First Things First

[NoBones]

I left my floor in the shop ala-natural..
When you seal a floor water will lay there for days
on end.
My old garage had a sealed floor and I hated it!
Just my .02¢ worth...

See ya, Ken

[Blue_Heron]

Haven't posted on progress recently, but I've been busy working up to the big project. Strick's got me pumped to start the 25 Seafari Restoration, but I want to get all the other stuff out of the way before I start. I've been working on the shop most weekends, but there's other stuff that needed doing too.

The fuel tank in my Action Craft finally succumbed to the ravages of crevice corrosion. The boat was unusable, and I couldn't stand to let it sit and deteriorate further, so I pulled the tank to make repairs. First, I removed all the screws and bolts from the rub rail and the hull to deck joint. Then I lifted the top cap to gain access to the tank.



I slid a hand saw down the sides of the tank to separate it from the foam and then pulled it out. The corrosion had worked its way through the aluminum in several places where the tank was encapsulated in the foam. This is typical:



I flushed the tank with soapy water, filled it twice with clean water, and drained it to make sure there was no fuel residue or vapor that might be flammable or explosive. Then I used a brazing rod formulated for aluminum to fill the holes. As a belt and suspenders approach, I also laminated the bottom and sides of the tank with epoxy/glass to act as secondary containment in case I missed any pin holes. The tank compartment was not well drained so I drilled some holes to allow it to drain to the bilge. The tank deck core was foam, so no worries about rotting plywood down the road. This is what it looked like before I drilled the drainage holes.



Here's the tank back in place. I put 3/4" PT spacers under the tank to put some air space between the tank and the surrounding deck and foam.



Reassembly complete:



It was time to rebuild the water pump, so I went ahead and did that too.



After completing the work on the Action Craft, and taking a nice ride on the Suwanee River with my wife to sea trial the repairs, I got back to work on the shop. I've painted the walls white to improve light reflectivity, installed an air compressor, some casework, counter tops, and storage shelving, and I'm almost ready to get started on the Seafari. I'm going to be out of town for a week, but will try to post some pics when the shop is ready for action.