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Hewes 21 Redfisher restoration.


Josh B

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11 hours ago, Coto said:

Don’t really want to sound like my cousin from Boston….but that black on black looks wicked cool!!!

  Not to mention that black is one of the hardest colors to pull off! Goes to show you how much prep work is important to a finished product. Nice work Josh.

  Go ahead and provide me your address, I have a boat that needs some finish work!:D

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On 9/25/2021 at 2:29 PM, linesider 159 said:

Looks fantastic. Painting the console black? Should be a quick SOB

I'm not sure about the console yet. If I paint it black, what do I  do about my cooler seat.... buy a black cooler? My original plan was to leave the topside nonskid as-is. It's in pretty good shape, but that depends on how well my repairs come out. If the patches are noticeable I'll probably end up redoing the non-skid up top. At that point I have to decide if I'm staying with the oyster white factory color or changing to a whisper grey. I'm not brave enough to go all-black like you. 

Thoughts?

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2 hours ago, Josh B said:

I'm not sure about the console yet. If I paint it black, what do I  do about my cooler seat.... buy a black cooler? My original plan was to leave the topside nonskid as-is. It's in pretty good shape, but that depends on how well my repairs come out. If the patches are noticeable I'll probably end up redoing the non-skid up top. At that point I have to decide if I'm staying with the oyster white factory color or changing to a whisper grey. I'm not brave enough to go all-black like you. 

Thoughts?

Whisper grey would look awesome with black accents on the console and other items perhaps.  Only if your repairs don't come out to where you and your father are happy...I think we all know how that's going to go by the way everything else has gone....Lol !!! Boat looks just beautiful and I love the all black Yami...  "to decal or not to decal"  that must be the question now....and what's another $4,500 for a new Ameritrail... JK...new wheels and she will look fine....

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6 hours ago, Josh B said:

I'm not sure about the console yet. If I paint it black, what do I  do about my cooler seat.... buy a black cooler? My original plan was to leave the topside nonskid as-is. It's in pretty good shape, but that depends on how well my repairs come out. If the patches are noticeable I'll probably end up redoing the non-skid up top. At that point I have to decide if I'm staying with the oyster white factory color or changing to a whisper grey. I'm not brave enough to go all-black like you. 

Thoughts?

Too dark of a gray gel and you will cook worse than anything on the deck. My factory gray gel deck was worse than the black marine mat. When I had my topside resprayed it was a ton of labor, and I think Id rather deal with perhaps a few small white deck imperfections over the potential ones that comes from respraying a whole topside.

Are you getting rid of the front part of the console? Didn't realize you were doing a cooler seat. 

Yeti does make a charcoal cooler that would be close enough I think it would look good. 

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30 minutes ago, linesider 159 said:

Too dark of a gray gel and you will cook worse than anything on the deck. My factory gray gel deck was worse than the black marine mat. When I had my topside resprayed it was a ton of labor, and I think Id rather deal with perhaps a few small white deck imperfections over the potential ones that comes from respraying a whole topside.

Are you getting rid of the front part of the console? Didn't realize you were doing a cooler seat. 

Yeti does make a charcoal cooler that would be close enough I think it would look good. 

Another option is MarineMat/SeaDek, etc. instead of redoing the non-skid. We'll see how the repairs come out first. I've had boats with it and without it. I liked it for reducing noise and the feel on your toes, but I had to make more effort to clean blood stains right away and I was always aggravated when someone would scrape it, gouge, etc.

I like it, but not sure it's worth the money.

My plan with the console was to remove the built in front seat area as the storage is minimal. I felt like if you did need a cooler it was always sitting in the middle of the floor. So if I remove that built in seat on the front of the console I can replace with a YETI that can double as a seat and cooler. If I'm fishing a redfish tournament or going on a solo artificial trip (about 75% of my fishing) I can leave the cooler/seat at home and just take a small portable soft-side cooler in the hatch.

I jus sketched this up at my desk... but this is what I'm leaning towards building.

 

Josh B.

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On 9/27/2021 at 9:46 PM, linesider 159 said:

Marine mat is pretty soft but adhesive is way better than seadek. Dek it is definitely the most durable/most firm, and I found I never had to use soap, just an electric pressure washer.

The console design you are wanting was used by maverick for a boat. Ingman had a 21 red fisher done almost identical. I like your idea

 

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Do you know which Maverick product that console was on?

 

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On 10/2/2021 at 10:08 AM, HewesYourDaddy said:

 

Do you know which Maverick product that console was on?

 

That was a 21 Redfisher. I'm not exactly sure which console it was, but I thought I remembered someone saying it was a Maverick 18 hpx standup console...??? I might be wrong on that. The boat was for sale a couple years ago... it was a sweet boat and a really good deal as well. Wish I would have bought that one back then, could have saved a lot of time. ha ha 

Josh B.

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Got a few things done this weekend, but spent the majority of the time working on my new console. 

After looking all over for a console that would fit my needs (slightly higher, room to flush mount large screen, recessed cupholders and room for glovebox door) I decided to just build my own from scratch. I found a few that would work with some modifications or that I would have been fine using, but they were so expensive I just couldn't do it. 

I drew up the plans and bought some 1" foam board that was pretty rigid stuff. I hot melt glued all the pieces together and I was pretty impressed with how well it holds. Another great thing about this foam is it sands and shapes very easily. I considered using it without the holes to make a mold and then cut the holes later, but then decided it would take so much more fiberglass and resin. In addition, glassing over the foam will make it much more solid/rigid. One thing I learned real quick is that anything with polyster resin will absolutely melt this stuff in a heartbeat. However, Epoxy based materials will not cause any damage at all. The epoxy is more expensive, but stronger and I have plenty leftover from hull repairs anyways. 

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Another custom thing I added was the Garelick Eez-In ladder. I personally would have been fine with no ladder on this boat. It sits low enough to hop over the side, but my wife wanted one for her and the kids. I was planning to just install the standard ladder with the bracket and keep the ladder inside the hatch as I've done on other boats in the past. But I found this one for a steal of a deal and after doing some measuring I "hoped" it would fit. It was a tight fit squeezing it between the starboard hatch. The entire area is filled with foam from the factory, so I used a 3" piece of PVC pipe that I sharpened the tip and used it to cut out the foam the exact size as the mounting tube. It worked perfectly. Then painted the outside mount to match the hull. Pretty slick and now I don't have to store the ladder inside my hatch. 

 

Josh B.

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Looks great all the way around. That console is clutch, too! As for the gray Yeti, I think they discontinued the cooler in gray a while back, but you can get some other items in gray still. Guessing you will display your gauges on the MFD, and the Yamaha gauges are in the access door for function/backup? CLEAN! What's the plan for stereo/speakers? I know you like to have music. I'm just curious. No pods on the console like Tony of BoaTronics did with his a few years back, right? 

Amazing progress and pretty quick at that! 

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1 hour ago, BradM said:

Looks great all the way around. That console is clutch, too! As for the gray Yeti, I think they discontinued the cooler in gray a while back, but you can get some other items in gray still. Guessing you will display your gauges on the MFD, and the Yamaha gauges are in the access door for function/backup? CLEAN! What's the plan for stereo/speakers? I know you like to have music. I'm just curious. No pods on the console like Tony of BoaTronics did with his a few years back, right? 

Amazing progress and pretty quick at that! 

Thanks BradM. Yes, I'm actually using my Lowrance HDS LIVE for the gauges and also for digital switching using the Navico Loop S system. So I splurged and got the 16" screen. That way I can have my switches up on the left hand side of the screen and still have plenty of real estate on the screen. Little risky to go with the digital switches, but they do have physical option to turn on any device manually in the event of a complete failure to the Lowrance. I like the fact I can keep my dash clean and customize the switches/naming/layout, etc. I figured I'd throw the factory gauges in the glove box just as a backup and sometimes it's nice to have a secondary source to compare if needed. 

As for the stereo... for the first time I'm just skipping the whole thing. Over the years I've had some really nice stereos... full JL Audio amps/M880's, etc. My last 23 HPS lived its entire life in the garage, always washed and taken care of. The $2,500+ stereo had to be repaired several times. Brand new Fusion head units... garbage... multiple replacements under warranty, JL MHD600.4 amp died a month out of warranty $300 to repair, (4) M880 speakers all died one at a time to some extent. I just was so aggravated with the whole experience I said I would never do it again. So I'll bring a bluetooth speaker and set it on the dash. The stereo is just not worth the money. That being said, I recently saw some really nice reviews for SKAR equipment which I would never have previously considered as they were a "cheap" brand. But the review I read was from an installer and he was impressed. Still not doing it... ha ha 

Josh B.

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36 minutes ago, linesider 159 said:

Looks great, nice clean ladder installation. How's the vision looking over the console, I remember when I did mine I was nervous if I could see over it. Once all done it was perfect

Well I have the luxury of adjusting the console and my seating at this point. I wanted the seat to be higher up so my butt was above my knees and I could use my feet/knees for bracing on those bumpy rides. I started off with the console higher than I thought it would need to be... and it was... I cut two inches off, then two more... and then another two inches until I got it where I needed it. When I'm sitting on the cushion I can see over the top by a couple inches. My test cushion was 5" thick, but i'm planning to make that another inch or two higher. So should be good. I basically made the console as low as I could without me needing to bend over at all when standing. Worst case scenario I get it all done and mounted and it's not right I'll cut another inch or two off the bottom... it's easy to cut a little off, not so easy to add it back.

Josh B.

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A little progress on the console yesterday... Got a few more layers of glass on it and started fairing out. It will need some more fairing and then a coat or two of primer before the gelcoat. I'm very impressed with how solid it is already. I have 4 layers of glass on the outside and plan to put 2-3 on the inside as well. Should be stout. 

I also tackled painting the bilge. I used TotalBoat Epoxy Bilge paint and this stuff is great. I started by cutting out the old plastic liner that was used to hold the original 2 stroke oil tank. It gives me more room and access to the bilge. Then I started cleaning/scrubbing/washing the entire inside with soap/degreaser and then sanded the entire inside. That is a lot of fun, laying on your stomach with your head in a hole trying to sand in every little crevice. Not very much fun. Then I vacuumed out, wiped with cleaner/degreaser twice and brushed on the epoxy paint. This stuff sets up pretty quick so you have to keep moving at a good pace. What a difference! But now all my hoses look like crap, so I'll have to get them cleaned up as well. 

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Like many folks with these older boats all of my hatch liners have yellowed. I tested on the plastic liner areas in the bilge. After cleaning them I sanded them with 80 grit just to rough up the surface. I painted them with the same epoxy bilge paint and it seems to be sticking very well. I'll be honest, this stuff is very sticky and I think it will hold to just about anything. 

Hopefully this weekend I can get the console finished up.

Josh B.

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16 minutes ago, Josh B said:

 

Like many folks with these older boats all of my hatch liners have yellowed. I tested on the plastic liner areas in the bilge. After cleaning them I sanded them with 80 grit just to rough up the surface. I painted them with the same epoxy bilge paint and it seems to be sticking very well. I'll be honest, this stuff is very sticky and I think it will hold to just about anything. 

Hopefully this weekend I can get the console finished up.

Josh B.

You're giving me some ideas.....!!!!!

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7 hours ago, Fsu11 said:

Just read through this entire build like a netflix season in 30 minutes, some insane work done cant wait to see it finished!

Ha ha, thanks!!!

I personally enjoy a good detailed thread... I've spent hours reading through others before. But I also know they can get exhausting so I'm holding back on every single work day. There's tons of hours that go in that aren't mentioned. I spent a full day working upside down in the bilge and running hoses, etc. but who wants to hear about that. I've got a big 5 year old birthday weekend scheduled this week, trying to get the console gelcoated before then but it may not happen. So might be a week break before I have any updates.

Josh B.

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Console is primed, she looks pretty good! 

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Time to work on the inside of the console. I'm planning to lay 2-4 layers of glass, but also going to glass in some of my structural supports and additional hardware. My plan is to have zero holes or bolts/screws exposed on the outside of the console. Using these perforated base 316 stainless mounting studs I'm going to route out a hole inside the coring material and epoxy them in. Then I'll lay my epoxy resin/glass over the top. I'm doing this for the aluminum L brackets on all four sides of the bottom that will be mounted to the floor. I'm also doing 4 of these on each side of the internal walls so I can simply mount a starboard piece to each side for mounting necessary electronics. 

 

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Josh B.

 

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