1989 Tristar mini makeover on Busch Light budget

[drschemel]

Looking good! You're a little ahead of me right now but I plan to get finished soon.

[lakeoz tristar]

Before and after of the dash panels, new switches and circuit boots
and my first attempt at some gel coat repair..Could not get a great color match but I figure that it is better then letting water get at the fiber glass.. Might try again after I order some other colors to match it better.
Pictures 1 & 2 dash before
pictures 3 & 4 after dash panels
pictures 5 & 6 gel coat before and after but before final sand, compounding and waxing.

[f925]

Your gel coat patch looks great! It is a bit inspiring to go through this thread and look at the overall transformation. Your tristar looks almost new. Its funny how a small project becomes refurbing the entire vessel.


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[orbeamlb]

Nice work!

[lakeoz tristar]

Thanks the gel coat was something that I wasn't so sure I could do by myself as I never done anything like this before. But I figured if I can make it water tight and better than it was I would be happy. And if nothing else I could take it to a shop and have them fix my mistakes. Luckily I like the way it turned out, not really happy with the color match but I will work on that later.
yes it has turned into more than I planned on but its kept me occupied this winter for sure.

Thanks again for the words of encouragement.

[MikeyOrange88]

lakeoz:
I used some patch paste from Spectrum Fiberglass on my '88 Tristar that matched very well.
http://www.spectrumcolor.com/Product...553902K&key=it
They have colors matched to manuf. and gel color.

It also appears from the photo that you may need to 'whiten' the existing fiberglass area around the patch as it appears yellowed in the picture (might just be the computer image). I've read on TT where some have used a 'Snobol' type product to remove tea colored water stains from the fiberglass. The bottom of my hull was done that way and it made a huge difference in the color.

Patching the gel was new to me as well, but I suggest using parchment paper or wax paper over the wet gel paste. The wax paper doesn't stick to the gelcoat paste, but makes it much easier to smooth out the paste and then easier to sand down.
Lookin' good though as I've been following your entire thread.

[lakeoz tristar]

Yeah the color is a bit faded I think it is a little yellow I was able to get a better match on the bottom of the boat where I am doing some more touch up where it rubbed the trailer a little bit. That is a lot harder area to do.. First pass when I went to remove the first coat of gel I got carrier away with the sanding and had to move the repair out some more to be able to get a good area to sand. I was wondering what would give a more smooth finish, I tried my best to get a smooth coat with a paint brush but its just not that great I also tried a scrapper for it but that just took too much off. It really wanted to stick to the scrapper.

Thanks for the advice.

[homer12]

Very well done and thought out, sir!

[wheelerd]

Nice to see the care and attention you're giving the old girl. And also nice to know that another TriStar is happy and healthy.

[lakeoz tristar]

Well Not much more to report got it all put back together and put in the water..Had to fix another leak in the silent master exhaust..Might be looking for a new set of exhaust eventually or just run straight pipe all the way back, only two places to leak with that option, but this should hold for now. Got a little shine on it...Still need to do the bottom of the boat near the back end because the trailer had all those cross beams in the way. Hope I can reach that are from the lift. Overall pretty excited with the results and ready to enjoy the summer and hopefully close the tool box and start a list for next winter..

Have been keeping a eye out for tristars for sale so since the prices are at or below my break even point on this boat I will be keeping it for a few seasons to enjoy my work before I start looking for a upgrade...

Thanks everyone for viewing and suggestions during this process. Honestly never expected to do all this work but you never know what you will find once you start a project like this. But all in all it was pretty rewarding and worth the time and money spent.

Oh yeah the decals I got from BAWS were awesome..Too bad I messed them up on the install and had to resort to the pair I had from ebay...Not as good but I was not about to spend another $200 for new set just to have me mess them up again.. Should have tested with the ebay set first.. Lots of lessons learned along the way..Some more costly than others...