We have started on the journey of restoring the boat we bought this year - while the boat is functional and fun, I want to bring it back to as close to original condition/appearance as possible.
Starting with small projects:
- Made up the T handles first, the black handles were easy, found a black transducer plate at Cabelas that was just the right thickness, cut it, drilled it and rounded the ages. The only difference from original is the sides of the handles have a little bit of texture, otherwise I think they turned out great. The stainless steal threading was a little trickier, thought I could get away with buying a 3/8" x 16 stainless steal eye bolt, cut it and drill it for the spring pin. Turned out it needed to be 3/8 "stainless steal rod that was threaded using an outer tolerance die, otherwise the nylon block in the hatch lever thru pull would not have the resistance it needed to hit the stopping angle. Good to have a friends who are machinists.
- When I bout the boat, it came with one hatch lever thru pull made of wood with a threaded metal insert, functional, but not quite right. Today, I spent $115 on supplies and $65 on tools to make a mold and 4 of the lever thru pulls (includes a new spray gun for gel-coat to be used for redoing the hulls later). I have have done limited fiberglass repairs on an old duck boat and I have never made a mold before - but YouTube and having a great fiberglass supply shop locally with great advice is a big help. Need to order some Hobie White Gel-Coat as well. Hoping in 2 - 3 weeks to have finished product pictures.
Here is a picture of the T-Handles. Original is on the bottom, the top two are the new ones.
Not sure if this is the type of stuff that is of interest to folks or not, happy to provide more details like the list of materials, etc. if people are interested.
Don