grady white pilot house project

Perfect fit on the boat. Grand total for the project should be under 4k including 2k worth of windows. Powder coated aluminum corrodes and would be north of 5k for just the top. We are making a layup table for the top tomorrow. We still have the pilot house mould if you want it.
 

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Perfect fit on the boat. Grand total for the project should be under 4k including 2k worth of windows. Powder coated aluminum corrodes and would be north of 5k for just the top. We are making a layup table for the top tomorrow. We still have the pilot house mould if you want it.

is your's the wide body also?
i believe 9' 4" there abouts?
Dont throw molds away ,
i,m very interested and await the finale'
see with larger windows in and roof on.
Will it be strong enough to stand on roof?
 
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

If it was "Oceans Edge" with a 300 zuke, that is my cousin's boat. The house is Aluminum and has HUGE windows. I think it's for sale at the moment as matter of fact.

Great setup.
 
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I noticed that in the original concept design that the angle of the leading edge of the new house did not match the angle of the existing top. Personally to me this was a better look as it made the new top look lower.
 
We agonized over that angle for a few hours. The slope back doesn't actually match the existing angle, when the angle was steeper it looked to commercial for us. I think once the top is on with a brow out front it will look better . Only time will tell.
 
brow will definitely make it look less tall....
 
So its 330 in the morning and we are vacuume bagging the core into the hard top.
 

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I can tell it's 3:30 in the morning, Mike.

Ha Ha!! I'm getting sleepy looking upside down ;)
 
Well that was a fun session 23 hours straight to go from bare mould to hard top. All finished the top weighs 80# and i can stand on it without any deflection. One of the design criteria for this top was the ability to handle a person standing on it which it should.

To answer your question capt hook sadly our boat only has an 8' beam so the mould would be to narrow for your boat. I still have the layup table for the hard top and if anyone wants to make one i would gladly borrow it to them. Thanks for the interest in the project guys. Next is some fairing and paint .
 
Well that was a fun session 23 hours straight to go from bare mould to hard top. All finished the top weighs 80# and i can stand on it without any deflection. One of the design criteria for this top was the ability to handle a person standing on it which it should.

To answer your question capt hook sadly our boat only has an 8' beam so the mould would be to narrow for your boat. I still have the layup table for the hard top and if anyone wants to make one i would gladly borrow it to them. Thanks for the interest in the project guys. Next is some fairing and paint .

Thanks Mike , regardless that it will not work for me , it has been a very interesting thread and appreciate you posting it.
nice work , great shop , i like it !!!
keep posting the finishing touches.
 
Thanks for the interest, things will really start to take shape in the next couple of weeks, we need to assemble hard top this weekend and do some glass repairs on the hull in preperation for paint. the hull should be awlgrip jet balck by the end of the month and topside will go eggshell white. We are very fortunate to have a couple of shop spaces to use for the project. We are acutlly keeping the boat in squamish at a new facility called marine west. Great place to keep a boat for a reasonable price inside and dry! Plus we are able to use the space to do work on the grady. I have to give the owner Duane a huge thanks for letting our project take over a corner of his shop.
 
just an update we took the parts up to our boat this morning to check fitment. we cut down the edge of the top to 1.75". I am pretty happy with the overall look to it, it definatly shortened up the top. I am 6'3" and I have about 5 inches above my head when standing under the top. We ended up bonding the top to the pilot house with a epoxy and cabosil putty and tomorrow I am going to tie it in with 1700 cloth.



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I am super stoked with how it turned out. I cant wait untill I get the AJR windowns in there, we are going to make templates up in the next few days that will be much larger than the current cutouts. We will be going with mitered corners on the windows opposed to the radius as it will match the era of the boat nicely. Thinking about black frames all around and silders on the side windows.
 
stumbled across this today on youtube,

[Mucco8e42LI] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mucco8e42LI
 
stumbled across this today on youtube,

[Mucco8e42LI] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mucco8e42LI

No offence to the owner of that boat, but if you mounted a couple of old tires to the bow and a big old riser smoke stack, that thing would pass as a tug boat:eek:



mikep, that Grady of yours is going to look absolutely fricken sick when you are done!!!!

You said that you are thinking of black frames (which would look great on the white top), are you thinking of updating the existing window frames to black as well so that they all match?

The million dollar question for Grady White,,,, Why the hell don't you all make a factory boat that has the hard top on it like this one mikep is doing??
 
For some reason my cell phone always seems to load pictures upside down here. good pics to follow.....
 
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Sorry for the lack up updates guys.................we have been sanding, sanding and then some more sanding. We also had to build a forced air spray booth for optimum results. Our new old grady is has a new name and a new paint job, we are calling her "Blacked Out." The paint used was awlgrip "super jet black." The paint job consisted of 3 coats of 545 epoxy primer and then 3 coats of the black paint. It was hard to get a good photo because of the damn shiney reflective paint!

enjoy!






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