The Work Begins!

My first thought in a restoration of the weekender, (which was built in October 1974) has to be a very good paint job. After seeing a Cape Dory Typhoon painted with Awlgrip I was sold on the paint. I purchased the video "Brushing with Awlgrip", and the video makes it look easy. The hard part is the prep work, sanding, fairing, and more sanding. If you are thinking about painting your boat with Awlgrip, buy the video, it is well worth the investment. Since all the hardware and trim had been removed, and the parts in zip lock bags and labeled, I gave the boat a good washing with ammonia and water scrubbing it well with a scotch pad. A thorough cleaning must be done before any sanding is done. The video explains the importance of cleaning the boat. Any sanding before the cleaning will drive dirt, and wax into the gel coat. As for hardware my boat had a bow rail, but I will not replace it because I like the cleaner look, and the bow rail in my opinion just does not look right on the Typhoon. After cleaning the boat well, I repaired a few scratches, dings and dents, and filled the holes in the deck where the bow rail was removed. The hull had some minor crazing near the water line on the port side and there were a few small areas of crazing where the toe rail attached on both sides of the boat. The worse crazing was on the foredeck on the starboard side near the toe rail area. There were long cracks of eighteen inches or more. After I ground out the gelcoat cracks I used "Evercoat Formula 27" to fill these areas. Evercoat is water resistant, it drys fast, and sands easy. Never use a body filler for automobiles on fiberglass boats. Epoxy resins and fillers are OK, but hard to sand unless you add micro balloons. I used a sanding block with 120 grit Tri-a-mite paper by 3M to fair the repaired areas. Good sandpaper is worth the money. Note the cut out for the new port lights.