95 355 Project Refresh

[chpsk8]

Thought I'd share some of my projects I've been working on. I bought this boat last fall realizing it had good bones but needed a refresh. Owner had mechanically taken care of it, but some of the soft goods were pretty shoddy. Huge 3'x3' office carpet squares had replaced the original carpet. The window panels were redone with some interesting pleated fabric panels. Some panels had 4 pleats, some 5... not rhyme or reason.
I found a vinyl that was a really close match to the original white so I redid those panels in white. Much cleaner.
Refoamed the panels with a mold and moisture resistant foam, then covered in white.

[chpsk8]

Had some similar issues with the lower wall "carpet" on the walls in the aft cabin. It was not in great shape so I removed it and replaced it with the same white vinyl.

[chpsk8]

I struggle to see the swim platform from the helm, so docking becomes a two person job since we tend to back in everywhere we go. It's a great handling boat, just tough to see all the corners. I installed a backup camera up high on the hard top. Pretty good coverage now. The monitor is just roughed in now, I'm going to mount it to the left of the gear selectors. The camera is wireless and is powered by the aft navigation light.

(also renamed the boat! wooho!)

[chpsk8]

Next project was to get the gel coat back in shape. I tried every possible compound and realized I was going to have to get something more aggressive. I ended up hand sanding with 1500 and 3000 trizact wet or dry. That's a lot of glass to sand! I followed it with Aqua-buff and then Meguires Flagship. Took roughly 12 hours to do the rub rail down. Another 3 hours on the flybridge. Hard Top is next. At least now I can see myself in the reflection. Might be tough to see in the pictures, but it was very chalky.

[darrenlife]

Nice work!

[chpsk8]

New ladder! The old one was way too far under the platform making getting out of the water difficult. This one sticks out a little better.





Under cabinet lights were dim at best. New LED lights installed and now we can see what we're cooking!

[chpsk8]

Check it out - my lovely wife painted the entire bottom herself!

[chpsk8]

Next up is a new forward head. I have a Marine Elegance in my living room ready to install. I need to figure out how to tap into the pressurized water under the sink and get it to the toilet. Shouldn't be too tough, but not the most fun.

Also bought a new table pedestal that is air assist. Problem is that the previous owner used 5200 to fasten the table top to the original pedestal! I have some nylon braid and if I can work it into a gap I might be able to saw it off. Not looking promising though, it's really tight. May have to use an angle grinder and just grind the thing off! I hope it doesn't get to that!

[g36]

Looking good shame about the aft cabin wall but you got that taken care of. Im a meguires guy too keep at it that gel coats coming back to life. I also redid my interior on my 405 this winter sewing new curtains and new interior fabric installation. I also recovered the carver barrel chair getting rid of the 1997 paisley scheme. I replaced my ladder with slide out one like that sevetal years ago i can tell you it makes a world of difference getting out of the water at the same time i also installed ez up removable handles on the aft deck to assist when climbing out or the water.

[g36]

Marine elegance I installed one on my trojan it's a nice throne for the king.
Appears your wife is like mine not afraid to get her hands dirty. It sure is nice to have someone who gets right in there and helps out. I think we got to feel pretty lucky.