grady white pilot house project

mikep

Well-Known Member
So last winter my brother and i did a pretty comprehensive rebuild on our 86 grady white seafarer. The boat fished great and took us from van to milbanke and back. Well we got bored this winter and decided that the bimini just had to go. We are in the process of building a mold to make a full on hard top and pilot house. We also figured we would change up the hull and go black.......because we like being different. So i guess this will turn into my build thread. We will be using epoxy foam core construction.

The attached pics show the motivation for the project and the rest show our hard board mould.
20130222_193142.jpgimagejpeg_2hh.jpgimagejpeg_2kk.jpg
 
I love threads like this:cool:.

That looks awesome. I can't wait to see some more. Keep us posted:).

Cheers,
John
 
thanks guys....just orderd 9 gallons of epoxy from raka today. I figured all things grady had to go when we hung the verado
 
Last edited by a moderator:
cool. I'm especially interested in the products you use to patch, fair, prime, and finish the hull. Gelcoat or paint etc.. Looks like you are just leaving the bottom paint. Good luck.
 
with you on this one guys
doing my own but waiting for warmer weather to do the glass work
also mine went forward sloping ala seasport
gives you space to have a roof console for electronics etc.
 
looks like the west coast fish grady's. going to be awesome !! always wanted to do that with the 27 sailfish i had.
 
Yup we are leaving the bottom paint as it was brand new with 5 coats of epoxy primer. We will sand off a few inches of the bottom paint and shoot with awlgrip 545 primer. Then 4 coats of awlgrip super jet black. The hull was repaired last winter just need to spray a guide coat on there to sand it right. Then spot repair a few dings with awlfair .
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just a little update, gel coat and the first layers of glass are in. Today we fit up the foam core and bonded it in. 20130322_200512.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
20130328_191111.jpg20130328_191103.jpgWell it finally came out of the mould, just need to make sure it fits on the boat and then trim out the windows and top. The epoxy gel coat came out flawless from the melamine board mould. Here are a couple pics of it.
 
Mike p

bigger glass think your going to have blind spots up front ????
but carry on with the good work
 
I think that is what he is going to do. Just gave himself lots of space to cut out and space to do a good glass job. Looks good are you going with the gray or are you going to go black? I think the black with the eyebrow looks great.
 
Thanks for the compliments guys. Im thinking we may paint the top white now but still go with the black hull
we made the window cutout much smaller than they will actually be so we can cut back to good glass. The pilot house without the top or windows weighs about 75# which is really cool. Now onto the hard top today and tomorrow.
 
I too love this thread , please keep the pics coming.
i have same boat with wide body ,with bimini so am very interested if the outcome.
I love that westcoast look in the top pic.
nice job/project , keep up the good work.
When u get it done and perfected , i,ll give u another ,hehehe.
why not painted aluminum? seems alum would be much faster and cheaper?
 
I was fishing Barclay Sound today and saw a nice Grady with a custom top very similar to your project. It was painted the same color as the original Grady gelcoat and looked pretty sweet!. I have seen pic's of the ones with the black tops and they look great too. Thanks for the updates. Looking forward to more.

Cheers,
John
 
Back
Top