River Time
Member
Thanks again for all your help with my questions in my previous thread. I thought I should start a new one since my questions/comments have shifted from identifying the year my Sunfish was manufactured to restoration. As a reminder, my 1979 Sunfish was used infrequently during the early years at Virginia Beach, but it has spent most of its life upside down under a wooden deck. I recently retrieved it from my parents house and brought up to my river house on the Rappahannock river, not far from The Chesapeake Bay.
I have identified that the mast step needs to be repaired which I hope to tackle over the next few days I have some Pettit Flexpoxy that I intend to smooth into the damaged areas. I imagine that I will have to do a bit of sanding when cured and hopefully that will take care of the problem (more to come)...
The original sail is ready to be picked up with all new grommets in place, a few small patches, and they stitched the border of the original “class approved” label which was coming off. I also had them wash the sail since it had some salt residue on it and I am not going to be using it right away. The whole bill was about $180 and $50 of that was for washing, so I think it was worth it to preserve the original sail. I’ll post a new pic once I pick it up.
I had to remove the original drain plug and a new one is on order, as well as a new bow handle. The plug was corroded beyond salvage and the finish on the chrome bow handle has been damaged over the years due to the exposure to salt water. I am going to use a little Flexpoxy to fill the original drain plug pin holes and I will drill new ones when the new one arrives from www.sunfishdirect.com.
At some point in time over the years, while the boat was stored, the deck above it was stained and no precautions were taken to protect the hull. Consequently, most of the hull was covered in brown deck stain splatter and drips:
I just finished cleaning half of the hull using acetone and it is working quite well. The guy at West Marine wanted me to use a medium cut compound and I can promise you I would still be working on it a year from now if I had gone that route! I am still going to have to polish the hull, but this will be MUCH faster. Speaking of West Marine, NEVER buy acetone there. A 1 qt. can is $24.99 and it was $4.99 at my local independent hardware store. Here are some half way pics:
If anyone has any thoughts they would like to share I am certainly open to hearing them. More to come...
I have identified that the mast step needs to be repaired which I hope to tackle over the next few days I have some Pettit Flexpoxy that I intend to smooth into the damaged areas. I imagine that I will have to do a bit of sanding when cured and hopefully that will take care of the problem (more to come)...
The original sail is ready to be picked up with all new grommets in place, a few small patches, and they stitched the border of the original “class approved” label which was coming off. I also had them wash the sail since it had some salt residue on it and I am not going to be using it right away. The whole bill was about $180 and $50 of that was for washing, so I think it was worth it to preserve the original sail. I’ll post a new pic once I pick it up.
I had to remove the original drain plug and a new one is on order, as well as a new bow handle. The plug was corroded beyond salvage and the finish on the chrome bow handle has been damaged over the years due to the exposure to salt water. I am going to use a little Flexpoxy to fill the original drain plug pin holes and I will drill new ones when the new one arrives from www.sunfishdirect.com.
At some point in time over the years, while the boat was stored, the deck above it was stained and no precautions were taken to protect the hull. Consequently, most of the hull was covered in brown deck stain splatter and drips:
I just finished cleaning half of the hull using acetone and it is working quite well. The guy at West Marine wanted me to use a medium cut compound and I can promise you I would still be working on it a year from now if I had gone that route! I am still going to have to polish the hull, but this will be MUCH faster. Speaking of West Marine, NEVER buy acetone there. A 1 qt. can is $24.99 and it was $4.99 at my local independent hardware store. Here are some half way pics:
If anyone has any thoughts they would like to share I am certainly open to hearing them. More to come...