33 year old 28' Party Hut restoration

[Motor7]

Painted the cabin wall panels my fav....Black & Tan:





Note....the early models used 1" styrofoam clad with thick stippled aluminum sheet. I have never seen these fail, but the newer panels all seem to get water damage and begin to 'wrinkle'. The damage looks very similar to Filon failure on campers. I'm not sure when they changed over to the newer stuff, but glad to have the old.

The plexi windows were faded and scratched so I just painted them black for now.

On to the roof....finally got to start welding the .090 sheet on the frame. At 16' long this is going to be interesting getting the roof back up on the boat. I am guessing the extra supports added about 200lbs to the structure. I could not find the oem 1.5x2.5" tube and had to settle for thicker 2.5x2" tube.



The old tubing is almost impossible to get 100% clean for welding since it has a lot of lite surface corrosion, so I just have to put up with a bit of splatter. The new stuff welds like a dream and with the spool gun it goes quick.

[steve1313]

You're definitely making progress! Is that marine wire? A lot of the white jacketed wire almost looks like 16 gauge speaker wire.

[Motor7]

You're definitely making progress! Is that marine wire? A lot of the white jacketed wire almost looks like 16 gauge speaker wire.

Yes, I bought a whole spool of 18ga tinned copper marine wire for this project.

[Motor7]

Ok sport fans...big day.

Replacing the fuel fill hose and all lines turned into a problem. Most auto parts stores do not carry anything but straight hose. I needed a 45 degree bend so I first tried to shove a 45 degree Sch 40 PVC elbow in there....nada, Then thinking outside the box....er hose, I cut up a old Sat dish mounting arm.....then slipped the hose inside it which prevents kinking.



Added a second group 31 battery, and a Perko 2 battery switch. Also added a Racor water separator fuel filter....pics to follow.

I finished welding up the braces on the roof...halfway done here:



Roof now has a joist every 12". Now, how to get it up on the boat???






I have a 40 horse tractor, so I called in my buddies and six of us put the roof onto my tractor forks(with 10' fork extenders) and attempted to get it up there....nope. Boat on trailer puts the roof at 12' high. Tractor front end loader lifts to 9 and change. we even tried bringing it in over the bow lengthwise, but too dangerous. So I quickly punted and phoned friend,,,,,it's nice to have friends with an Extend a Hoe!

[Motor7]

ALL slung and ready to lift:



Boom....r00f is ON!



Today I will make braces for the new 6' stern section of roof, glue down the roof vinyl and start affixing the L trim.

[bansil]

cf2e95dfa5bd0fb2dcce16dc83bd36b5.jpg (14.5 KiB) Viewed 69827 times

[curtiscapk]

Nice thinking!!!!!!!!

[Motor7]

Inside look and bolting the new roof down:





This is the glue I used, it covered and area 8' x 6' per can using a 1/8th inch notched trowel:





Rear roof legs are installed, but I bough 3.5" SS bolts....not 4"

[Motor7]

Checked the roof vinyl today after rain storm. Bubbles everywhere and a mean one all thecway across it at the 9- foot mark. Directions on can say to pierce bubbles and smooth them out....didn't work. I'm not sure what went wrong, it was smooth yesterday evening.







Its worse in person...the pics make it look mild.

[curtiscapk]

Bummer.. Looked great hopefully you can get them out...

[steve1313]

I'd let it bake in the sun for a few days. It might get a lot better than you'd expect.

[Motor7]

Most of the other bubbles went down, but the one all the way across is not getting much better. It will not stick down when pushed down, just pops back up. The only thing I can think of is that the glue was not tacky enough there before I rolled out the mat. This stuff has to "string" before you know its ready to lay the mat....take a small section of mat, push it into glue then lift. If it strings between the two, go.
Maybe I rushed it, or maybe I got too much glue there, either way I'm gonna live with it.

I spent 7 hours on it yesterday doing little stuff, vacuuming up the metal filings(a zillion of them), making and installing hdpe drink holders, getting ropes, bumpers, anchor, life jackets/etc loaded and stowed.

Headed to the lake today for the first splash. Guess I will find out if my Avalanche will pull this thing over the mountain

Once it's on the water, the trailer comes home for a overhaul

[curtiscapk]

good luck! What lake? We have cousins on Oliver Springs.....

[Motor7]

good luck! What lake? We have cousins on Oliver Springs.....

Cherokee


First splash went pretty good. 22 mpg empty @ 5000 rpm. 19 mph with 4 adults 2 kids. One issue after extended idling, engine quit no pressure on fuel bulb. Pumped back up and ran for 45 min, no problem, then after another idle episode lost prime again. Fuel delivery problem at low rpm.

[Motor7]