The Restoration of 'Lady J' - Week Two . . .

[CharlieCobra]

Time for the weekly update on Lady J. The Port side of the hull is paint free the old fashioned way, heat gun and scraper followed by long-boarding with 220 grit.



With her in the shop, it's impossible to get a side shot.

90% of the seams below the waterline are reefed and clean.



I did find freshly cracked ribs from the transport.



The other bilges are full of broken but sistered ribs. I haven't decided whether to fix these or leave them as they are. It's up to the customer.



and



Now that the engine is out, I can see a couple in there too. Two have a strange fix already. Somebody took a SS band, bent it to fit on the broken rib and bolted/screwed it in place. The only issue I have with that is that they mixed SS and Bronze in the same piece and the floor bolt only a few inches away is galvanized.



My wife Fredia came by to help this week. She was on the mast.



The rest of the motley crew was on the hull.



I think this needs replacing...



And this needs something other than Bondo in it.



Plenty of work still to do. More next week.

[quitfishing]

thanks for the pictures!,i dont know much about boats but i love to look.
what does reefed mean?...thanks again

[CharlieCobra]

Reefing the seams is when you take a tool, or in this case, several different tools and clean everything out of the seams in preparation for Paying, Caulking and Compounding them.

[IdoraKeeper]

Hey Charlie-- Those kids aren't even dirty! That pix must have been at the start of the day.

How long are you allowing for the whole project?

Todd

[PAR]

Yep, looks to be a lovely project. I see some old tension cracks and breaks in your frames too, besides the transporter damage. You look to have gotten lucky with the lower seams, good edges, uniform gaps, etc. Hard to see much at these angles though. Did the caulk come out clean? Hows her deadwood look, good seams? It looks like that may have been a polyester filler on the strut and it, combined with moisture cause an "interesting" reaction with bronze. I usually take walnut shells (blast it) to parts like this, then feel guilty about having to paint the pretty bronze. Does the client have a reasonable budget for this or is it a "make it better" kind of deal?

[shadow]

Looks like a great project you are undertaking!!! Anxiously watching your overall progress!! Keep us posted!

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

Hey Charlie-- Those kids aren't even dirty! That pix must have been at the start of the day.

How long are you allowing for the whole project?

Todd

It was lunch time and they were cleaner than normal. The schedule is open ended, depending on the owner's finances. If we go full speed, maybe three months.

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by PAR

Yep, looks to be a lovely project. I see some old tension cracks and breaks in your frames too, besides the transporter damage. You look to have gotten lucky with the lower seams, good edges, uniform gaps, etc. Hard to see much at these angles though. Did the caulk come out clean? Hows her deadwood look, good seams? It looks like that may have been a polyester filler on the strut and it, combined with moisture cause an "interesting" reaction with bronze. I usually take walnut shells (blast it) to parts like this, then feel guilty about having to paint the pretty bronze. Does the client have a reasonable budget for this or is it a "make it better" kind of deal?

There are some old cracks in the ribs and I think the transport was the last straw. The seams are nice and clean for the most part. Some judicious multitool work on the others makes them all nice. Some places the caulking came easy, others an inch at a time. The initial budget was low but I got him to bump it by 80% so we're pretty close now. I still think it'll come in higher than he likes and have warned him from the start. I don't see us running more than 30 or so hours beyond the original estimate, even with the newly discovered work.