October 2011

Very busy month started off with the Heartland Classics boat show at Grand Lake. Check out the photos from the show here. http://www.heartland-classics.org/2011/10/2011-mahogany-and-chrome-show/ and for a written report check out this link http://www.heartland-classics.org/2011/10/201-mc-report/, Weather was beautiful, cool, clear and calm. 50+ classic boats on display.

The Crestliner ran great for the weekend. Did discover that she is leaking a little more oil than I like out the rear main seal. May have to R&R the motor this fall. The drive ran good though. While at the show I learned how to remove the windows to replace the glass. So another fall project will be new glass in the side windows. As well as probably a new horn.

Drain Plug

Many folks have said the drain plug is 3/4" pipe thread.  However mine is not. It turned out to be 15/16-14. I purchased the standard 3/4-14 pipe and a buddy turned it down on the lathe. Works perfect. Not sure if others have had this problem or not. Let me know if you have.

Good news

Tech at Bayer called. Everything is ok in the drive. Preload on the gears was a little tight and causing some noise. Nothing serious. Should be ready next week.

Dropped off at Bayer Marine

Well I have a couple of weeks so I dropped her off at Bayer to het their opinion on the whirring sound from the top of the drive. They said about a week. Hoping they tell me no problems found. Just the way the drive sounds. Have fun and fix your engine oil leak.

One coat of Largo Blue

After the PreKote was dry, I sanded the primer with 220 grit. Once everything was "scratched" I started brushing on Interlux Largo Blue. This seemed to go on nice and smooth. I mixed together two old cans I had on the shelf from a wood canoe project. That was enough for the first coat, but I had to order another can for the second coat. That was last weekend. The second coat was more of a problem. On the port side I brushed it on. It kept sagging bad. Could not figure out why. All I needed was some color as the first coat had done a great job of covering the primer. I finally got something that was acceptable. However, I loaded the sprayer for the starboard side and sprayed it. This worked really well. One thing I did was thin it out with the universal Interlux thinning fluid. So after spraying I went back to the port side and brushed out the sag areas with the really thinned paint. For the most part it all worked out. Here are the pictures after the first coat.

Painting the Blue

Well I could no longer live with the scratches and fading paint and of course the transom being a different blue than the rest of the boat. So, as the weather has been great and sunny and hot I ran out of excuses. Today peeled the numbers off and got out the mineral spirits and cleaned up all of the sticky stuff. Then sanded all of the paint with a 100 grit sanding sponge. Followed by cleaning with water only to remove the dust and then a final wipe with mineral spirits. This was followed by priming all surfaces with Interlux PreKote. Love this stuff it brushes on smooth. A little challenging keeping a wet edge in today's heat. Here is a photo of the final results after priming.

Hopefully get some color on her tomorrow. Going with the Largo Blue.

Lake Oologah

Loaded up the boat and headed out to Lake Oologah in Rogers County. Had a great time. The new shifter and cables worked really good. Smooth shifting, smooth throttle control. Lake Oologah does not have blue green algae right now like some of the other Oklahoma lakes. The water is down, but terribly shallow. All the kids and dad rode on the tube and grandpa got some boat driving time.

While you are at Oologah check out Redbud Marina (http://www.redbudmarina.com/). They have fuel, pizza and ice cream. Quick easy self serve fuel. You can call ahead while you are on the lake, and they will have the pizza waiting for you when you pull up to the dock.