April 29th, 2011 - Adding Foam to the Seats

It was time to start adding the foam to give the seats that "T" shape. It might not look like much now,but I hope that they will take better shape after I add some more thin foam to the top and all the way around as well as recovering the bottoms. The real trick will be stitching up the covers that go over it all!

 First One Done, Kind Of, Second One Untouched

 Starting the Foam

A Little Cutting Off of the Excess is Needed

 Mockup, to See the Size

Perfect 

This is Going to Be the Ride Height

April 28th, 2011 - Finishing the Stereo and Fire Supression

Since our last post, the motor has been reattached and all of the cables and wires run and hidden, and the stereo amp and subwoofer has been installed. I also put in a fire extinguisher. I started on the seats as well. They had to be taken apart to make the seat bottoms longer and to cut the contours of the boat floor into them. Once they were put back together they fit real nice.

 View of the Front, Fire Ext., Subwoofer and Amp Under Dash

The Rear Showing the Splash Cushion 

 Again

Seat Before 

Seat Bottom, After 

Seats Fit in the Boat 

Cut Out Around Controls

April 27th, 2011 - Finishing the Transom and Putting the Motor Back On

Here, I finished up the transom area and re-attached the motor. It all went together very well. I added the splash panel and routed all of the cables and wires so they look nice. Also, I attached the GT-150 label to the dash.

 Stern View

 Another

Again 

 View Of the Splash well

GT-150 on the Dash

April 25th, 2011 - Working on the Transom and the seats have arrived

I finished adding body filler all the way around the metal plates and sanded them down. Then I taped it off and applied coats of primer and then painted the whole thing with the Rust-Oleum bottom paint. I put the seats in the boat and as you can see, they need a little adjusting. No big deal, we'll get to them later.

 The Stern, Primed

The Splash Well, Primed 

Stern, First Coat 

 Splash Well, First Coat

Seat Rough In

April 14th, 2011 - Working on the Transom

With the boat on the new trailer, it was time to tackle the transom area.  When it was repaired sometime in the past, there was a nice steel plate that was built around the contours on the transom, fully covering the outside of the well and the back of the boat. There are two steel plates inside the boat that are bolted to the new transom plate. All of the bolts and around the edges were covered in silicone. The steel plate also has quite a bit of surface rust on it. Also, when this was added, they never added a drain hole, so any water in the splash well would just stay there. I started out by removing the motor with that nice crane and putting it on my motor stand. Then I cleaned all of the silicone out. I filled the outer areas of the splash well with body filler so water can't collect there. I also will cover the seams in fiberglass and paint it all with bedliner paint. I plan on drilling a hole through the back so water can drain.

Lifting the Motor

 Motor on Crane

 '79 GT-150 Without the Motor

 Nice view from the Back

 Close-up of Steel Plate

 Body Seam will Need Some Repairs

 Before View of the Splash Well

 After View of the Splash Well

 Closer Look

Finished and Hardening

April 14th, 2011 - Switching Trailers, Putting the '79 GT-150 on the "New" Calkins Trailer

Withe the trailer Calkins trailer finally ready for use, it was time to put it under the '79. My friend, Mike, loaned me a huge lift/crane that Don and I used to lift the boat. First, we had to get the tow strap under the boat and around the stern so we could jack the heavy end up with the crane. Then we attached a strap to the bow eye and ran that to a ceiling bracket to lift the bow. After we had it high enough, we pulled the white trailer out and pushed the Calkins trailer under the boat. When we had it all aligned, we lowered the boat and removed the straps.

 The Finished Project

 A Rear View

 Nice Shot of the Crane

It's Up

 Look Ma, No Hands!

 

 This Worked Out Really Well

 

 View From the Rear

 Getting it All Adjusted

 On the New Trailer

 

It Looks Great

April 11th-12th, 2011 - '76 Calkins Trailer Paint and Reassembly

Over these two days, I painted the trailer with Rust-O-Leum paint, spray for the small pieces and hard to reach places and brush on for the big pieces. After the paint dried, it was time for reassembly.

The Trailer Bottom

The Roller Brackets

Back on the Wheels

Untaped

View of the Rollers

Rollers Again

Trailer From the Front