Through the winter it was difficult to get a lot done as my shop (Julie's garage for her car, and she's still talking to me for now) is to cold and we are not able to keep it heated. I purchased the plywood for the transom cut it outside using the old transom as a guide. The transom is made up of 2- ¾" ply 1- ¼" ply and 1- 1/8" veneer and then white oak frame. I started by gluing the ¼" and ¾" ply together then I put on the veneer. I carried this back into the house after I glued them together in order to keep them warm. I shaped this to fit the opening and installed it. I then finished the oak frame and installed it. Finally I made the last ¾" ply to fit in the fame and laminated it to the transom. During this time I also made the new dash out of the off cuts from the transom.
With the warm weather approaching this aloud me to paint the bottom with racing bronze paint and flip the boat right side up. Now we could speed up the fun. I sanded and painted the bottom inside with an Epifanis enamel, then plugged the transom holes with bungs and completed the exterior sanding of the wood in preparation for stain. I had some Petitt dark mahogany stain left over and I stained the deck. Unfortunately this was great until I found out I could not get anymore. It seems they can not import from the U.S. anymore as they refuse to put French and English on the labels. So I could drive to the States and get some or use something else. The boat show in Gravenhurst was fast approaching and I was determined to have it finished for the show. I talked to others and found that Goudy stains were also a good choice. I could get that locally, so I went and had a look. I brought two stains home and tried them out on a piece of wood. I settled on the Colonial Cherry. I now needed to sand off the deck that I just stained with the old colour in order that it all looked the same. Sanding, sanding and more sanding - It's part of the restoration process so you best not hate it to much. I was a little uptight to say the least as I was still unsure how the stain was going to look, and I really, really, did not want to start again. I was worried that the stain was not going to be red enough as it turned out it was too red. I used a toner for the first two coats of varnish and this helped to get the colour just right. After 4 coats of varnish I filled in the seams with a traditional material of mastic plus varnish and a little colour. While I waited for this to cure I painted the steering wheel and outdrive. I purchased paint for the out-drive from Nymar Marine. He supplies a very hard paint for outboard restoration. His web site tells you all about the products. After preparing the areas I was afraid to use my expensive HVLP to paint the out drive for fear of the paint harding in it. I used a small disposable unit by Perval. This can be purchased for less than $ 20.00 at the big Orange box. The results were fantastic.
Back to varnishing the boat with 5 more coats. I covered everything with plastic for the last 2 coats to help prevent the dust. We were now down to two weeks before the boat show and the list to do was still very long. I hauled the boat up to Muskoka to have the crash pad put on the cockpit opening and also pick up the seats. I still had the engine, out-drive and hardware to install. With only one weekend and 5 days to the show, I rented an engine hoist Friday night so I could have all day Saturday to install the engine. As we had trouble getting it out I took it apart a little more to make it smaller going back in. Saturday morning all was ready so I hooked up the engine to the hoist and got it up about a foot and the hoist quit. I was by myself just getting ready and the engine came down and rolled on its side. AHHH! bent the alternator adjustment and snapped off the throttle lever. Great, more work, back to the rental with a sad face I went. They were sorry and fixed things up but the damage was done.
Getting back, it was noon before I could get all the help together and try to put the engine in. We did this by nose diving the engine in at almost 90 degrees then resting it on the bottom and readjusting the chains. Now after all this time I could not remember how all the pieces went. So with help from a friend (Eric) who actually reads the information book, he looked at the book and found exactly how it went together. We fiddled with it for hours until it was done. I left the out-drive off as I did not know how to line it up. This I left to the pros at Walkers Point Marina. Down to three days and still have to put in the floor seats and all the hardware. No way can I do all this in the evenings so my holidays started earlier and thank goodness, Eric is a music teacher and had the time off. We worked on it until Thursday night getting it all back together. We had an appointment for 7:00 am at Walkers Point Marina for the out-drive to be installed. So at 4:30am I got up and left for the marina. Arriving at two minutes to 7:00 the mechanic was ready to work. Now then after a lot of fiddling with the engine it was determine that I had it in too high and we could not adjust it to line up. AHHHH (again). With all hope dashed and a very sad me, we put the out-drive on, at least we could float it in the show. After the show I had no energy to redo the installation and maybe get it wrong again. I talked to Mike Windsor. He listen to my story and all though he was not eager to work on those out-drives he agreed to help me out. Within a week Mike had redone the install. As well he replaced all the parts that I should have done but did not have the knowledge to do.
We Presented the Boat to Robert and took some photos of the happy couples. I was thrilled to have it done and back at the cottage where it took its original spot in the boathouse. All ready the boat has traveled to Clear Lake and to Glousler pool for rendezvous. We look forward to bringing it to many events in the future including next year's boat show in full running order. | 
