TOPIC: Dads boat

The old man has been gone for 11 years and this old girl's been sitting on the boat landing since 1995 unused because of what you're about to see.. The transom is rotted and the floors were gone. Plus a half dozen hurricanes and countless nor'easters haven't been kind to it. I dug it out and decided to reclaim her. The Old man got it off a friend of his in the late 80's and it looked a little nicer than it does now but was always pretty ugly, and battle scarred..

Getting repowered with late 80s early 90s Evinrude 20 Hp with helm controls.

Specs are 13' with a 4' beam at the transom. I have no idea what company made this one. I'm guessing its early 1960's maybe late 50's.

Looks like about 100 hours of glass work to get it back in shape again...











The fiberglass on the back had some severe delamination issues that I couldn't salvage. So it was easier to just cut it off and start from scratch.

The boat was painted about 20 times with what looks like copper coat, and some house paint and some rustoleum... Whatever was laying around. They patched some sections with a expoxy of some kind it failed because they stuck it on top of the paint and the paint shrank. I cannot salvage any of the gel-coat it's so crazed, and flaking It all has to come off. Gel-coat is at least reasonably inexpensive $50 bucks a gallon which is cheaper than paint most basecoats run $70-80 a quart. I have some ideas for this old girl. I have my plywood made up for the transom. I'm waiting for the rest of my glass materials to come this week. I want to get the transom and floor done before it gets too cold out. I can let the top go until spring. I know the top looks pretty sad but it's actually an easier piece to repair than the bottom section.

Does anyone have a source for reasonable rub railing (edge Guards molding)

Ok I've made some progress and I think I figured out that this boat is a Winner/Plasticraft Warrior. The specs in the archives all line up for this boat. I'm guessing this is an earlier one from the 1950's.

Transom is all tabbed in and the keel is getting repaired. The transom is 80% completed with the first layer of 1708 going on yesterday afternoon.

The Damage to the keel was hidden under 1/2 an inch of patches. Someone thought Duraglass was fiberglass when it's only a body filler, and has basically zero structure on it's own. They put the floor in with it, and attempted to repair the cracked keel with it. I cut the bad section of fiberglass out. Poured in some 2lb urethane foam ground a ditch and packed it with my peanut butter glass mixture. Then covered the entire repaired section with 1708. I didn't expect this much damage to the keel I knew it had issues but this was pretty bad.

It's been a long time since I did this much surface area in fiberglass.

I killed my old B&D Angle grinder on this project. I got sick of having to fix it every 15 minutes. It needs a new switch and the brushes are beat. neither of which I can get it was cheaper to get the crappy 9" grinder from horrible freight. for 55 dollars with their coupon it was like a no brainer.

First, welcome aboard Oldhornjunkie. Looks like you're making some good progress there, glad to see the progress reports so keep 'em coming! I don't know if you are aware, but there may be some helpful hints / refresher ideas in the Research - Restoration section here to help with the fiberglass techniques. Here's a link directly to them;
www.fiberglassics.com/restoration/

Thanks mark your website has been a solid resource for a refresher course in polymer repair.

I am a fully train a&p aircraft mechanic (non practicing) I am currently working as a napbirt musical instrument technician. I haven't done anything with fiberglass resins in almost 15 years. I haven't lost my touch because once I removed the old crap the new went on really easy and working with the new epoxy resins is much easier than the old polyester stuff.

Oldhornjunkie,

WELCOME ABOARD. = Looks like that you're well on your way to restoring your dad's boat.

yours, satx

Thanks satx!

Here's some more progress I made today.

I work about an hour or two a day (weather/time permitting) when I get in from work. I started my course of carbon fiber on the keel, and got the 12" wide fiberglass tape down. I got covered in goop covering the inside of the transom. I wasn't looking forward to the messy job but I didn't want to flip the boat again just for this.

I can now drill my hole for the new drain plug!

BTW The Plywood I used for my transom is a product called Skid-Guard. They use it for exterior steps and handi-capped ramps. I've seen it used on slip floats too. VERY Dense Plywood with a Fiberglass coating front and back. Cutting the transom with two 3/4" thick pieces laminated together damn near cooked my poor saber saw. And I couldn't manage the piece on my bandsaw working alone.

Excellent work so far and welcome aboard!

Bob

I don't think I would have used that plywood. Will the fiberglass and resin hold to it over time?
Luckily it is a small boat.

Fiberglass will stick to fiberglass... Like anything else you have to sand it first so it will bite into it. Everyone is afraid of 36 grit sanding discs and taking off material. I tested a piece for adhesion. It held better than bare wood.

I think by the time this transom comes apart again it will be chopped into pieces.

If it were a larger boat I would use Kay-cel. Plywood is obsolete technology. But this is a tiny boat with a little 20hp outboard on it so this stuff which is a little thicker than the original and that wasn't even marine ply lasted 30 years before is began to fail. With 500 holes drilled in it and poorly made repairs everywhere. This should last a decade or two. I've seen 5-8 year old boats with rotted out trashed transoms... It happens delamination happens. Anything is possible.

Some updated pics. The new ribs added a lot of much needed structure. The boat would flex way too much before now it just barely wiggles.

The center half tube is just a pass through for drainage. After I tab in the ribs I'm going to foam in between the ribs before I put down my new floor.

The top of the boat is literally full of bondo/duraglass, and quite a lot of paint. From underneath it looks like they filled about 400 holes. It at least explains why it weighed more than I expected it to. I want to fix the broken piece before I go crazy on it. All the wood inside is basically rotted out. It's not as bad as the rest of the boat to repair. A lot less surface area it will be a lot of finishing work to make it presentable.

For a tiny boat that I don't remember the old man ever fixing or doing any sort of work to it, it's been through hell and back long before we got a hold of it.

I can't wait for the warm weather to button up this thing! I bagged it for the cold in Mid-October.

Video Slide show on youtube. I was bored and I never used iMovie before on my iMac.


I have another boat that I'll be start once this one is done and the bugs worked out. This next will be my Wildwood Boat. I wanted something small for my little Ram50 to lug along but not too small that would beat me up in the rips or back bays.

1977 VIP SeaSquirt 15' Center Console. It's pretty solid but I won't know how bad it really is until the weather warms up.

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152188501634640&l=1b65fc30d0

OHJ, I working on a friend's Sea Squirt. The deck construction on that is 6" x 6" squares of plywood sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass. Water got under the first layer somehow. If one part of the deck is soft, chances are the whole thing may need to be replaced. That is what we found. There is a small amount of foam in the hull (that most likely has absorbed water), but that can come out easily once the deck is up. You may also want to take a look at the base of the transom from the holes in the bilge well.

The drainage system is overly complicated and we are probably going to revise that.

My plan is to install two new oak (or similar) stringers and fill a good part of the area under the deck with foam. Replace Install epoxy coated plywood and glass over it. That should solidify that once and for all.

If you want to talk more about this, email me privately. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wow!

Awesome job and great photo tracking of the project! The boat looks beautiful. It honours your late father and I'm sure he would be/is pleased! I'm sort of doing the same thing in restoring my dads boat but there's no way it was as far gone as your project. My dad's boat had been sitting on some tires on the floor of the garage at the lake for at least 10 years. It's a 14 foot Crestliner Mustang with a 45 HP Chrysler engine. I went at the hull with a buffer last year and have restored the boat pretty much to showroom condition. Dad had the seats re-upholstered so the interior looks perfect. I'm working on one of the finishing touches at the moment which are the Crestliner emblems for the sides of the boat and the Chrysler emblems for the motor. Checks my posts for the story and pics there.

I have "cheesed" the boat up with Canadian flags on the bow and stern and people at the lake all give the thumbs up when I cruise past in the summertime. The motor runs like a top which has been a real bonus!

I've kept photos tracking the progress of the entire boat project and I'll post the story and pics when I have finished the job.

One thing I am blessed with on my restoration adventure is that my dad is still alive (88)so I can show him the transformations happening to his beloved craft. He is really getting a kick out of the photos and conversations we are having have about the boat and so am I. When I finish this boat, I'll be restoring his 14 foot aluminum boat! Cheers