July 22/25

Big weekend of work this time. First was I finally decided on a new tank fabricator. I wanted the tanks redone locally so I could talk to the welders about construction, materials and most important take them a tank so the fitting would be guaranteed to fit the existing plumbing. Each tank has seven fittings, fill, drain, return, top/bottom sight gauge and two vents.  These are different sizes and I want to be sure the existing plumbing will fit the new tank. Some of the placements are critical as the plumbing goes through the floor and the tank covers. So I took off Friday afternoon to deliver the two tanks I have out of the boat to the fabricator.

This is the hole that caused all the problems (e.g. leak). It was in the bottom on the port forward tank and right where the tank sits on the support. So water probably got on to the support and ran under that tank and rusted this out from the outside. It did not leak too fast as the support was under the hole which closed it up somewhat. (I also stuck a key into the hole to see how strong the metal was. Pretty rusted out. With the tanks delivered, it was off to the boat for most painting, etc.

First up was cleaning, sanding, and painting the port side exhaust manifold on the port engine. One of the cooling hosed had leaked several years ago and dripped on the hot exhaust manifold and caused some rust. So the manifold had to be stripped of the rust down to bare metal as well as the engine mount below. I never could get to this area before with the fuel tank in the way so this was my one opportunity to clean up this whole mess. The exhaust was repainted with high temperature paint.

Next was to re-fiberglass the tank support. This is ½ plywood and was fiberglassed previously so I just had to clean it up and put another coat of glass on. After talking to the tank fabricator, we decided that the tank should not rest directly on the support platform but on some strips of very hard rubber. The rubber will be placed directly above the ribs. So the tank platform is not actually needed but I kept it to spread the load out a little over the ribs. The tanks will be ¼ so they will have a very strong bottom. However, we did not want any water to get under the tanks, so I cut holes in the platform to allow air circulation as well as to drain any water away.

Next was to deal with all the screws sticking thru the hull behind the tanks. This may have been the source of the water under the tanks. I did not want to disturb the screws as they hold on the outside exhaust tube. So I made some 1 ½ inch blocks of wood with a ¾ hole on the back side. The hole was filled with silicon around the screws and the blocks were fiberglassed onto the side of the hull. This will allow the screws to be undone at some point and still seal out any water intrusion. I thought of glassing the inside of the screws but then they could not be removed in the future. I really hate things that cannot be maintained in the future.

The final job for the weekend was to clean up around the aft tank so the area could be painted. This area had the latest diesel spill as the diesel ran out of the fuel lines as I was working on the forward tank. So more scrubbing, sanding and wiping down of the area. Then a first coat of Bilge Kote paint. All in all, a good weekend of work.

July 16/17

This weekend is continuing cleaning and painting the bilge. There is a lot of dirt accumulation and spilled diesel in the bilge. All this takes hours to clean up before the new paint can be applied. First is vacuuming up the loose dirt. Then washing out what is left. This takes using bilge cleaner and then fiberglass wash and a good scrub brush. It takes a lot to get the diesel up. This really smells a lot so good ventilation is a requirement.

This is the first coat of paint in the area between the port side fuel tanks around the exhaust exit thru the hull. It may take about three coats of paint to do a good job covering up the old gray paint.

July 2/3

The task this weekend is to remove the second tank, clear out the area where it was and start repainting the bilge. Removing the second tank is a repeat of the first tank. Slide the tank from beside the engine aft to where the first tank was. Then tilt it over on it back and slide it to the center of the engine room. Stand it back up again and slide it up between the engines. Hook up the lifting harness. Attach everything to the lift frame over the hatches. Crank up the come-alongs. Put 2x4s under the tank. Remove the harness. Slide the tank out salon doors. Hook up the dingy crane. Pick up the tank and swing it over the side of the cockpit on to the dock. Put the furniture dolly under the tank. Roll the tank to the parking lot and load into the van. Takes about an hour of work.

Here is the empty space where the forward tank came from. Behind the tank is just the raw fiberglass. The cribbing is the support for the tank under the support platform. All this area needed to be sanded to prep it for some Interlux Bilge Kote paint. This paint is designed to resist oil, diesel, etc. in the bilge. Obviously this will be my one and only time available to clean and paint this area.

This is the same location with the first coat of paint. I was debating using white fiberglass to cover this area but after a lot of research decided on the Bilge Kote instead.

Also, as long as I have access to the outside of the engine, there is some rust on the engine mounts and exhaust manifold. So all that will get cleared up and painted at the same time.

Saturday 6/18

Today’s work is to remove the final bolts holding the forward tank in place, Of course, it is not just the bolts, more fuel lines need to be disconnected. To get the bolts out, the ceiling needs to be lowered to get at the end of the bolt. To lower the ceiling, the yellow fuel lines need to be removed. So the whole day went into this operation. Because there are several tank supports, there are several ceiling paneling that have to come down.

Once the top bolts are out, the process with the fuel lines is repeated at the bottom. There are two fuel feeds from the tanks to the Racor filters.