Seafarer Victory - Hardtop conversion.

[scottar]

Thanks for the interest lads. Well, there are two shiny new curved glass screens on the spare bed in the back room - let the games begin. First step is the fabrication of the trim to allow for the difference in the window footprint and to eliminate the hook in the side coaming. As it's not likely to have water issues, at this stage at least we are going glass over ply - it needs good screw retention and good compression capabilities so while ply will be a bit heavier, I can't see what is required being an issue. Talking to my glassing contact this arvo, the decision has been made to simply go with poly resin - above the water line so any resin was suitable and the finish will be two pack. I'll laminate the ply with epoxy glue/filler as it will only be between the layers and not where the poly is trying to stick to the timber. What could go wrong

[scottar]

If you think a trolling nose dip is exciting you haven't lived until you experience the Broadwater junction with the Coomera with a fleet of big mothers to add to the short chop.
After experiencing that once and watching the water run up to 4/5th the height of the screen one learns about trimming for slow speed mixed with accompanying Rivs and similar./
I don't think my front stainless support is at any risk of fatigue cracking, for the most part the clears do add almost enough side stability except when the driver is almost hooning.

LOL. I've lived more than enough. Many moons ago we did a midnight crossing of the SPB...…….and had a rather large f&^%up - two big green ones up the bow and thru clears in the middle of winter. Without a doubt the single most scary event of my time on the water and a very, very uncomfortable evening - Never trust a GPS for bar crossing LOL. This was in the old Trymax 5.9 Victory. Nose dips on big pressure waves were reasonably common on the old northern channel. I've also punched one in my own Vic on the Pin bar - it's hard to hang on, control the throttle, steer and zip the clears up all at once - I do a pretty fair octopus impression. Bet it was funny to watch.

[scottar]

If you have a close look at the hardtops on the US boats, you can see how they angle the struts to add side to side stability, I have a similar issue with the stainless T top on my boat, because it is fixed to the floor, there is about 2m of metal to wobble around, I temporarily put a stainless hose clamp on both sides to the grab rail, that was 2 years ago! I must get around to getting some "bits" made to weld to the console grab rail, but you know how these things go, the crap hose clamp fix up works, so I just keep forgetting about it.

Yep - that's the bit I hate Noel. It would literally do my head in looking around a 45 degree brace across the drivers field of view all day.

[scottar]

She has come up nice Ranmar. They do fit wipers mate - from underneath so the motor is in the cabin. I use a couple of rod holder inserts in the targa for my rigger bases and would only belt my already bashed up noggin on those - they do look the goods though. Courtesy of storage height restriction I am absolutely zero chance of getting anything like that high enough to avoid the expletives.

[catshark]

very tidy and functional hardtop i ever saw, neat work.

[ranmar850]

Storage height is certainly the issue. I can't get it under the verandah, so all the makings for an 8.2m long carport, extending off the verandah front, are sitting in the other driveway awaiting attention. It goes under until the rear of the hardtop reaches the verandah, and the small car goes in front of it. So the whole boat project just cost me another 3 grand .

[scottar]

Storage height is certainly the issue. I can't get it under the verandah, so all the makings for an 8.2m long carport, extending off the verandah front, are sitting in the other driveway awaiting attention. It goes under until the rear of the hardtop reaches the verandah, and the small car goes in front of it. So the whole boat project just cost me another 3 grand .

Funny how that happens. My kids first car just did the same to me LOL. I'm not finished yet either - still 50 odd metres of pavers to put down (I'm in no rush ).

[scottar]

Well, got the dreaded short term unemployment phone call last night - no work till next week.............How convenient I thought. Off to bunnings this morning after spending an hour argueing with some 3mm MDF attempting to make templates - no dice. Ended up using the thinnest furniture protection plastic they had - bit like industrial strength cling wrap as a starter template. Worked a heap better than builders film would have as it clung to the glass and didn't move about. Due to all the curves, I still had to put it down in 4 pieces. The critical part was accurately marking all the old bolt holes accurately. Next was transferring the shape to 3mm MDF - which is where the bolt holes became really important. After half an hour teaching the neighbours a new dialect, I ended up using the old screen - which courtesy of the grabrail held it's shape perfectly, to mark onto the MDF all the old bolt holes as accurately as I could. The bolt holes marked on the plastic film were then aligned with the ones on the MDF and the plastic traced around. The MDF was cut, trimmed and sanded until I was happy with it and then using some pine moulding and hot glue braced so it wouldn't break or move.

20181010_141313.jpg

Next step was transferring this to marine ply. When I got to Bunnings this morning, I grabbed a sheet and thought " wholy sheet - that's heavy" and have to admit was briefly concerned. I needn't have worried. The ply I ended up with is 9mm and each cut out would be lucky to weigh 2kg - most of the sheet is wastage. At a guess the finished product will be well less than 20kg once glassed and painted. I got two cut outs from each sheet - they don't go all the way to where the coaming finishes but with 5 thicknesses and staggered joins they will be fine. I got 4 done by close of business - one more tomorrow and sort out the hooks at the end and then I'll glue them together. At this stage I am considering some hardwood dowels as alignment aids for the gluing process just to make life easy. I'm pretty happy with how it's all looking - I don't find the addition obtrusive to look at even in a raw unshaped form - once it's been shaped and sanded it should be better again.

20181010_172409.jpg20181010_172432.jpg sorry about the pic orientation.

[TheRealAndy]

Pro tip, if you want to make patterns, use lots of small strips of thin ply (3mm) or cardboard and a hot melt glue gun. Have a bunch of cloths pegs handy to hold the bits together whilst the glue sets.

If you need to hold a shape, then ply is better and you can glue in bits of cross bracing to hold it together.

[scottar]

Pro tip, if you want to make patterns, use lots of small strips of thin ply (3mm) or cardboard and a hot melt glue gun. Have a bunch of cloths pegs handy to hold the bits together whilst the glue sets.

If you need to hold a shape, then ply is better and you can glue in bits of cross bracing to hold it together.

Yeah I sort of tried that Andy - there isn't a straight line on that coaming - even the sides that at first glance look straight - aren't. Lost my shit, threw the toys out of the cot and went looking for some heavy film like the trimmers use for templating. The stuff I got wasn't it but actually ended up better with it's tendancy to cling. The only real issue with it was when I tried to transfer the image to the MDF, I was half in the sun and it lost any sort of stiffness and went anywhere it wanted . Ten minutes in the shade sorted that though.

[gazza2006au]

Hey Scottar u could use plywood of any thickness u like to make the template lets say u pick 9mm grab a circular saw and set the blade to cut 6mm and run a series of cuts close to each other you'll find the plywood will bend around curves very easily than just fill all those line cuts with a glue mixture let it cure and the template will be rock hard

also forgot to mention plywood comes in a different density weights u can get like 450kilo a square meter up to the marine stuff is i think 850kilo a square meter but i wouldn't worry to much about the weight once u cut out there windscreen and side windows you'll only have a fraction of the plywood left and it will take only a small amount of resin and cloth to cover, also if u run radius in your corners of the windscreen and side windows of the plywood it will make the structure so much more stronger even if those radius's are only the size of a cup but extend the length horizontally and vertically 300-350mm u probably only need 30-35mm it would barely impact your vision but it would be a ton stronger than just running a thin outline around the windows as structure

at the back top of the hard top add some gussets i think they are called just small triangles this should stop the whole lot shaking side to side when u go over swell or chop

[TheRealAndy]

Yeah I sort of tried that Andy - there isn't a straight line on that coaming - even the sides that at first glance look straight - aren't. Lost my shit, threw the toys out of the cot and went looking for some heavy film like the trimmers use for templating. The stuff I got wasn't it but actually ended up better with it's tendancy to cling. The only real issue with it was when I tried to transfer the image to the MDF, I was half in the sun and it lost any sort of stiffness and went anywhere it wanted . Ten minutes in the shade sorted that though.

Even if there are no straight edges, its easier to shape a small section then stitch them together.

[scottar]

Hey Scottar u could use plywood of any thickness u like to make the template lets say u pick 9mm grab a circular saw and set the blade to cut 6mm and run a series of cuts close to each other you'll find the plywood will bend around curves very easily than just fill all those line cuts with a glue mixture let it cure and the template will be rock hard

also forgot to mention plywood comes in a different density weights u can get like 450kilo a square meter up to the marine stuff is i think 850kilo a square meter but i wouldn't worry to much about the weight once u cut out there windscreen and side windows you'll only have a fraction of the plywood left and it will take only a small amount of resin and cloth to cover, also if u run radius in your corners of the windscreen and side windows of the plywood it will make the structure so much more stronger even if those radius's are only the size of a cup but extend the length horizontally and vertically 300-350mm u probably only need 30-35mm it would barely impact your vision but it would be a ton stronger than just running a thin outline around the windows as structure

at the back top of the hard top add some gussets i think they are called just small triangles this should stop the whole lot shaking side to side when u go over swell or chop

It's not a full wheelhouse set up Gazza - think more Cruisecraft, Signature or Tournament. Nothing in the walls besides glass and window frames. The ply is simply to get rid of the hook in the side coaming so the sliders have a flat surface to mount into - it also raises the screen high enough so I don't have the bottom edge of the window frame in my vision when standing up.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?v...sbi&ajaxhist=0

Similar to this but with a short clear behind the slider

[scottar]

Even if there are no straight edges, its easier to shape a small section then stitch them together.

Probably where I was going wrong - trying to do too big of an area all at once. We live and learn …...and throw the odd wobbly in the middle

[Dignity]

I also found that the difference between Bunnings marine ply and that from local timber suppliers is like chalk and cheese, B uses the lightest, coarsest sheeting.