless I could actually polish them. They seem to light to be stainless. Anyone know if they are SS or aluminum?

Him and his dad also built a light bar. They took some square stock, welded on some end caps, and then welded on the light brackets. They sanded and primered it. It's now ready for some gloss white paint and for me to mount the brackets and the wiring.

Tonight I started working on the interior speakers. I hate the crap that CC pulled with mounting the speakers. I mean. What the **** is two pieces of pvc gonna hold. I could of literally grabbed the speaker and pulled them out. Last summer I had planned to make some baffles. I hat that pincushion look that results from how they were mounted. The baffles I made will allow them to sit so that the front edge of the grill and the vinyl is flush. I should be able to post a pic of the first finished cushion tomorrow. So far they look great and will be mounted solid as a rock.

I was hoping to get a lot done this past weekend, but the bar, cinco de mayo, and patron kept me unmotivated every day.

Cheers!




















Here you can see the top of the platform after only one coat. You'll be able to see your reflection in it when I'm done.

[shaunvr]

Bmh2208, I was so inspired by your enthusiastic (some might call it anal ) approach to 'winterizing' your boat, that I started the same thing.

I recently purchased an old Classic, 1991 BF Nautique 7.4ltr 454 big block chevy, 500hrs fairly good nick, (1 of 5 imported to our country- a rare gem here) and started restoring her about a month ago.

I first stripped all the seats and panels which have just arrived back from being re-upolstered.
I was never going to go to the lengths you have until I read this forum, now each piece is coming off one by one, as I too, cannot take the grime between objects and the deck. You can imagine how much more build up I have.

I will let you know one thing that I managed to take further, is the Swim plate. Your's looks great by the way!
I stripped the entire board down to it's seperate pieces. After 15 years you have know idea what was starting to grow between the sheets.
I plained a hair of each then sanded the lot progressively. The oiling process starts this weekend then I am putting the whole lot back together with a new added extension to the backend.
As the older decks were far narrower, I would really like to have that extra space to put on a wakeboard comfortably without digging your spine into the lifting hook.

Thanks for sharing all the progress, its been a great read

[Laptom]

Keep up the good work. You are ready when the summer really starts!

[bmh2208]

Shaunvr...glad to see someone else take on this type of project. I'm sure you will have a diamond once it is done. I wanted my buddy to do the same on my platform. He started but was unable to even get the first board apart. They were more or less glued together. Oh well, good luck on your project. What type of teak oil are you using?

[csparks13]

First off B, I have put in more time in this project than the other owners. Im going to be there this weekend to finnish what I started. Those speaker mounts look really good. I couldnt understand what you were going to do, but now it all makes sence.