Petrolium jelly nightmare

[toyotafreak]

Just wanted to share my most important winter project. For almost a year, the S22 was in the driveway and there's a ton of punk teenagers next door ;-(  In order to get the boat on the side yard (behind the fence) I had to change the gate hinges to the removeable type, add another door into the back yard and then move the gas meter. Yep, I cut concrete, dug halfway to China, gently relocated the meter (observing minimum bend radius on the supply side). re-plumbed the house side of it and then planted a pair of trailer-stoppers in front.

All in all, it went WAY easier than I expected. The boat squeeeeezes back there, and once back I cover the thing with the Toyota cover, and then the biggest blue cheezy waterproof tarp I ever saw is thrown over the tower and then cinched all the way around the boat so as to cover even the trailer and tires from the elements.

Now the gate locks, the big blue thing is pretty much out of sight, and she stays really dry and untouched on the side yard. Very good deal, but it makes me appreciate people's choice to move to where breathing room is a little more affordable.

[toyotafreak]

These two pics were taken at the same time. In other words, it's friggin tight in there !!!

[toyotafreak]

Finally posting these must've been bad karma. We spent a few hours on the lake Friday, then wiped and vacuumed the boat and stuck her in the back. Pulled the teak off the back to do the first strip/brighten/oil on it. Left the boat cover half open so the carpet would dry out. Realized early the next morning that I forgot to prop th trunk open, cuz that space gets really wet between the 700 pound sack back there and some leakage through the swim step mounts.

[toyotafreak]

Went out to open trunk and spotted something that should make everybody cringe.

[toyotafreak]

Remember the punk kids? Had some people over Friday night, both the wife and I heard them but neither of us really wanted to be old farts and put an end to the party. The worthless mom says she's sorry and will pay to get it fixed. If the local vinyl dude can't do a good job with the patch, she's gonna have to take a loan out. Replacing a single cushion was $250. Imagine what the deck lid would cost. You guys understand that 'fixing' stuff on boats is always a horrible choice - 'fixed' is never good as new when it comes to upholstery, paint or gelcoat. I'm still sick about this.

[phenom_1819]

Oh, dude... Derek...that sucks.  I'm sorry.  Though I do wonder if that cover had been on -- the water-repellant on the covers is pretty flammable, so I wonder if you would have lost the whole thing had it been on.  Looks like you need to go over and talk to the punks next door or you could lose your baby.  

Or build the fence up another 20 feet high or so.

Sucks, man.  I had a vinyl repair done on my engine hood that was about the same size, maybe a little smaller... but they did such a good job you can't tell there was ever any damage. In fact, the vinyl there probably looks better than the rest of the boat.

Good luck...  

Oh, and I took pictures this weekend, but have to post them from my home computer. Hopefully will get all of them up tonight.

[toyotafreak]

Thanks Cal. Good to know that your vinyl repair has stood the test of time.

BTW, I used the West Marine teak cleaner, brightener and oil yestarday, and the step looks amazing. Cleaned (stripped) the thing repeatedly until the built-up garbage was gone and most of the scratches had dissappeared. The color of the wood looked like the most awesome super-dark redwood ever. I figured the darkness (which now looked awesome because it was uniform) was what teak was supposed to look like when wet. So I apply the brightener, and guess what? The thing starts lightening! Turns out teak isn't supposed to look dark when wet after all. So I let the thing dry, and it goes from looking awesome to looking so friggin parched that a passing smoker might cause it to combust. Whip out the bitchen teak oil and apply some one there, and it looks like a zillion bucks. Maybe one more coat tonight and then throw it back on. Looks awesome.

[phenom_1819]

ain't teak great? I did the same thing about 3 months ago, and the teak is definitely the feature on the boat I'm most proud of. I make a point to show it off to anybody who will (or won't) listen. Teak is beautiful no matter what color it is, but I love the bright red color that comes with tons of cleaning, brightening and oiling.  It's a feeling of pride that unfortunately the guys with composites can never really understand... (sorry composite kids).

As for the vinyl repair, I can't really say it's held the test of time...I only had it repaired in February.  But it looks good so far!

[cyclone]

Man, I don't know what to say. It sucks that people have no class anymore. I apologize for the rest of us.