35 Commander Restoration Project – Jeremy’s Journey – The beginning
Jeremy is a very active member of the club. His extensive documentation of his 35 Commander restoration has been saved in the CCCC Archives. As the Archivist, I am posting his entries from the previous website here on the forum. These are preserved in PDF format so that they can be downloaded and saved. He will continue to share his adventure in new forum posts and we will continue to archive them.
Introduction:
Hello, my name is Jeremy Goldstein and I’m a boat addict to the highest degree! (especially the vintage stuff!)
Fixing, building, & restoring boats is my day job and for fun I work on boats!
I’ve got a 35' 1968 Commander express model that I’ve been very slowly restoring in my very limited free time.
For those of you that have been following its restoration story on the old website forum, I hope to be able to transfer it to this site and continue telling the story. I had wanted a Commander for a long time and finally purchased mine in 2017. We put 30 hours on it that summer even though it was very tired in every way possible. Since then its bottom and bilge have been extensively repaired & reglassed. It got a pair of brand new EFI 496's , new gas tanks, new cockpit floor framing, insulation, trim tabs, new steering, new helm station panels, restored gauges; striped & refinished a bunch of mahogany, lots of gel coat repairs, insane amount of compounding on the top sides to maintain the mostly original factory finish, new gel coat boot stripe, new props & shafts, all new thru hulls, new fire suppression system, custom cockpit side wall hatches to allow much improved access to service the outboard sides of the engines, lots of new chrome and polished stainless, and much more! Still lots left to do but I very much look forward to eventually getting to use it.
Goldstein projects PDF list
1 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – First post – December 23,2017
2 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – repower or not January 28, 2018
3 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – Fuel Tanks & Tabbing February 9 , 2018
4 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – update October 30, 2018
5 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – update October 31, 2018
6 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – hatch November 1, 2018
7 35 Restoration – Preparing bilge for new engines November 7, 2018
8 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – Blisters December 16, 2018
9 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – shaft log area December 30, 2018
10 Serious winter restoration work on my 35 – bottom glass work January 4, 2019
11 Serious restoration work on my 35 – bottom repairs and more March 17, 2019
12 Serious restoration work on my 35 – Bottom finished and boot stripe June 27, 2019
13 Serious restoration work on my 35 – Factory Tabbing October 13, 2019
14 Serious restoration work on my 35 – Props October 18, 2019
15 Serious restoration work on my 35 – hatch drain holes October 18, 2019
16 Serious restoration work on my 35 – Raw water pickups November 28, 2019
17 Serious restoration work on my 35 – helm station November 28, 2019
18 Serious restoration work on my 35 – insulating November 28, 2019
19 35 Restoration – engine hatches February 22, 2020
20 35 Restoration – bilge and helm progress February 22, 2020
21 Serious restoration work on my 35 – Gas Tanks & more June 5, 2020
22 35 Restoration - gelcoat, polishing, helm & more December 28, 2020
23 35 Restoration – gelcoat polishing December 29, 2020
24 Rudder Blocks 35’ Commander December 29, 2020
25 35 Restoration – water pump on MercCruisers February 5, 2021
26 35 Restoration – Engine Install March 17, 2021
27 35 Restoration - refinishing some of the mahogany in the cockpit June 4, 2021
28 35 Commander Blower Replacement June 29, 2021
29 35 Restoration –Cockpit side hatches February 15, 2022
30 35 Restoration –Fireboy suppression system February 15, 2022
31 35 Restoration –Helm Center Panel February 15, 2022
32 35 Restoration –Hydraulic Steering Pump February 15, 2022
33 35 Restoration –Vent Covers February 15, 2022
34 35 Restoration – Props and Shafts May 6, 2022