My 242G Offshore Grady Project

[kidconshy]

I have an 89' 242 Offshore with a 200 Johnson that Im going do start to upgrade a bit.First Im replacing the cabin bulkhead that rotted out with 3/4" Starboard.While I took out the old bulkhead I decided to take out all the wiring and redo that as well.It looked very unprofessional the way the previous owner/s had it wired.The switch panel will be replaced by a new panel from ScottC at Vector Imaging.I will redo all the wiring in the boat and have a dedacated house & engine batteries with a VSR.Wiring is sort of my thing I used to custom wire racecars,police,firetrucks,ems vechiles at my last job,so this will be a piece of cake.Also the hardtop rear support tube needs to be welded,it had cracked in half mid way through last season.
Also the motor will be pulled and bracket redone.

Jawz, told me to post some pics when I got the bulkhead cut so here is all Ive got done so far.Being out of work for 2 months with a broken hand pushed my project back some,it figures I was home for 2 months but couldnt do a thing to it not to mention the insurance checks barley paid my mortgage


The bulkhead removed,forgot to take a pic with it in.



Old rotted bulkhead





New Starboard bulkhead



Old wiring under helm,already started to clean up the mess



The trim tab and autopilot pumps never mounted in cabin under the floor so that will be fastened correctly.



Tramsom wiring not that bad but not to my liking.




Then we pulled the motor to remove the bracket and have it redone.We used a tripod with a puller and then bolted the motor to a engine stand.The yellow strap is just for saftey in case the motor decides it wants to push the cheap engine stand over




here is the bracket before blasting



and after



also added a reserq pump a 2 sprayheads to my live well




finally I got some of my needed electric parts minus the battery switch which got backordered

[T380Fisher]

Great Job getting started....keep us updated with pics.

Were you able to get the main cabin bulkhead out of 1 sheet of 4x8 starboard?

My Dad and I have been looking for a mid '80's GW 24 to toy around with in the back bays and shallows of S. Jersey. After looking at a lot of them, I like the model you have with the solid back transom and bracket. They are hard to find in any kind of nice condition. We would be redoing much the same as you, so please keep us up on the redo.

Good Luck with the hand and getting back to work.

[Wild Life Management]

Cool stuff Anthony. That's gonna be a pretty sweet rig when you are done.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[kidconshy]

Well its been a while and its finnally finished....thank god!!Ive been working on it to try to get it in the water before my vacation last week (which I did) so I had no time in between to post any progress on it.

So here is what I ended up doing from the last post........





Finally got the new bulkhead installed.I left the plastic film they use to protect it on so I wouldnt scratch it,but after it was all bolted up I peeled it off and it left blue blotches in some spots where the writing was so I tried wiping it off ,no luck so I will call Starboad to see what to use to remove the blue marks.Im going to remove the teak trim and door and varnish them with Interlux Schooner which should look real good, then put them back on for good....but ran out of time and money so Ill redo the teak this winter

Heres a couple pics







For the finishing of the bracket I ended up going with a barrier coat of Interlux 2000E, Awlgrip on the top and Trilux 33 for the bottom done by the one and only Jim Anderson of Jimmy's Marine Service.

Jim did a hell of of job with it and the pics dont do it justice and makes the rest of the boat look bad Anyone that needs this done you should contact Jim you wont be disapointed

I then painted the inside... first etch primed with DuPont Variprime... then a couple coats of white Imron(sorry Jim I just couldnt leave it bare even though it might not have mattered,I felt more comfortable with it coated)I used 3M 5200 to seal it to the transom with all new 1/2" SS bolts with SS nylocks.Here is some pics of it...






Next we hung the motor using my Dad's loader.Again used 5200 with all new SS bolts.The inspection plate never had an O-ring so I had ordered half a dozen 5" by 1/8" O-rings to prevent water from getting in from the top,also I dont have to use a sealant which might F-up the Awlgrip finish every year I go to pull the plate





Next I went to work on wiring the boat which is my specialty :wink:
I started off at the transom wiring gutting everything I mean everting!!!.I then ordered new battery wire,primary wire,ground wire,and bilge pump wire.For the battery wire I used 2awg Pacer Marine wire and for the Primary wires to feed the fuse blocks I used 6awg in red for the switch fuse panel and orange for the accessory fuse panel.All connectors I used are heat shrinked including the ones Bep dosent use on their swich cluster,so I fixed that :roll: .I used wterproof fuse holders for the bilge pumps wired to auto float swiches.The main breaker,and buss bars with covers are Blue seas.Also not to forget every I mean every electrical connection I used dilectric grease throughout the entire rewire Here are the pics of the transom wiring sorry if they arent that good it always seemed to be dark out when I got finished .....



Before


After




In between working on that, Scott C. from Vector Imaging(vectorled.com) worked with me on designing a led lit custom switch panel.All I have to say is Scott is the man!!!He will work with you until you are 100 o/o satisfied on how your panel will look and the end result was more than I could have asked for.Anyone thinking of uprading their switch needs to contact Scott you wont be disappointed.We went with no breakers insted I used a dedicated fuse panel just for the switches.Here are some pics comparing the old Grady panel with Scott's panel and of it wired and lit from the leds.....





Once I got the transom wiring done I gutted the rest of the Grady wiring,enough to almost fill a laundry basket full of scrap wire Grady used non tinned wire with non tinned ,non heat shrinked connectors which all were coroded.As I gutted all the wiring I noticed Grady would splice all their grounds into just one 10awg wire throughout the harness Heres some pics...




Ok now the 6awg primary wires were pulled to the cabin and the fun wiring begings 8) I used Blue Seas 12 circuit fuse panels without the built-in ground block,instead I used a Blue Seas 20 space buss bar just for the grounds which makes for a very clean and dedicated way of wiring .All wires are going to the fuse blocks and ground bar are 14awg Pacer Marine tinned wire.Again dilectric grease on EVERYTHING!!! Heres some pics...





Well the wiring was finished but in the middle of doing that I decided to replace the hydraulic steering lines like I really had the money )
The original lines were copper from the helm punmp to the transom,then were 2 short felx hoses came through the rigging hole from the steering cylinder to the copper lines.I wanted to clean up the rigging and seperate the steering and rigging so I went with a pair of 24' Teleflex Bulkhead hydrualic lines with buit in bulkhead fittings which makes for a very clean look when finished.I had to drill 2 1" holes to pass the fitting through the transom and found that the wood was as dry as a bone with no signs of rot.I then epoxied the bare wood holes before installing the lines.






Finally the last thing to do was the rigging,which was done last minute and I took no pics until it was in the water.I have a 1996 OceanPro that had the rigging come into both sides of the motor but wanted to put evrything into a rigging tube,So I came up with my custom rigging tube which turned out so much better than my first idea.I used a 5" rigging boot with a standard rigging tube and a TH Marine rigging hose union for the throttle and gear cables that come in the opposite side of the motor.It also worked great for the auto pilots rudder sensor wire that has to go through the transom as well.The pics arent great but here it is already in the water.I will try to take better ones next time Im down at the boat.Also the pic of the rigging union used to seperate the cables from the tube.I also included a before what it looked like...what a difference!!!!!!!


before


after



rigging union



Finally the finished helm with my out of date electronics flush mounted with a piece of marine ply painted black,again sorry for the bad pics it was late and already in the water,I will take better ones later.So all in all I am very happy with the work Ive done until this off season

[clt_capt]

Very nice work. Especially the wiring!!!

[puttputt]

mighty fine job. shes looking good.

[carom]

congrats on a damn fine job!

thanks for the post