phin

1978 Mako 25.
2800lb est. dry weight
25'6" LOA
8' beam
23 degree deadrise

The boat looks like this right now.






















































Will post updates. Enjoy!

bfox76

Hey Wes! What a great find! You have my email. Hopefully we can share ideas and help one another out since we are rehabbing the same vessel.

It is truly a labor of love!


Brad

phin

Got about a day or so of work left to have the bottom paint totally gone.

3 rounds of bottom paint treatment and power washing:

Bastian

Oh nice one! Subscribed.

workinpr0gress

Phin, what are your plans? This hull and the 21 are my two favorite classic Mako hulls.

VanW

What is that in the 6th picture? Good luck!

workinpr0gress

Stripper you mean?

VanW

It's hard to tell, looks like a blob of tar or a hole or something.

grgrmouse

I am watching this one. Go baby.

If possible, could ya hit the Enter key once in between each picture? It sure maeks it easier to figure out. Thanks for posting! Keep it up!!

notdeankane

Are you on Classic Mako com? great forum with lots of these old girls getting makeovers.

I used to have a 76...exact same hull. they clean up nice! hell of a good ride.

c_mccann

Looking great- what stripper are you using for the bottom paint?

Reelescape1

Subscribed. What are "tubes" in pic #15??

phin

Black goop in pic #6 is 4 years worth of slime growing beneath the garboard drain plug.

Tubes in pic #15 are the rear ends of the rod tubes inside the gunnel/coaming area. These models had about a 3x3' recess cut out with a sliding fiberglass panel to cover the recessed rod storage area and make it possible to lock them up. Doing away with all that and will use the tubes simply as gaff/brush holders. I will use this boat for offshore fishing and cruising primarily, so no rods will be going down there. Will post details when I get that far.

Hope to get the boat in the shop at the end of the month where my buddy at ------------------- can help me out with it. I plan to have the bottom paint gone or nearly gone and the hardware and hatches off the boat by then. Hopefully will have the fuel tanks out as well.

Already found a new console and possibly an F250 to go on it.

Long way away. Lots of patching, and the only things I'll keep hardware wise are the bow and stern lifting eyes probably.

New transom, new fuel tank cover / lid (deck cap), and paint. Then new metalwork and rigging.

bfox76

Looking good man. I experimented last night with using Easy Off oven cleaner on some sections of bottom paint. Worked OK, but there is better stuff out there.

What are you doing for a new transom? NIDA-BOND????

Keep it going. Your weather is friendlier than mine is right now.

phin

Mostly lye gravy and easy off oven cleaner. Only the "easy off" brand with the yellow cap works worth a crap. Lye gravy works awesome if you can keep it moist for a few hours (covering with wax paper helps), and it's extremely cheap. Easy Off is basically aerosol lye. If the wind's blowing at all, it cannot be used. Only about 1/10 of what you spray will end up on the boat.
When the wind's not blowing, game on. Sprays on fast, and works fast, so the extra cost of using it is worth the shorter application time IMO. I tried some thin gravy out of a pump sprayer, but it didn't impress me at all.
Patience to do coat after coat and power wash after power wash pays off. I HATE sanding, so this is the system I've used on a 21 Mako and now this 25. Compounding and wax is all that's needed after this stuff. I got greedy and tried to steel brush through some stubborn areas on this one though. Will have to put some gel coat on the area as it's scratched pretty deeply now. No big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Going to try a commercial stripper product now that what's left is essentially patches of the epoxy barrier coat. Lye is the ticket on the ablative though.

phin

Make sure you're using the real EasyOff in the yellow can. Generics or the fume free are worthless. Temperature matters a lot. I had temps in the 20's and 30's this past weekend, and it greatly reduced effectiveness. Works best just after a power washing if you can dry excess water off and get more easy off on the paint while it's still a little moist. If you've got beads of water on the bottom, that will neutralize the lye, though. I used a leaf blower to dry the boat a little.

I read up on Nida-bond on Classicmako, and I'm 99% sure that's the route I'm going to take on the transom. Simply cut the outer shell out with a lip remaining and grind all the junk out. May do a thin layer of new glass just before pouring to improve the bond... I really like what I read on their literature as well as from other Mako owners' project threads. The stuff is not that expensive either, and again, for the time saved it's worth it to me.

You're going to use it too aren't you?

bfox76

YES. Its a NO BRAINER! We should only need 3 pails for our 25's. Fresh glass on the inner and outer skins is IMPERATIVE to maximize the bonding.

A little advice.........when you cut out the outer skin make sure you leave atleast a 3" lip around the perimeter. I got a little skinny in some areas. It wont be a big deal, but it makes it a little trickier when I grind out the seam and re-glass. I will also be raising the transom 6" and adding higher splash guards which will make the splash well pretty dry.

Raybo Marine NY

Transom on a 25 will take between 3-4 buckets, it can add up and in the end its probably a little more then plywood but its good stuff.


Good luck with your project, we are in the middle of a 25 Mako as well, quite different from where you are at now but you will get there one day

phin

Since I can't get to the boat until the weekend I made some pad slicks for my front trailer bunks while the boat's off the trailer. Cut some 1/4" starboard and rounded the edges with a router then drilled and countersank the screw holes. Should make loading a lot easier.

rainmaker

Nice job !You are corrct sir , It will make loading easier , But just a friendly reminder .... It will make unloading alot easier too.....