Pearly Miss - No3 Restoration

[Rapier]

Bought myself a Super Sports, after years of hankering for this basic Pearly Miss model, having had a Deluxe model (GRP deck) and very early ali decked Pearly. This one has been painted, which always fills me with irritation - there's never a need to paint these and without paint they are much easier to maintain Luckily, it has not been painted with zinc chromate primer (typically green or yellow).

Hull is bright yellow below the rub rail...that needs to go too.

Not sure what to do with the deck, which appears to be a large diamond pattern in red with grippy bits in it. Not sure how it'll cope with stripper and wonder if it's original. Most I've come across only have the small pattern Dunlop Trackmark..

[Rapier]

Should be finished tomorrow.

[Rapier]

The boat's interior is almost entirely stripped now, some areas still to be detailed. The diamond pattern deck covering has been removed and the normal corrosion is evident where damp has seeped in under it, but glue removal is a sinch with paint stripper. The boat originally had a smaller screen closer to the driver. Not too sure what I want to do with the deck..cover it, paint it, or polish it..Original dark blue Dunlop Trackmark on the cubby hole, which is aluminium rather than colour matched fibreglass moulded I've seen on other boats. Also no sign of the Windboats badge mounted on the dash.

[Rapier]

Inside stripped; outside almost so. I estimate the boat would have sunk within 40mins; due to the compromised rivets and small holes. A some stage the bow was down on a trailer,or mooring, and water was allowed to collect behind the footrest, leading to corrosion from the inside out. Is very common, but is easy to spot if the boat is not painted. Also easy to see at dusk with a torch, inside or outside the boat. Naughty really, but I think the previous owner was ignorant of these matters - just lucky he didn't take to the sea.

Moral of story, a painted Pearly Miss hull hides too much history. Someday I'll publish a guide to pricing if buying a project. So far has taken me 4 days labour and 15l of stripper. Other options are bead, or soda blasting, might prove cheaper if your time is more expensive than mine..

Also worthwhile doing chemical stripping on a cool day, or early morings if outside - high ambient temperature and a warm hull allows too much of the dichloromethane to vent off.

[Rapier]

Back on the task after a very long trip to Falmouth to collect a lovely clean '64 Johnson 40hp (decent history and having been stored in a dry environment). More on that later. The hull is almost entirely stripped of paint. There are 23 pin holes in the bow section, 6 headless rivets, mostly along the transom seam and a few rivets sitting proud of their seats, having been 'caught' on something. Lots of hull score marks and odd dents, so it must have had a hard life and, or trailer. It's the pin holes that bug me, the rest can be re-riveted.

The rubber rub rail and clean Control Master remotes and cables found new ebay homes, with the hard trailer going to a delightful enthusiast who will use it for his Fairey Duckling.

[Rapier]

Below are a series of pics of typical corrosion / damage on Pearly Miss. This lot was covered by multiple layers of paint, so was hard to discern - they do look like bubbles in the paint. When viewing a project, or 'restored' boat take this into account. They're not hard to patch from the inside, but any repair is best done when the boat is upside down - limited space and the kickboard mean being a contortionist if attempting the fix right-side-up.

Looking back at my boat pics, they've all had similar holes. The hole in the section between the cutwater and central keel is common, as is the area shown port and starboard. Although water can drain away in front of the kickboard, it's likely this one sat bow down on a mooring, or trailer, with standing water and something that had rusted in this area. Possibly was an ex-hire boat judging from the abuse...Sometimes these holes are hidden under the keels, ribs, or thwarts too.They can be tiny, so I poke anything suspicious with a dental pick.

[Rapier]

Waiting for parts, including an aircraft-style riveting bit as I have many rivets left over from No2. To get to the holes I may have to remove the dash - which needs work and painting - and the footrest / kickboard which has some suspect rivets anyway.

Whiled away the time by semi polishing the deck 'hardware'. The big bits are rudimentary castings and the rear corners have an interesting hard plastic lining - both just screw into the wood blocks hammered into the gunnels and the top of the transom. They're not engraved like the early models - probably a cost / time cutting measure as these boats were very popular. The cubby is thin aluminium skinned, keyed up for glue and lightweight trackmark. I will prime it with zinc chromate and spray it the same colour as the dash. The screen uprights (not shown) are unusual stainless steel. The 2 stern cleats are cast aluminium, one is broken, so not sure whether I'll keep them, or find an alternative.

[Rapier]

These 2 frames are to add rigidity to the boat - they're pop rivited into the front and rear seats. On the early models they are thinner,... I've removed both in order to open up the seat bases, to check the hull for holes, and as there's likely accumulated 'crud' and original polystyrene blocks under each seat, to clean out the area and prepare it for extra bouyancy. When the original seats and rivets are in situ, only one side of the seat rivets on the outside of the hull needs to be drilled out; the seat base can then be slipped out from it's retaining frame.

[Rapier]

Spent a few days sanding the foredeck and hull - the deck is in bad condition and has deep swirl marks from the sander used to key it up for the Trackmark. The hull has been worked very hard and has evidence of tide marks..I will fill and fair the deck, before priming and painting instead of trying to find the softer guage / pattern trackmark orginally used . The two bench seats were removed; both have a fair amount of holes, the front where some sort of railed seat track arrangement was used (with iron fastenings..grrr) and the back one that had succumbed to old age in 3 places. Underneath both is the typical Pearly Miss bouyancy; I hate this stuff..it's original polystyrene and in good nick, bar where petrol has leaked and destroyed it. 20 swimming noodles are en-route - made in China with UK's plastic rubbish, guaranteed to last a 1000 years. I will zinc chromate prime the metal before cutting the noodles to size and then re-install the seat bases. Not too sure what to do with the front seat base..perhaps double skin it to cover the (numerous) holes. Trying to patch it will look like someone's taken pot shots at it with a 22. Cubby has been primed and sprayed with BMW glacier silver I had lying around..it too was to corroded to leave bare.

[Rapier]

Having scraped the detritus out of both seats, I cleaned, degreased and primed (zinc chromate) the hull area and sprayed it silver, so the bouyancy wouldn't sit directly on the hull. As with the other Pearly Miss projects I cut and filled each frame with swimming pool noodles. They're 145cm long x 65mm so you can get 5 lengths of 29cm out of a single one. The back takes 10 full lengths, the front 8 - these get squashed down under the seat bases and find their own natural order. The remaining two lengths of the 20 bought will be piled into the box the splashwell sits on.

The bases were riveted back in with pop rivets and as the older rivets were large head versions on 6mm+ holes I had to follow suite. The split seams on the brackets holding the seats were brazed, but I won't do it without a proper flame again. The ali acts as a heat sink and far too large an area ends up being very hot, yet without the rods flowing properly. The little holes in the hull (37 in total) fared better with the brazing, although the really tiny ones were filled with JB Weld, or Chemical Metal. The end brackets were riveted with the air gun and a modified chisel, with the help of a willing CMBA member who'd popped in.

The transom rivets shown were all damaged by dragging the boat over sand / rocks, The blind rivet (no room under the splashwell to work with traditional rivets) replacements were put in staggered, with Duralac that helps seal them too. This is a very well used boat, so the repair is not very pretty, but the ultimate aim is to have a dry boat.

I've decided to paint the foredeck and dashboard, given the level of corrosion, so that hase been sanded, washed, degreased and filled. At some stage I thought I could find a replacement for the Trackmark that is a much lighter guage than the normal used, but it would have come with it's own issues, as well as fading (my ali boats tend to live outside).

The holes in the foredeck will be likely be blanked and filled depending on windscreen options - eithe to cut a new screen from polycarbonate / lexan, or to use a glass rear screen from a late 1960s Rapier...the new screen rubber arrived from Italy recently.

The original backing plate for the remotes is missing and there are some large holes where the hideous replacement was. The jury is out and I have no idea yet how to replicate it or replace..