cleaning out the carcass

trojanmanXS · Post by **trojanmanXS** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:30 am

well its a hot wsunny day and a great day to be on the boat. Sadly I'm on the boat and on the hard!!! I just finished removing all of the plywood inside the cabin on my 1979 f26 and have left only the three plywood stringer forms and am now trying to no avail to clean the inside hull and bilge area. Must have been a rat or ten living in there and have a pile of there waste along one side of teh hull. I bought some heavy duty cleaner at Home Depot along with greas lighting and it works ok. but this is a tough job and only covering a small amount of ground with alot of time. Can a pressure washer be used in there ? One neighbor has offered his unit and says its a low pressure so wont cut into the glass or matt but I declined thinking it would , any ideas on howto clean the entire inside hull to prep for paint ????

LandVF36 · Post by **LandVF36** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:45 am

unless the fiberglass is delaminating, in which case it needs to be repaired, you cannot hurt the glass with a portable pressure washer. I have a 5500 psi unit and with a 5 degree tip, it will clean away about anything but once it gets down to the glass, that's it. Soak it down with some bildge cleaner in an area for 20 min and then blast away. THe only think to be careful with is wires and wood. The pressure washer will cut into that stuff in a heartbeat.

larryeddington · Post by **larryeddington** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:20 pm

I am going to clean inside my hull and will use my 10 hp ressure washer.

My method will be vacuum first to get dry stuff, pressure wash, dry and repain with bilge coat.

At least that is my plans if it ever gets below 100 degree outside.

trojanmanXS · Post by **trojanmanXS** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:46 pm

ok borrowed a pressure washer got in there and started to blast it , it was fully shopvacumed before and took out just about everything in the cabin minus the ceiling it was in perfect shape , well before I started pressure washing that is , once it started whatever it was on the hull bottom was blasted off ina heartbeat and then when I look up it was coating the ceiling of which I am not changing sooooooo now have the fans going and trying to get the "gook" off my ceiling , geesh shes gonna make me work hard for this first ride she best be worth it ,,,,

larryeddington · Post by **larryeddington** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 5:11 pm

That is just some of the issues you run in to. My f28 is on the hard beside my barn under a cheapy awning from Harbor freight.

I have the power packages ready to go. Just waiting on cooler weather to get to the down and dirty.

My current goal is to get it in the water late winter or early spring.

Once there will post picks.

Torcan · Post by **Torcan** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 6:40 pm

trojanmanXS wrote: she best be worth it ,,,,

It will always be worth it, when you pour the elbow grease and love into any project.

Good luck, would be nice to see some pics of your progression as well.

trojanmanXS · Post by **trojanmanXS** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:45 pm

Ok its the end of the day and as you see today got the better of me , I expected to walk down into the cabin and have it gleeming and shiny in one day. well after realizing it AINT happening Ive come to terms that its going to be done one square foot at a time with a brush and elbow grease/alot of elbow grease. I'll get some pics up this week as I have to have something new to show you first , so by the end of the week I'll have a clean inside hull and all the new plywood cut sanded but prolly not painted . I am planning on painting the fiberglass prior to installing the plywood just to give it the clean look "wife will be more apt to spend some time in there and maybe help out a bit. thanks for the input and will keep posting and asking alot a stupid questions ,

MattSC · Post by **MattSC** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:53 pm

it'll be worth it! Good luck with the boat, look forward to seeing some photos

gettaway · Post by **gettaway** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:51 pm

hey Trojanman

I have been working on a smilar project in my F-32. I when I pulled the engines, I too found a mess. I did the vacuum thing, I then used mineral spirits and wiped the entire engine room hull clean. I took several passes with mineral spirits and then a clean rag until I got all of the oily messy goo cleaned. I then scrubbed the entire engine room hull with Soft Scrub and a stiff bristle brush, while it didnt end up shiney, it ended up with a clean solid surface for paint. I hopefully will have the new engines in before labor day.

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trojanmanXS · Post by **trojanmanXS** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:56 pm

nice bilge room there, I would however have eating off your floor once the engines were pulled by the looks of your pic. I think I could open an oil refinerly AND a toxic dump from I'm looking at in mine will have the pics up by end of week

gettaway · Post by **gettaway** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:49 pm

i found another photo of the progress, I will be making battery boxes fore and aft on the center walk way, and will make center boards in lieu of the those three 1 X 4's that the heel of my boots convieniently always slipped through.
[img][img]http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab19 ... room-1.jpg[/img][/img]

larryeddington · Post by **larryeddington** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:56 pm

can I hire you to come to Texas to do mine?

CLEAN!!!