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

[CharlieCobra]

Ah yes, the restoration of Lady J starts in earnest. First we pulled the little Kubota that hasn't fired in over 18 years.



It spins freely, seems to have good compression and has both compression relief and glow plugs. My big old Perkins has neither. The heat exchager is toast.



While the boys worked with heat guns on the paint, wooding the old girl, I went after the seams. This job is not entirely painless.



The compound the previous folks used is like an epoxy, hard as a rock and sticks well to the wood on whatever side it stuck to. I have to chip it loose and then reef it out. I'll post a video tonight showing the painful, tedious process.



Sometimes I get lucky with a long run, usually not...



There were some dubious repairs done to her in the past, such as this thru-hull plug with fasteners set in seams. I'll have to scarph in planking to fix that.

[CharlieCobra]

They also has drilled holes in the shaft strut in order to make sure the goop they faired it with stuck. C'mon..., drilling holes in perfectly good, irreplaceable bronze for THAT? Somebody needs an a$$kicking...



Of course, the goop they stuck on caused it's own issues that I'll have to deal with.





The seams do clean up nicely, if well opened. Seeing as how see has 9" centers on the ribs, I'm not worried about caulking too hard. This is the best built Kettenburg I've yet seen, much stouter than the K-38's or PCC's.

[CharlieCobra]

More shoddy work in the sisters and transom where they didn't sink the fasteners enough to set bungs. I'll have to fix this, especially on the transom where she'll be bright.





The boys have been making good progress as well.







So, all in all, it's been a bit tedious but steady. She'll go inside the shop next week for further work as the yard gets nervous with all of the scraping and carrying on we're doing. We do vacuum up a couple times a day though. Yes, that's right. We vacuum pavement and dirt to clean up the paint chips. I reckon we have the cleanest dirt in the PNW....

[Blue Stocking]

Oohing and aahhing over the flow and harmony of those planks. That Lady is lucky to have made your aquaintance Charlie

[delmarrey]

That brings back (not so) fawn memories of 13 tons of oak, mahogany and teak. (1981)

But the best to ya! My shoulders gave out.


.

[SabreKai]

Here I was thinking I was the only one to vacumn the dirt to get rid of paint and filler chips. I always put a tarp under and then use my shop vac to pick up the bits that get outside that area. Very practical idea actually.


Sabre

[CharlieCobra]

Normally, that's the way we do it too but the yard didn't lay a tarp under her because she was to go into the shop in a week. It just took longer to get the hoist and we worked on other items. Hence the mess.

[IdoraKeeper]

It's amazing what good tools and hard work can do. It's also really neat when the work progresses and doesn't get broken down or stalled out. I will be interested to see what you are able to re-use and what you will need to fabricate. I can't remember from when you started, do you have the spar or will you need to get one? It seems you may rehab the Kubota, correct? The layout of the interior of my brothers' K43 (it's a 43 not a 41 as I remembered) is very space efficient but as he says, "it's a one butt galley". How much of the interior will you be able to re-use?

By the way he whipped my butt while shortening sail out in the strait of Georgia while I was still crowding on more trying to catch up. You will have a real hot rod there.

Todd

[CharlieCobra]

Idorakeeper, she's a customer's boat, not mine. She might give Oh Joy a run for her money but Oh Joy can carry about 150 sq ft more sail than Lady J. I have the spars, stripped of hardware. All of the hardware for the boat is in boxes.

[CharlieCobra]

We moved her into the shop today.