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Greetings everyone,
I recently came over to this site to stay in tune with all the info available here and all the good help. I began work on my 13 over a year ago but many family and businees developments interrupted my progress. In the last couple of weeks I have started again. The boat sat outside for about 18 years! The gel on the inside is shot. I scraped most of the non-skid off and ground the bigger cracks. There are so many spider cracks in it that where they connect the gel just pops out and leaves a small crater. I filled the ground out areas with bondo type product. My plan is to cover the entire inside with polyester resin to completely seal it and hopefully form a chemical bond to keep the cracking from continuing. After that I am going to prime and apply ultra-tuff to the entire inner hull. The wire to the front light doesn't have continuity so I am going to route a small groove in the outside of the gunwhale where the rubrail will cover it and run a new wire there. The bottom has been sanded, all the gouges filled. I will apply interlux there and then I'll be ready to put the interior back into the boat and take it to the dealer so he can install my new (2005, it's been on the floor at the dealer since I started working on the boat) Nissan 40 tldi.
Anyone see any problems with my plan that I should know about? Or any suggestions? Prop recommendations welcome.
thanks,
Mike

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Sounds like a good plan to me - can you share pictures of your progress? We all like to look at them for inspiration and motivation for our own projects.

Good luck

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Most of the early before pics were lost in an old computer. I'll try to get a few of the progress this weekend.
Mike

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Well, ahead we go. The hull now has three coats of Interlux Brightsides(opted against 2 part) and the interior has a good Boston Whaler blue coating of Ultra-tuff.
I took pics and will post soon. The Ultra-tuff looks good but its a little more rough than I was hoping for. It's going to be "tuff" to clean and maybe "tuff" on bare feet or knees. I brought it to the dealer this AM for the motor installation and I'm going fishing this weekend. I can't wait!! I'll post performance numbers on the boat,motor, prop combination and get some pics of the complete rig.
Mike

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Still no pics to post. They are in the camera so I will get them soon. The dealer was jammed with work but got to me by 4:30 Thursday afternoon. I couldn't wait to get it to the bayou to try it out! I've never ridden in the boat before. I met my two adult sons and one's wife at the landing. The four of us took a nice ride down the bayou. the dealer said to run it for about 20 minutes at a time and let it cool down between runs so that's what we did. What an enjoyable afternoon that was! The dealer put a 12" prop on it. I wanted a 13 but didn't notice till we had left and he had closed for the weekend. With four of us in the boat(average about 150 lbs each) it jumped right up on step. That injected 2stroke is soooo smooth. We kept it under 4,000 rpm but what a ride. The dealer also installed the motor too low on the transom. I had asked him to put it about 1 1/2" up(cav plate) but in his rush he overlooked it.
Next day we left for Grand Isle(Friday). the wind was about 25-30 mph, scattered showers, and COLD. We checked Barataria pass when we got there. It was way too rough for just about any small boat. We opted to launch in Bayou Lafourche and try to fish some canals. the wind was blowing right down the bayou whipping up quite a chop with a few whitecaps. Three of us headed into the chop. WOW! I couldn't believe how well that little boat handled the water. When we anchored we could all move around the boat to fish with no problem. What a stable boat. It's like the little boat that could! I couldn't be happier.
After breakin I will get and post some performance numbers.
Mike