I must like punishing myself
 

here is the new project, picked it up from a friend of a friend. I had been sitting behind his garage for 10 years since his brother dropped it off. Needs everything.

wll start in october sometime when I get done with the new shop and house.

Hurts so good :)

strick

It's like a toothache.as much as it hurts,you can't stop yourself from touching it.The punishment is worth the final outcome. Good luck with the resto.

Billy the Kid,

I really admire the ambition of you and Strick.

I enjoy some of the work but hate the grinding itch, smell of resin and getting resin or epoxy stuck on your skin. Does it ever stop bothering you.

You document everything so well and most of us learn far more than in This Old Boat or any of the other books on fiberglass boat repair

Thank you

It never stops bothering me anyway, I find that if you are neat and planned with your fiberglassing it requires less grinding. thats the way I like to think anyway. vacuums, dust masked and tyvek suits help. also I always wear gloves when working with resin or putty or any other chemical. I buy them from the local napa. also

one thing I did invest in with a friend was a fiberglass trimmer

http://www.bodico.com/trimmers.aspx

it was expensive but it hooks to a vacuum hose and it cuts like butter.

I am doing a flush deck on this one with a bracket and a lefty Kreh type console.

I was staring at the boat this morning at 5am while my lab was marking his usual territory and I think I can take the engine box and make it part of the console with the the potter fiberglass emblem still on it.



so what do you think? think I can make the engine box work as a coffin box?

Probably will work but I would be more inclined to build a one off mold for the consel and coffin all included. I really like the Lefty design. I hear that there is no room in the stern with that set up due to the leaning post being set so far back. But they sure look great. Having the live well in the middle of the boat would sure be good for the ride. Looking forward to your project. Did you get a motor yet?

strick

I am sure with your skills ,you can graft that logo in anywhere you wish,man. Pouring over the full rebuild posts (usually at work;) is inspiring for ideas and mods.If I ever get shop space,anything might happen to my 71' sf as these boats have gripped me with a powerful lust. I cannot see owning another brand again.A union of such form ,function and strength/quality is a rare combo in the world. Thanks for all you contribute to the forum.

You,too,Strick.

Cheers

strick I am working on that, I am in no rush so I am going to let a motor find me!

I have a line on a 2004 140 suzuki but the price is unrealistic, plus its 8 years old.

saw a pair on a cat that a guy is selling, then I found out the boat sank 2 years ago. so that was a no go. dont need anymore headaches.

I bought the wiring harness, throttle and cables, tach , ignition and wiring for 100 bucks from a friend. so I just need the motor.

I just dumped 40k into my house, so the play money has dwindled significantly.

thank you for the compliment, I have always been a hands on person and just enjoy,renovating these boats.

I cant hold a candle to strick, he has his own boat renovation factory on the west cost.

Ha....well compared to some of the boats I've seen restored on this site (yours included) I feel like a little peon. I tend to work more off volume :)

I've been trying to find a motor over here in Calif but they are so few and far between. I'm in no hurry either. Looked at one that appeared to have some water in the oil....a 2003. Might just say screw it and buy a new one when the time comes.

strick

Well it has started, with the weather looming last weekend of northeast 25 knots plus, I decided it was time.

I woke up at 7am put on my work boots and my wife knew she wouldn't see me all day. I sipped my coffee and came up with what I wanted to accomplish.

I broke out anything with a saw in the name including but not limited to pry bars big and small, drills, hammers chisels and I even had to bring in the tractor.

I went at the boat like a rabbid spider monkey, slicing and dicing and the throwing and hurling everything out of the boat into a truck that was bound for the junk yard.

transom was mush as with anything else that was wood based in the boat. I had the hull gutted before lunch time and the motor, outdrive and the rest of the mechanicals by 1 then I went to town cutting and grinding all the crap out of the boat. filled up a dozen trash bags with foam .



pulled the the transom out and the skin and first peince of plywood came out easy, the second piece of plywood was wet but still as strong as the day them put it in

I called it a day and went to get rid of all the garbage and of course make a pit stop at home depot.

I bought a cordless Makita grinder to add to my Makita tools and it has proved itself pretty handy.


Sunday I wanted to clean the transom down to the glass and cut and grind any crap out of the boat all in one day, to keep the misery of itching down.

I also set up some saw horses for the cap and cut and grind it down clean.

a lot has happened since my last restore, we moved and I had to build a new shop that you will see in the pics. Sold after Hurricane Irene and thank god we did because sandy put 6ft of water through my old shop and 3ft in the house!! Let me tell you moving a shop and setting back up was the worst thing ever!!!!

The liner was cut just in front of the engine box and I wanted to get it back together so I put another saw horse in rear and some scraps of ply and screws to put it back together to get glassed.


screwed it together and and slapped some mat and 1708 down on it to put it back together.

I decided to core the hull and cut the the liner to a make a gunnel with 6" sides, I took some white sided hardboard from home depot and put some mold release on it. Then reverse screwed it to the old rod locker opening I cut the screws off so I could glass up the inside. I laid 2 layers of mat for a skin coat then 1 layer of mat and one layer of 1708 on the inside that was an opening . I then mixed up some Dynaglass to fill the contour between the old and new and laid a layer of 1708 up over the new and down onto the underside of the cap.

I decided to go old school and mount the motor to the transom, I am planning on building boxes on each side and building a engine cowling like the old Seavee's or the Conch's.

I took a bunch of measurements and decided what I wanted. I leveled the boat out and pulled some lines.

I broke out the the dynabrade angle diamond bit cutter and sliced the transom like a hot knife through butter.

I also broke down and made a purchase that I should of done 10 years ago and that is a Fein turbo II vacuum. This is one if those tools that is awesome.

by the way I cut the transom for a 25" motor.

video of dynabrade cutter matched to the Fein vacuum, zero dust end of story. and the suction from the vacuum keeps it stuck to the boat.


http://s113.photobucket.com/user/roc...a/612.mp4.html

All this in a weekend......:confused::eek::eek::eek:

Here I thought I was doing good over this past weekend
just getting my Hewes re-do ground down.....

Attachment 5539

Keep it coming Billy!

Jeeez Ken....most folks are able to only use one grinder at a time!!! You 'da man! :)

"Nipple Polishers" :p

nice nipple polishers, I knew a girl once that ...... aaahhh nevermind


Got some more work done today,

I popped the mdf off the cap and decided to cut the gunnels. I first screwed a straight piece of plywood to the liner a 1/2" down from where the cut would be. I then grabbed my trusty diamond cutter and Fein Vacuum and off I went slicing all the way around except for the bow as I wanted to get it straight and the old anchor locker has a funny angle on it . So I trimmed it close until I am ready.

I lifted it back in the boat by myself which proved to be interesting, I wanted to see how it looked as I still need to core the underside. The hull had spread a little and I had to muscle it into a place.

Before I cut the cap I wanted to get some glass in the old outdrive hole. I took the air grinder and cleaned the old hole up and wanted to make a template for the glass, So I took a piece of cardboard and traced the hole to apply it to the fiberglass. I did 2 layers of mat 1 layer of 1708 2 layers of roving mat and 1 last layer if 1708. I cut everything and got it ready. I followed suit as I did with the gunnel cap and screwed some mdf and wood to it to laminate against.

I have been collecting stuff like a hobo over the past 8 months to prep for the project. I got a console out of an 18 that I will lower and add a lefty kreh like coffin box to the front. I got a bunch of fiberglass rolls 1708, 1808, mat and some 38oz stitch mat. I still have some hose, wiring electric connectors left over also. I got a set of load rite dolleys for the garage that I will put the boat in a few weeks.


and also the power plant that I got my hands on, Suzuki 140 4stroke hiding in the corner!!

Looking forward to watching you progress through your build and maybe learning a few things.

I am wanting to make my gunnels on my project larger like you have on yours.

I had noticed that your 20' Seacraft was originally an inboard/outboard set-up..... Do you know what size motors was used in these hulls back in the day??? And roughly how much weight do you think that motor and outdrive weighs that was in it??

Like a rabid Spider Monkey. Nice.

Picked up some material yesterday for the transom and the inner hull. I decided to use a product called Corelite for the transom, It was recommended by a friend who has done a lot of restores in his time. Its about the same weight as Penske or coosa board, But it cuts a lot easier. It looks like Azek and almost cuts like it, but you cant compress it like azek. It is rough on both sides.

I ripped a pieceof 1/8 Luan down to use as template material, So out came the shears, heat gun and pencil and off I went making a template.

After I dry fitted both pieces, I cut a piece of mat for between both of them, I mixed up some poly and layed it out, dropped the second piece on top and put a couple screws through it to hold. Then I grabbed some weight laying around to samich them together. (samich is from duck dynasty if you don't watch it)


I also grounded down the boogers on outdrive hole and smothered some dynaglass to smooth it out and layed a layer of mat over it to finish it off. I also layed some dynaglass in some of the gouches from removing the transom.

Wow!! You make this look easy

You're making good progress. I guess you do a lot less head scratching, and have more productive time once you've got one or two of these under your belt.

Nice work! I am really interested to see more people do composite transoms. Plywood seems like it has so many down sides, like weight, rot, and grain orientation that promotes further rot.

If you hate sanding on the inside of the hull, I heard about and then tried using a sandblaster. It is pretty easy and fast. Great for irregular surfaces. I used it for my console door.

Also, when you fillet and tab in from transom to stringers, I found some good reference material on construction of that joint. I got it from boatdesign.net.

A link to some discussion here, with a link to the original:

http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...4&postcount=32

and http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/fib...ion-45735.html


Finally, if you want a bit better bond, but like polyester resin, you might consider vinylester. It works the same way (MEKP system, thinned with styrene), but has better mechanical properties, and better resistance to water. Plus polyester sticks to it, in case you want to gel coat the bilge. I am a huge fan of the stuff I get from Mertons.

Vinylester resin was outside the budget as it was almost double the polyester and when buying it by the drum its alot of money. Joe Merton has been very helpful to me for the past 14 years answering questions for me or asking some of the builders he works with.
I am getting the boat soda blasted in a few weeks and they are also gonna blast the bilge area for me to clean it up. I am a big fan of media blasting as it does not discriminate agianst any type of surface.

Blue
It does go much faster as you gain knowledge on these boats and know what you want to do going in. This is my third 20sf. I also helped a friend with one a few years ago. This one was rotted completely out and it is just easier to start over. I am pushing to get some of this work done outdoors so i dont sh1t up my new garage to much. I am getting the rest of my coring, resin and other materials delivered tomorrow. So i will be set to make some more progress on it in the next few weeks.

Very true, the 55 gal drum of Vinyl I recently purchased was at least $400 more a drum over poly. The epoxy price per drum was 4 x the poly as well! I bit the bullet and got the Vinylester due to using it on mainly structural bonds. I have nothing against the poly, it works well too as long as the surface is prepared right.

Billy
Who are you having do the soda blasting? I'm in south Jersey and have been looking for someone local to do my bottom.
Thanks

John

Atlantic soda blasting is gonna do it. I cant get ahold of south jersey soda blasting and doesnt call back. Atlantic called me back the same day gave me a price and then we put it on the schedule. The way a buisness should be run.

Barrel of vinylester was 650 more than the poly.

I have never used soda blasting. I always used black beauty silicon carbide. You are supposed to have a fresh air supply so you don't get silicosis, but for small jobs with a mask, I suspect it is fine.

I realized after I posted and re-read the thread that you were well aware of the things I posted, but left it up anyways. Maybe someone will find it useful.

I think that sandblasting is the best shortcut there is for structural work.

no updates this weekend, it got cold here and I have to get the heat running in the shop

You could afford to slow down a little. You wouldn't want to finish it too fast now would you? :)

strick

OK not that slow :)

strick

I have more pics will get them off the camera in the next day or so.

finally got the gas company over to boost pressure to my garage for the heat. it has been cold here and working outside hasn't been feasible.

also snow plowing has been busy for us.

gonna make a good run at it next week I hope.