Thread:

1963 Biesemeyer 4 Point Hydro Restore

While it rains outside on this Sunday I guess I will do a little bit of an update. Can't really complain about the rain being it will knock some of the dust down that is so needed to be done after the insane amount of sanding I've done but it could happen at night and not slowed progress.



The week started off with fixing the holes in the dash and filling in the fiberglass for the old gas tank fills. I expected two holes for the tanks fills but after seeing some cracks and doing some sanding I found that there were two other holes for fills that had been covered in the past. Little Bondo and paint and it was all good for them but not this time around. All was ground out, backer wood was glassed in where necessary and then multiple layers of fiberglass placed on top feathered into the surroundings. Also a couple areas around where the motor sits had to be patched up also. Nothing major but if it was even slightly cracked or had a hole they got groundout re-fiberglassed.



As the inside started to tighten up I moved to the top side outer hull. I was making insane progress and was almost thinking I was going too fast until I ran across this. This is where the top half meets the bottom half the boat. The picture is of it after I already attacked it once with my disk grinder just trying to get it semi-flat and some of the five layers of paint off that caked in the corners. After looking at it months ago I already located and priced a rub-rail for it but after talking to another classic Beise owner the first thing they notice was that ours had never had one installed and wishes his did not. I also know a few folks with little outboards boats that are built the same why and they all prefer no rub-rail. So to keep it as traditional as possible I am attempting to fix it.



At this point I have already filled in the major chunks that were missing and where it was coming apart I filled in all the gaps with resin to where I could get enough of it together to start building off of. Almost like scaffolding under an arch ceiling. Ground everything down to the basic shape and then started making circles around the boat putting down fiberglass as I passed. First the top than the bottom. Let that set up grind it back down to the basic shape and feathering the edges and then back around again for another layer. At this point mechanically it's 120% and is totally intact except for a small place on the bow that I cant get to yet.



At this point I am also fixing anything else I can find. Fiberglass Bondo for any blemish that is over a sheet of paper thickness and multiple sandings of the whole hull (except for the bottom, got to get it off the triailer first).



Having over 25 hours into the whole hull joint thing alone kind of makes progress almost look nonexistent but it's happening. Soon things will be moving a little more to where they will show up in a movie and then we'll do another You Tube update but until then you can always check an updated movie out@ ResurrectionMarine.com in the "future resurrection" section.

Well it's time for a long-overdue update.
A lot has been going on even though it doesn't make for good pictures or movies.



The main thing it's been going on is bodywork, bodywork, bodywork. You never really know what's wrong until you look at it with a magnifying glass and then you see all. I got enough of the top half of the hull done that I felt it was time to start working on the bottom half. That meant it had to come off the trailer. So out came the big gantry crain and about every block that I could scrounge up. It took a little bit to figure it out being I'm used to blocking up V hulls but after a short time the trailer was out.



Again one of the main things that was holding me up is this damn deck to hull joint. It was pretty much destroyed all the way around the boat. If I knew it was going to be this much work I probably would've just picked up that rub rail and done with it. But now that it's almost done I'm kind of glad I took the extra effort to do it. Not really sure how long the last but I'm giving it my best effort.
Most of it used to look like the picture above. This is the very bow and the one area that I couldn't get to while it was on the trailer. The process has many, many steps but eventually you get to what it looks like in the picture below.



Once you got a shelf built then you built up multiple layers on the top side and bottom side, feathered into the hull so not to cause a lump. Let it set up and then do it again. Then when you get enough built-up, scribal a line on what stays and then with the grinder knockoff about 80% of what you built. I wish I knew of a better way. It seems like a waste but it's the only way I can figure with gravity and such affecting the outcome.



Tiny bit of fiberglass Bondo, some sanding, little more Bondo, more sanding and then couple layers of primer with some light sandings in-between just to smooth it out and get it in the right shape.
Even thoughI still am doing some of the topside stuff the real thing is to get the bottom side done so I can get the bottom painted and the boat back up on the trailer. So I attacked it here and there due to bad weather for a better part of a week. Seems like we get a day a sun and two days of rain and cold but I guess that's what spring is supposed to be like. The bottom required a little extra work to straighten out. It seems like who ever painted it two colors ago used a body filler that was defective or something. Even the smallest amount swelled up under the paint and cause a blister. So every spot had the ground down to the original glass and then fixed back to original. This time I used real fiberglass as much as I could and then fiberglass bondo to finish it off. I don't think it will blister again this time but all this extra work has held me up by a lot of hours.



On the cold days I've been doing a couple little side projects like trying to figure out a throttle and gear shifter. I was going to do the floor shifter thing and the foot throttle pedal and even have the foot pedal in stock but then decide to go this route. Kind of old school look and for the most part you won't be able to see it anyway being that it mounts under the side bolster padding. But it didn't turn out too bad.



Also on the cold days I figured I'd have to get the trailer fixed before it can ever put it back under the boat so there was no time like the present. Took about a whole day just to get stripped-down, everything sanded and a crap load of stuff cut off the trailer. Someone in this trailers pass must've been a welder. There were stuff that I've never seen before attached to it.



Long story short there was about 10 pounds of steel and plastic in my scrap bucket before it was all done



But with new bunks, new carpet, all the rust removed, new paint, new wiring, lights and the whole thing painted (not to mention the rebuilt hubs and new tires) it looks a lot better.



One of the main things that I've been trying to do since the day I got this boat is to make the wheels smaller and the fenders lower. Started off with taken off the dry rotted 235/15's tires and replacing them with with a lower profile 175/15's. That brought it down some but the welder guy past owner welded the fender brackets to the axel so no matter how small of a wheel I put on the fenders were going to stay in the same place. So I cut off the brackets, shorten their height and then drilled them out so I could use a couple mounting bolts with wing nuts. It wont be the easiest thing to do but now you can take to fenders off if necessary like you could originaly. Right now it's borderline on whether removing the fender would ever be needed as much as I have lowered them but we will see when it hits the water and how it floats.



Yesterday I made enough progress on the bottom to put a coat of paint on it. I then saw everything that I missed before. That dark red could really hide some stuff. After giving it a couple hours to dry and then went back at it with my spot putty and primer. Before it got dark I had enough time to wet sand the whole thing again. Today after another wipe down I got another 3 coats on it before I called it quits for the day.

Now I can finaly get it back on the trailer. I had a friend stop by and ask why I didnt do the whole thing while I was at it. I had to explain that the whole goal was get the paint done in the areas that the bunks sat on and were it would be to diffacaut to get to when on the trailer. Being I have to do the 4 spots that are under the blocks anyway. Doing it this way gives me a chance to go over everything one last time just in case.

For those who don't like to read. lol
A movie update.

looks like alot of great progress!! way to go

Great work, you have come a very long way. Love the video.

Slowly but surely things are moving along.
Painting seems like it has gone on forever but I think some of it may have come to an end tonight.

Picking up from when I left off with the last update, the bottom was finished off. From there I had to get back up on a trailer so I could do the four areas where the boat sat on the blocks. I tell you the older these boats get more of a pain in the a$$ they are. I've basically given up on primer. Doesn't matter how many times I prime and block sand I still find things that have to be fixed after the first coat of paint goes on. So I played this game for couple days. And for another four or five days we had 40+ mph winds so things moved along at a snail's pace but on the positive side I don't think I've ever spent so much time on such a small area of paint.

Then the taping started. After many, many tries and many, many failures trying to get the tape right around the deck and it still not looking right I had to resort to drastic measures. I took a fine tip dry erase marker and just followed where the deck's sunkin detail was. Just stuck the marker in the crotch and made a nice smooth line from bow to transom. Then I just followed the dry erase marker with tape all the way around and erased the marker as I went. All I can say is it got it done. lol

This past Friday and Saturday I would get a couple coats of blue on and then do a little block sanding and then do a couple more thin coats. I know this is not the way that most of you would do it. But I have a theory behind the madness. The way I figure it is no matter what falls in the paint it will only be one layer deep. Then it will be wet sanded off and a another layer on top of that and the chances of a bug or something landing in the same exact spot are not likely. I hate doing it this way because it causes a lot of extra work but you got to do what you got to do to make it right. I always try to do the final layers early in the morning before things get moving around but for what I call inspection/building layers things move slow enough because of the weather. There's just not an enough time to do a layer, let it set up, wet sand, and then wait until the next morning before I can spray another layer. No matter what though there's enough paint that my buffer will take out any imperfections. I hope.
Sadly though getting a late start on Saturday kind of meant that I had a late finish. I put my last coat on about 6 PM. Look pretty damn good and I figured it was all done. I was going to cover the boat about 8 PM but I figured the chances of me rubbing the top on the wrong place out weighed the chances of rain. Should have took the chance and went with the top. Somewhere between 2 and 6 AM we must've got a sprinkle and the metallic blue paint did not like that at all. I probably could have wheeled out the watermarks in a couple weeks when the paint hardened up but I then decided on doing a little something that I saw on TV that I've always wanted do but was afraid of the outcome. Now it may be a saving grace if it works. But now there was another coat or two to be done. The scary thing was I was extremely low on paint to do it but I had no other option.

So first thing this morning after I got done throwing things was hard-core wet sanding and re-taping all the lines.
I took what was left of my Light Sapphire Metallic Blue single stage paint and mixed it up with its activator. Then I got out a can of clearcoat (that was so over full from the factory was when I opened it clearcoat fluid blew out the can) and mixed up about a quart of that with its activator. And then I added about 25 or 30% of the clear to the blue paint. Mix it up and shot it. And then for the second it was about 50-50 and for the third coat it was about 80-20 and from there I am out of paint so I hope it works.
Just to make sure it's got the best shot of working and drying properly and even though they are not call for a single drop of rain for the next 24 hours I decided to tent the whole boat after a couple hours of open drying time.
From what I saw of it it looks pretty good and I know when the clear sets and the sun to shining it's going to burn the retinas out of your head. Also on the upside after all this, adding the clear makes buffing a little less risky for single stage.
Now finally I can get to the last paint job. It may be easiest but at same time it to be the hardest. Before anything gets installed everything inside has to be painted from the transom all the way to the tip of the bow including the underside of the front deck. Most of it's a piece of cake but after putting in the bow winch eye I am not looking forward to have brush and roller in hand while smashed between the two decks. It doesn't have to be perfect because you're definitely not going to see it on a daily basis but it has to be done for the clean factor alone. And everything looks better with a coat of paint.

Damn, I messed up.

We left off at me trying to fix the water spotted blue metal flake paint by shooting a single coat of single stage and then mixing clear coat at different ratios with what little paint I had left.
I would love to say that it was the paints fault but....... I don't know.
I do think the mixing of clear and a single stage is a great idea and I like the way it looks when it's finished. Not so plastic looking on an older boat as a 2 stage looks. Like half way between a single and 2 stage. It also would be great for blending paint for repairs. As for this time I'm not sure what happened. After giving it a day to set up I unwrapped the boat and it looked great from every direction except when you looked at it from the bow to the stern it just didn't look right. There was two areas where the flake took on a totally different look then the rest. Having a few things to do I gave it a couple days to harden up thinking it had to be in the top clear coat layers and they should "color sand" out.



If that wasn't bad enough then the real painting hell began.
Before anything was installed or "finished" inside the boat all the interior had to be painted for the first time ever. Some had some spots of paint here and there before but after all the repairs, replacements and crap that sat in it for years it all needed a fresh coat from the stern to the tip of the bow.
It started with power-washing it out and after giving it a day to dry I broke out the roller, brushes, respirator and paint and went at it. I used the Rust-Oleum, Smoke Grey with a can of Valspar hardener added.
For a while there I thought I was getting more paint on me then I was on the hull but by the time I got out from under the front deck it was a piece of cake and made everything look much better.



I then tinkered around with the prop shaft, struts and V-drive until I couldn't find the coupler for the prop shaft to V- drive so I had to order one that's not here yet. Being I want to put everything together and make sure it's still lined up proper meant I had to wait on it which meant I couldn't install the rudder and steering which meant I couldn't get to this and that as the dominos started to fall.
So I went back to the paint. It had been a couple days and needs to be complete before............everything else. Spent a number of hours wet sanding all the way up to 2000 grit and then compounding and even trying a coat of wax. No matter what I did when I got the bad spots to look better there was always like an edge that I was chasing up the deck. If it was a car panel I could have chased it to an end and you would have never noticed it. There was no end for another 5 feet in a couple directions on the deck and by the time I would get there I would have had made other issues. It took a while to come to it but I had to give up. The blue paint was a total fail or as Forest Gump said after stepping in dog crap while jogging, " it happens".
Sanded everything back down and ordered a new can of paint. It's time to end this.
Had a couple days of the Nor-easter hit us and just for fun this afternoon when things let up I went out and took the top off to install a couple little thing between rain showers. About 2 months ago when doing some of the major fiberglassing I would cover the boat with the top and use a space heater to keep things warm. One time the wind was blowing and the top got in the wet glass. No big deal, let it dry, flake it off and move on. Well it all didn't come off and even though I have used the top for many weeks, after 2 days of rain the fiberglass transfered to the wet sanded area in two spots like a transfer sticker and took major sandpaper to get it all off. I now am using the top inside out until I either get it all off or a new top.

Hoping for a new start tomorrow.

Where did we leave off at? That's right, everything going wrong.........
Well it seems like I've turned a corner.
After an insane amount of sanding, prep work, taping and masking I was ready for paint again. Put the cover on it that night and it was another 4 days before I got the first opportunity to paint the blue again. Shot it in the morning and then the boat sat out until almost dark. Then I built a tent over it and sealed it up to where nothing could get in just in case of a hurricane or something were to show up. Glad I did to. The next morning before a bright sunny day, it poured, I mean poured for about 15 minutes. Not sure if it would have hurt it at that point but I was happy I wasn't risking it again.



It didn't turn out to bad. I did the same thing as last time, adding clear to the single stage for the last few coats. It's going to need a little bit of polishing and such (the added clear will allow a lot of that if needed) but for now I'm going to let it set up for a couple weeks to get nice and hard before anything more. That and I am sick as hell of painting and anything to do with it.



Before I could do the paint and in between rain and wind storms I moved the masking plastic aside and made a go at getting the V drive installed. What a b!tch. Even though I drilled out the old mounting holes into the new stringers before removing the old fiberglass, things didn't go well. The new stringers must be a little thicker or something. It took 2 days of getting frustrated, leaving and going back to it before I think I got it right. A shim here, a shim there, tighten everything up, find it wrong and then do it again and again and again.



Once that was done I moved on to the rudder. Ran across the same issues. The bracket didn't fit so major modifications had to be made to it. Then I had to get it all lined up (the bracket was now set up and mounted different so there was no old holes to follow). That took forever to get it perfect so the rudder moved with the tiniest effort. For some reason it was always binding after righting everything up. Finally figured out that the top bearing was shifting a tiny bit on the last turn of one of the two bolts that held it. Drilled out the hole in the plate a tiny bit and it was seated down perfect.



Man I've been waiting for this. To me this is the fun stuff. I think my true dream job would be, find the boat, striping it, conceiving what I would want done, send it out for wood, glass, bodywork and paint, then I would fit it out. Like a TV show. lol
You wouldn't think there was that much wire in this boat. The harness I am using has 20 wires at 15' each and I still had to add another 75+ feet to it. That's almost 400 feet of wire. Some will be cut down as things get installed but I guarantee that when it's all said and done there will be 250' left in the boat. Wow! One thing is for sure, there will never be an electrical issue with this boat. Not a single break anywhere, everything is in a wire loom even under decks and up under the gunnels and all the ends and where the wire loom splits is wrapped with heat-shrink.



After another two days almost all the electrics are done. It was one of the first thing needed to be finished. Everything that was left to be installed from here out either needs electric or would be in the way of running electric so this is a big hurdle to get over. Just waiting on things like fuel tanks and the motor to be installed to finish up the other ends of the lines.
I do like the white gauges against the blue.



I guess it's official.



I just like this picture.

I have to say thanks folks for all the views. I wish YouTube would let you do updates to your movies but you have to make a new one with every update (and lose your view count). Just cleaned out some of the older copies and I stopped counting at over 2000 views. So either some of you are digging it or someone one left it on repeat and went on vacation. Either way it was cool to see. Thanks!
So again for those who don't like to read.....enjoy.



Or you can check out all the goings on at Resurrection Marine.com

Looking good... I have never seen one of these hulls before, Im anxious to see a shot of the back end with the exhause tips on, chrome I hope...

Damn! You have done a great job and a whole lot of work. I was curious about your previous build, the 2 engine into the C-1000 v-drive. How did that work out?

Hey 2many, here you go. The tips are the original aluminum that came with the boat. It fit the boat and looked right so I went with them.



Hey Stevo, Worked out fine. For that matter I need to get this (Biese) done so I can get it ready for the boat show at St Michaels this year. Thanks for asking.



Hey 540, Not sure where you have been. lol
The videos at the front of the thread were just shorter copies of the one that was just posted so you are not missing anything. I just needed to clean out my youtube account of some of the older stuff. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more.

Mark