My 1977 Albin 25 Deluxe rebuild thread

[WillieC]

Zen...now that's been a while. Thanks for the reminder!
And that varnish work is really nice. And after double shifts? I used to do plenty of midnight cutovers which I don't miss at all. Just Art Bell on the way home.

[hetek]

Maintenance window cutovers and node splits has been my second life since COVID.

What's a maintenance window? 1 am to 6 am in the telecom world. My life!

Doing one again tonight, after working a regular 8 hour day. I'll go home, have dinner, go to bed (while there is still 3 hours of sunlight), wake up at midnight and be back at work at 1 am. Ugh!

Which leads me to my motto...

"I either have the time and no money or the money and no time". I think I might have to add a third option though: ...no time and no money. That's more like it!

[Dieselram94]

Zen...now that's been a while. Thanks for the reminder!
And that varnish work is really nice. And after double shifts? I used to do plenty of midnight cutovers which I don't miss at all. Just Art Bell on the way home.

Love Art Bell! Enjoy that show along with Phil Hendrie.

[DesertAlbin736]

Another DA ref! Yay! Zen & Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Just remember what happened to Phaedrus. Slightly off topic, but for those who've watched Seth Myers' late night show lately one of his new props is a painting of an old white bearded sea captain (that talks back occasionally). I'm working on that look for myself, even have the same style hat. The whole trailering philosophy on costs is that sure the road trips are expensive, and yes we could charter instead. But the cost of a one week bareboat charter equals or exceeds what we spend for 6 weeks afloat. Ditto cruise ship cruises. On tow vehicles my truck is 14 years old & I've owned it for the past 9 & still has less than 150K miles on the odometer. I could not afford a new one of the same make, model, & trim level. Maybe we should write a book "Zen And The Art of Albin Maintenance"? Would editors reject it 126 times like Motorcycle Maintenance was before getting published?

[DesertAlbin736]

Time vs money is always the issue. When you have enough of one it seems there's never enough of the other. Unless & until by the time one reaches retirement age and is fortunate to have enough to each. But by then the remaining time of life is finite. So yeah, that's why we do "DA stuff". I married an older lady who is a real trouper, but at best we probably have maybe 5 or 6 years left to do everything we want to do with "DA stuff" before age & health catches up with us.

[hetek]

Here we go. Short and sweet.

20200725_205155.jpg

1/4" foam backed vinyl hull liner from our good friends at Defender. Doesn't look like it took a whole day but the frequent breaks required to avoid the spray adhesive fumes made it so. And I even had forced ventilation. Better than not.

And...

20200726_202313.jpg

Water tank with fill and vent hose rough is in. Sapele bow panels and tank top panel are in. Next up are the long shelves.

Starting to look like an Albin 25 interior. Finally! I did say "starting". I know I have a ways to go.

[tribologist]

That is fantastic looking!!!!

Do you have a real mask? A 3m mask with solvent filter are incredible efficient. Think about the guys spraying cars... i washed my 13’ whaler with 1/2 gal of acetone in a 11x17 tent when redoing the bottom. Could not even smell it

[hetek]

My usual garb for tasks such as a bow thruster install and transom replacement, requiring grinding fiberglass.

20200727_151003.jpg

The spray adhesive propellant wasn't the worst, but the solvents evaporating from the glue would curl your nose hairs. I left the cabin to get fresh air instead.

[tribologist]

Looks solvent and Covid ready!! Very nice! Thats the mask i use too. I normally use the cheap 6001 organic solvent filter on it. Its amazing how well that thing works.

[DesertAlbin736]

Yep, lookin' REAL GOOD!

[patclem]

I don't want to hijack the thread. All you varnish experts, I'm thinking about re-veneering a lot of the exterior pieces like the doors and the companionway 'lid' where the veneer is peeling. I found the sapele veneer online, and I'll plan to stick it back down with West epoxy. What do you all finish the doors with to minimize maintenance? I know I can coat with super clear epoxy and varnish, but I want to avoid that if I can.

[WillieC]

Light sanding. Spar varnish. Go boating.
Really delaminated chunks I have reglued and clamped back down, then varnish.

I have not seen the need to epoxy then varnish on interior pieces. We try to keep the boat dry by fixing leaks and covering in winter. Exterior pieces are another matter and show it. Ah well. Go boating!

(For the record I am no expert.)

[hetek]

On bare wood, I applied 3 coats of West System 105 resin mixed with 207 Special Clear hardener first, then sanded smooth. Then applied 3 coats of Interlux Schooner varnish, sanding between coats.

I did this on all my exterior wood because it was either new Sapele plywood or sanded bare original wood. Much of the original exterior wood had either perished or had been poorly repaired, so I built new.

I considered re-veneering the bulkhead below the helm but once I sanded it bare, it didn't look that bad.

On the interior, I mostly just did the varnish, unless I replaced the wood.

[nebulatech]

My suggestion for exterior is the same as hetek, except instead of varnish use a high quality 2 part automotive urethane. (Car clear coat) automotive finish is loaded with UV inhibitors and is meant to sit in sunlight 24x7 for 10+ years. It works. The caveat is you need a spray gun.

EDIT:
I learned the automotive urethane trick from these guys. It's a 10 year finish and takes a beating.
https://www.releasemarine.com/

[hetek]

Guess I'm just old school using varnish, but we're both considering the choice of product for the same reason: UV protection.

Sunlight just kills exterior finishes. Interesting to think outside the box and consider automotive finishes. Hmmm... Maybe next time?

The 207 hardener has some UV inhibitors but overcoating with the Schooner on exterior brightwork is recommended. Again: UV.