ktomlinson
Well-known member
My wife and I purchased a 2007 Parker 2520 and pulled it home on 01/03/15. The boat was in good working order, but required a few repairs and improvements. The weather has been spotty (rain) and I work full time, so for the past 6 weeks we have worked at every opportunity. We are finally done for now and plan on taking it and leaving it at the marina this weekend.
One of the first things we did was repair the engine cowling. My dad fiberglassed it, a friend color matched and painted it, then we replaced the drains inside the cowl and applied new stickers.
Before:
After:
The cowl was cracked when an employee of the previous owner trimmed the port outboard too high with the ladder folded up. The particular model is a few months too old to be capable of being fitted with a trim limit switch. The previous owner had the ladder tied up with a industrial strength twisty tie. We decided the best was to keep to ladder stable was to drill a hole through both the ladder and the aluminum pull bar and keep them secure with a bolt and a wing nut. It keeps the ladder high enough that I can trim the outboard more than enough for any occasion. The dive ladder is what drew my attention to this particular boat.
The next big project was discovered when I replaced the non-functioning horn that came with the boat. I discovered that the top had approx. 20 screws in it. Places where stuff used to be mounted. 15 of them were fine because the person doing it used 4200. The other 5 were rotten. I decided to make the roof solid again so I cleaned out and beveled all of the screw holes, and took out all of the rot and replaced everything with fiberglass and then gel coated it. I don't have the nonslip texture on my repairs, but recently read about a paint on non stick that I may try. (Anyone have any ideas?) I'm satisfied with the repair as is because it is structurally sound, but would be even happier if it looked better. The bolts on the rails were all leaking so I took them out, cleaned up everything and reinstalled with 4200. The antennae was also leaking, so I did the same for it, sealing it with 5200. One of the hand rails next to the pilothouse door was also leaking and got cleaned up and sealed. I don't know how anyone could stand to have a leaking pilothouse. We have had a lot of rain since the repair and the cabin is now completely dry. We cleaned the wall and roof carpet with rust removing spray and it removed almost all of the stains from leaks.
The interior wasn't properly ventilated so it experienced a fair amount of corrosion. Functionally this interfered with opening the windows easily and using the pilothouse door lock. Cosmetically it made window supports and the light look pretty bad. We replaced the window supports, the cylinder that holds the cuddy door open, the plastic slide rails in both seats (they were gone in the captains chair, and barley holding on in the other), and replaced the port hole screens, all from Cecil Marine. We replaced the light in the cabin and cuddy with white/red LED lights. We also replaced all of the screws for cosmetic reasons. Replaced the stereo and added a speaker in the pilot house to go with the two existing deck speakers. Hung up a fire extinguisher in the doorway of the cuddy. It is really out of the way, but easily accessible. It doesn't interfere with access to the cuddy at all. The metal strip that is attached to the fold down cuddy door was not attached because the acrylic on the fold down door gave way on every screw. Without the metal strip I couldnt keep the cuddy door securely closed. To fix that I drilled through both the cuddy door and acrylic and installed stainless steel t-nuts on bottom and bolts and finish washers up top. The t-nuts are thin enough to allow the latch to still function without the need for adjustment. There isn't much I can do about the window frames, but by replacing everything else is made the cabin look and function a lot better. It's dry and everything works smoothly.
The boat was purchased new with bottom paint (have the receipt), but it was looking green instead of black. I sanded it all smooth and cleaned it with TSP. When it dried I rolled on self ablating paint. I wasn't able to cover where it sits on the trailer bunks, but will cover those spots in the marina yard.
To be cont...
One of the first things we did was repair the engine cowling. My dad fiberglassed it, a friend color matched and painted it, then we replaced the drains inside the cowl and applied new stickers.
Before:
After:
The cowl was cracked when an employee of the previous owner trimmed the port outboard too high with the ladder folded up. The particular model is a few months too old to be capable of being fitted with a trim limit switch. The previous owner had the ladder tied up with a industrial strength twisty tie. We decided the best was to keep to ladder stable was to drill a hole through both the ladder and the aluminum pull bar and keep them secure with a bolt and a wing nut. It keeps the ladder high enough that I can trim the outboard more than enough for any occasion. The dive ladder is what drew my attention to this particular boat.
The next big project was discovered when I replaced the non-functioning horn that came with the boat. I discovered that the top had approx. 20 screws in it. Places where stuff used to be mounted. 15 of them were fine because the person doing it used 4200. The other 5 were rotten. I decided to make the roof solid again so I cleaned out and beveled all of the screw holes, and took out all of the rot and replaced everything with fiberglass and then gel coated it. I don't have the nonslip texture on my repairs, but recently read about a paint on non stick that I may try. (Anyone have any ideas?) I'm satisfied with the repair as is because it is structurally sound, but would be even happier if it looked better. The bolts on the rails were all leaking so I took them out, cleaned up everything and reinstalled with 4200. The antennae was also leaking, so I did the same for it, sealing it with 5200. One of the hand rails next to the pilothouse door was also leaking and got cleaned up and sealed. I don't know how anyone could stand to have a leaking pilothouse. We have had a lot of rain since the repair and the cabin is now completely dry. We cleaned the wall and roof carpet with rust removing spray and it removed almost all of the stains from leaks.
The interior wasn't properly ventilated so it experienced a fair amount of corrosion. Functionally this interfered with opening the windows easily and using the pilothouse door lock. Cosmetically it made window supports and the light look pretty bad. We replaced the window supports, the cylinder that holds the cuddy door open, the plastic slide rails in both seats (they were gone in the captains chair, and barley holding on in the other), and replaced the port hole screens, all from Cecil Marine. We replaced the light in the cabin and cuddy with white/red LED lights. We also replaced all of the screws for cosmetic reasons. Replaced the stereo and added a speaker in the pilot house to go with the two existing deck speakers. Hung up a fire extinguisher in the doorway of the cuddy. It is really out of the way, but easily accessible. It doesn't interfere with access to the cuddy at all. The metal strip that is attached to the fold down cuddy door was not attached because the acrylic on the fold down door gave way on every screw. Without the metal strip I couldnt keep the cuddy door securely closed. To fix that I drilled through both the cuddy door and acrylic and installed stainless steel t-nuts on bottom and bolts and finish washers up top. The t-nuts are thin enough to allow the latch to still function without the need for adjustment. There isn't much I can do about the window frames, but by replacing everything else is made the cabin look and function a lot better. It's dry and everything works smoothly.
The boat was purchased new with bottom paint (have the receipt), but it was looking green instead of black. I sanded it all smooth and cleaned it with TSP. When it dried I rolled on self ablating paint. I wasn't able to cover where it sits on the trailer bunks, but will cover those spots in the marina yard.
To be cont...
