Boat Building Process...

[Backlash Ar]

Listed below are the various steps in Venom's Boat production process. You would be surprised at the expertise and numerous stages required to take a boat to its final finish. The boat is actually made from the outside in; i.e., the color is added first to the outside of the hull:
1. Prepare the molds, hull and cap by hand waxing.
2. Tape off the areas where the inlay colors (flake) will be added for the pin
stripes and the main stripe.
3. Apply the gel coat to the hull and cap, remove tape and apply flake for pins,
then remove tape and apply flake for the main stripe.
4. Lay-Up=chop all fiberglass, hand lay-up of fiberglass cloth, add stringers,
transom, floor and rails.
5. Rough Finish=apply foam floatation, install live wells, gas tank, and all wire
harnesses. Apply the cap to the hull and anchor it with rivets and
fiberglass.
6. Sand and Buff=each boat is hand sanded to perfection (an 8 hr. process
for 2 people.)
7. Turf Department=carpeting installed
8. Final Finish=Where the TM, gauges, interior lights, power pistons for the
livewells, jackplate, windshields, handrails, rub rail, flat foot, hot foot, deck
extentions, seats, pedestal bases, etc are installed.

This is quite a process and has been very educational as well. I think we all might be taken back just a little at this overwelming process. Pics to follow
soon!

[Rollo331]

Did you go in the grinding room? nice itchy place...............

[Rod Wellbent]

Just curious, Is all the aluminum decking cut onsite or prefab somewhere else?

[AlanW]

Doesn't the freshly waxed molds have to have the clear gelcoat sprayed in first before the taping for the inlay can be done? Otherwise, I'm confused

[Cleveland]

Rollo....the boat will be in the grinding booth tomorrow (Thursday)
Rod....The only aluminum on the deck are the storage and livewell lids and they are prefabbed somewhere else.
Alan.....It will be much easier for you to wait until Backlash posts the pics he has taken than it would be for me to explain it to you. The clearcoat is sprayed into the pin stripe and main stripe areas first then backed up with the different color flakes. The pin stripe and main stripe areas are taped off to protect those particular areas from getting sprayed with white gel...which is what is sprayed into the mold first. You'll see in the pics.

Cleveland

[Rod Wellbent]

Huh, Well it was definitely worth waking up today as I've learned something. I assumed that the whole front deck is aluminum since there is alum trimmed all the way around it. Is that just decoration then?

[AlanW]

clevelandd...actually your explaination is quite good I (now) understand perfectly...where my thinking was going wrong was that I thought the white gel would also have the clear coat over it also, but I guess it doesn't need it because it's white anyway.
Thanks

[Cleveland]

Rod, the boat is made in 2 molds....hull mold and cap mold and the whole boat is totally fiberglass. The rubrail is where the 2 parts are connected together. If you were to take the rubrail off you would see where the 2 parts are screwed together then the rubrail is rivoted into place. We build the whole inside of the boat first then connect the 2 parts together and then add all the outside hardware....cleats, dashes, trollingmotors, carpet, courtesy lights......stuff like that. The aluminum trim you see is covering the edges of the carpet where we cut it to fit the deck and floors.

[Venom1]

Hey Allan

Don't feel bad, you should have seen the look on my face when I finally could understand all of the procedures it took to shoot a boat, it was like someone turned on a massive lightbulb in my brain. Cleveland is quite knowledgeable and most certainly is an asset to this company, hope this doesn't give her a big head, she is hard enough to live with at work as it is. Thanks for your questions, we are always eager to explain our building process. Just so you will know, the deck lids are still made of alum. and then covered with carpet, they are still the best solution to the lids and create a good strong set of lids.

Regards

Ed

[mefforda]

Hey backlash, just looking through archives and was looking for those pics of the boat building process, seems interesting.

[Backlash Ar]

If you locate them let me know too because I can't find 'em anywhere either. I think Cleveland may have sabotaged them...not really!

[mercury_pro]

clear isnt used in soid color areas and the metelflake has to have black gel backing for the metalflake to stand out and a barrier coat between the gel and the layer of chop so there is no fibreglass showing in the glass...and more steps

[AlanW]

Are there guidelines inside the molds to show exactly where to tape off each time for the stripes and pins? I know just correctly and precisiely applying the tape takes a pretty good level of skill & experience.

And I have done just a very little bit of fiberglass finishing and it is VERY, VERY labor-intensive!! My hat is off to Cleveland and the others who would sand and buff on those snakes for hours and hours and hours. I don't find it to be a very fun job!

[Cleveland]

No guidelines inside of the molds. After you tape a boat off a few hundred times you know exactly where it goes. "I"..... was not a taper. I was a sander and buffer and detailer and a "go fer" and when I had idle time I helped out in any department that could use another set of hands at that time. And when the boats were all built and completely finished I did the final inspection of them, made sure all of the parts were there, gave them my greasy thumb print of approval and then I helped load them on the truck for delivery to the dealerships.

Back in the days of milk and honey at the plant, we would load 2 semi trucks with 5 boats each and there was 2 duely trucks that would pull 2 boats behind them for delivery to where ever. And we did this every Friday.

Man....... THOSE WERE THE DAYS !!!! I sure do miss it alot.

[Cleveland]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mercury_pro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">clear isnt used in soid color areas and the metelflake has to have black gel backing for the metalflake to stand out and a barrier coat between the gel and the layer of chop so there is no fibreglass showing in the glass...and more steps </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats right Ken. I neglected to mention that so long ago. Dang, I can't believe somebody even found this thread. It's pretty cool.