38 Top Gun Project
#22
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I thought of this post a few weeks back and just the the other day how tis is haunting me. I bought a 19' cuddy cabin from someone at work. Boat was stored for 3 years so I figured making a few bucks cleaning it up etc. I put 5 gallons of gas in the tank. Next day it was it was slowly dripping out of the bildge. Needless to say I sold that boat with carry on's. LOL.
Anyway..While working on the Bullet I drained the 10 gallons or so to put about fresh 20 gallons in. Just enough for a quick run before I tow it to Murray next week. Figuring I want as less weight as possible I'll take fuel once I get there. I can only hope with my luck the inevitable won't happen.
Anyway..While working on the Bullet I drained the 10 gallons or so to put about fresh 20 gallons in. Just enough for a quick run before I tow it to Murray next week. Figuring I want as less weight as possible I'll take fuel once I get there. I can only hope with my luck the inevitable won't happen.
#23
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I had removed both tanks and it seemed that only 1 of them had been leaking. I have spoken to many people on this issue before I got into it... including Craig Barrie( he was at CIg when my boat was built) and they all said that it is pretty rare for this to happen, but it does happen. The tank that did not have the leak in it , did have a baffle laying at the bottom of the tank, welds just broke off... pretty strange.
#25
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I did the same replacement of the tanks in my 1984 38SE, two years ago. What a "chore". I did some research and found the company that supplied the original tanks to Cigarette in 1984. Thet still had the prints for those tanks, (131 gal/ea.). The total bill for both tanks, to me, was $2100.
I did basically the same "cut", to the floor, that is shown in the previous pictures, only we took the cocpit floor and 2' up the rear seat bulkhead along with the "shelf" in front of the engines as one piece. That access allowed us to take the tanks out through the engine compt. We used an electric chain saw to cut the foam to free the tanks. They were still bonded to the bottom of the boat, from the original instillation, so we had to us my engine lift to supply vertical force to get them to release. With the engine lift attached to the tabs of the tanks, the boat was still lifted off the trailer. Finally, after 2 of us jumping in the enging compt. (the engines were out) we got the tanks to release.
After all that we still had to clean up the tank area, put the new tanks in place and foam them in. After that the floor had to be re-installed and glassed in place. WHAT A CHORE.
We also did the outside engine stringers while the motoes were out. Another fine mess, but needed and well worth doing. I have stories on that also. A tale for another time.
I did basically the same "cut", to the floor, that is shown in the previous pictures, only we took the cocpit floor and 2' up the rear seat bulkhead along with the "shelf" in front of the engines as one piece. That access allowed us to take the tanks out through the engine compt. We used an electric chain saw to cut the foam to free the tanks. They were still bonded to the bottom of the boat, from the original instillation, so we had to us my engine lift to supply vertical force to get them to release. With the engine lift attached to the tabs of the tanks, the boat was still lifted off the trailer. Finally, after 2 of us jumping in the enging compt. (the engines were out) we got the tanks to release.
After all that we still had to clean up the tank area, put the new tanks in place and foam them in. After that the floor had to be re-installed and glassed in place. WHAT A CHORE.
We also did the outside engine stringers while the motoes were out. Another fine mess, but needed and well worth doing. I have stories on that also. A tale for another time.
Last edited by RMPRam; 07-16-2007 at 10:44 AM.
#26
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A little progress.... new tanks are in, new upholstery is starting to come in and some pics of the new scoops I made for the hatch!
#29
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I have been think about redoing my visor. Where did you get your vinyl? I really like the carbon fiber patern on it. Did you have to get it from Lip Ship or Cigarette???
#30
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The vinyl came from yourautotrim.com They have a marine grade section. I have used 2 others compoanies in the past and this vinyl is the best yet.