Break's over!

[gcarter]

A man died and went to Hell.
It wasn't a big surprise to the man that he ended up in Hell, for he had lived his whole life for the moment without any regard for God, or eternity.
After his arrival in Hell, the man was given a tour by a demon. While walking down a hallway with his host, the man looked into a room opening off the hallway.
Inside the room was a group of people standing chest deep in s**t.
"Oh my God" exclaimed the man to himself. "This is terrible"
"But I guess it could be worse!!"
At just about that moment another demon walked into the room and announced to the people "OK, break's over....
back on your heads!"

And so starts my own voyage down the road to deck and fuel tank removal and foaming in a new one.
I got the deck off yesterday, today I'm removing the old tank and preparing to install the new one.
I have managed to lease an additional warehouse behind my business. It is perfect for this type of undertaking, 24' X 48' w/ 12' high truss type roof.
The deck will probably be off most of the rest of the month. If anyone wants to see a Minx w/o all of its parts, come on by.
My office # is 352-365-2337, my cell is 352-267-9801.
The location of my office is 2315 Griffin Rd, Suite 9, Leesburg, FL.
The warehouse is behind this building in a separate building on the back of the property and it's 2323 #4.
I'll be posting pictures as I go along, maybe tonight.

[Tony]

Best of luck, George...shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

[Morgan's Cloud]

Yep ,, know that feeling real well . Been living it for quite a while now !

Tony .... I had asked a few questions of you about your foaming experience on your deck off post but not heard anything more ..

What can you tell me about how much was'nt enough..(you ran out right ?) and how it handled etc . You were using the 4lb right ?

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive and there is nothing more I can do to continue the project at this stage :lookaroun

Steve

[gcarter]

So here are a few pics of the deck off operation.
I messed up today by not taking my camera with me. So the pics of the tank being removed don't exist.
Tomorrow I will post pics of the old tank and the cleanup of the hull.
BTW, Fishboy and Budmann, are these someones initials on the inside of the hull? If so, who is it?
The truss roof worked out well. I put 4X4's across three of the trusses at each end of the boat. Next, I put a 20' strap across the 4X4's and hung two come-alongs on the two strap ends. On the bow end, I used a 2X6 and bolted an eye-bolt through it at the fuel fillhole. At the stern, a 2X6 along with a 2X4 and through-bolted with an eye-bolt in the engine hatch opening.
The gentleman removing screws is one of my service techs, Rick McGuire, who's worked for me for over 12 years. He's also a heck of a C&W singer.

[penbroke]

Good luck! Check/fix/replace everything while the deck is off. Let me know if I can help.

Frank

[marcdups]

George, by the looks of the pics you look a little shaky NERVEOUS are we?? Good luck with the project, looks like you are off to a good start.

Towel boy

[boatnut]

Hi George, not sure what your plans are for new tank, material, installation method etc. I have been doing a lot of research as I am facing the same job soon on my 18 classic owned since 1973. I am convinced that completely foaming in a metal tank (esp aluminum or stainless) is incorrect and will ensure failure again. These metals need air to resist corrosion. No manufacturer today foams in such tanks. As one example of acceptable methods see
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm. I will either use a similar method or look into non-metal tanks. Moisture without a good flow of oxygen (or water with disolved oxygen) will pit stainless or aluminum extremely quickly.
Good Luck and I appreciate you sharing your experience, Ed

[gcarter]

George, by the looks of the pics you look a little shaky NERVEOUS are we?? Good luck with the project, looks like you are off to a good start.

Towel boy

Yes, that's a problem I've had most of my life. I remember going to a doctor and him asking me how much I drink!
Anyone that knows me knows I rarely have a drink. I can't take beta blockers because I have a very slow heart beat.
So I just live with the occasional shaky picture.

[gcarter]

I feel that anytime someone does some work like this on a mid '80's Donzi. they need to analyze several areas.
First is the tub or cockpit support on the stringers.
Here are several pictures revealing how Donzi executed this task. In the area immeadiately behind the seat pedastals two small wooden wedges wrapped in wet roving were driven in between the cockpit bottom and the stringer tops. After 18 years the floor has sagged around the wedges and caused damage fore and aft of the wedges.
If you look at the two pictures of the tub bottom, you can see the two wedges (supports) and if you look to the left, you can see the damage the stringers did to the tub bottom. If you could see the top of the cockpit floor, you would see the cracks caused by the pounding on the stringers.
Next you can see the warp caused by the wedges on the port and stbd sides compared to the level.
The third picture shows that the area in front of the pedastals has no support at all and sits on the stringers.
I have conceived of a solution and I will be posting pictures as I go.

[gcarter]

One thing I discovered is you can remove most if not all of the old tabs with a wide wood chisel and a hammer. It saves a tremendous amount of time in almost totally removing any need to grind.

[gcarter]

The tank came out cleanly by sawing the foam out at the shallow (forward) end and lifting out the old tank with a pry bar. The old foam came out in very large pieces, some of them 4' long. The rear foam at the bottom was saturated with water, no fuel.
The old tank was pitted but not leaking (yet). I'm really glad I did this (thank you Donzigo).
Here are some pictures of the old tank and the pitting.
The new tank from RDS came with a heavy coat of primer, and it appears to be ready to install, but I'm going to add more zinc chromate primer.

[CMC]

George, Great work with the camera. Video the project and sell it to the Discovery Channel. It would be more interesting than Jesse James! Keep up with the posts.

[Cuda]

I feel that anytime someone does some work like this on a mid '80's Donzi. they need to analyze several areas.
First is the tub or cockpit support on the stringers.
Here are several pictures revealing how Donzi executed this task. In the area immeadiately behind the seat pedastals two small wooden wedges wrapped in wet roving were driven in between the cockpit bottom and the stringer tops. After 18 years the floor has sagged around the wedges and caused damage fore and aft of the wedges.
If you look at the two pictures of the tub bottom, you can see the two wedges (supports) and if you look to the left, you can see the damage the stringers did to the tub bottom. If you could see the top of the cockpit floor, you would see the cracks caused by the pounding on the stringers.
Next you can see the warp caused by the wedges on the port and stbd sides compared to the level.
The third picture shows that the area in front of the pedastals has no support at all and sits on the stringers.
I have conceived of a solution and I will be posting pictures as I go.

Stop it George, you're scaring me!

Just kidding. I'm enjoying seeing how the boat is put together in case I have to do a tank job in the future. I just got off the phone with my glass guy, he says he'll have it done monday or tuesday, that he fixed everything he could find. I hope it looks good, and I'm dreading seeing the bill.

[gcarter]

Hi George, not sure what your plans are for new tank, material, installation method etc. I have been doing a lot of research as I am facing the same job soon on my 18 classic owned since 1973. I am convinced that completely foaming in a metal tank (esp aluminum or stainless) is incorrect and will ensure failure again. These metals need air to resist corrosion. No manufacturer today foams in such tanks. As one example of acceptable methods ed, I've read this articlesee
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm. I will either use a similar method or look into non-metal tanks. Moisture without a good flow of oxygen (or water with disolved oxygen) will pit stainless or aluminum extremely quickly.
Good Luck and I appreciate you sharing your experience, Ed

Ed, I've read this article before, and while I can't fault it at all, I'm not sure I know how to mount a tank like this in my boat.
The problem as I see it is the tank's bottom sides don't match the shape of the hull. So how do you support the tank bottom without some sort of moldable, watertight material. I'm open if someone can demonstrate a method.

[gcarter]

Stop it George, you're scaring me!

Just kidding. I'm enjoying seeing how the boat is put together in case I have to do a tank job in the future. I just got off the phone with my glass guy, he says he'll have it done monday or tuesday, that he fixed everything he could find. I hope it looks good, and I'm dreading seeing the bill.

Yeah Joe, yours is even a little different from this with those hoist points in the cockpit.
You could come by this weekend or sometime next week and see it in person. I'll buy you lunch!