"68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

[wambs8]

Hi
I would like to introduce myself and talk about my rebuild and possible get some help along the way. So I bought this boat kind of on a whim. I bought it May of last year and had it out in the water about a dozen times. Motor runs great. (90 hp Johnson) I knew about the soft spots on the floor when I bought it. I just didn't realize what I was in for. Ok now for the Pics. Sorry they are so large I had the highest quality setting on the camera so they came out too big. In the future I will Thumbnail them to my post.

Carpet and seats are out

Got a feeling that everything under this floor is rotten

 

[keepNitreel]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Nice to see an old school runabout getting restored. I will keep my eye on this one. BTW everything under the floor looks rotten

 

[keepNitreel]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Forgot to mention, resize your pics to 640X480 instead of thumbnails. Alot of people here hate to click and wait for a thumbnail to open.

 

[Mark42]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Cool runabout. Those are such fun boats, once you get it all re-done it will be your favorite for a long time.

Anyway, you are probably right about the rot. So just rip it all out, and lay in some new stringers and deck. Don't forget about the transom too. If it were my boat, I'd get some pressure treated ply from the lumber yard and let it dry a week or so then use it for stringers, deck and transom.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Yeah there's going to be some nightmare under that floor. However, that's a cool boat and a GREAT motor. Good luck with your project.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Ok most of the floor is out. Lots of rot. Stringers are rotton or wet. Its all gotta come out. Hopefully I can get the stringers out in one piece. Still need to check the transom but I am sure that it needs to be replaced. Some of the pictures did'nt turn out too well. I will remove the tarp for all future pictures. I have a cable running form the garage to the front of the trailer and a tarp over the boat with some lights so that I can work when it rains. Also i removed the motor yesterday
.

This is what the boat looked like in PO's driveway

Rot

I have a box fan that I will put in the front of the boat with a filter in front to catch all the fiberglass dust

Just a little more of the deck to remove near front

 

[keepNitreel]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Looks like you got a good trailer under there & the boat looks real good also (besides the rot). 90 HP should push that puppy pretty fast.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Hello Wam..

Looks like a nice project m8..

3 thoughts ..

1. A box fan with a filter..good thought.. .. It will not catch all the glass .. be forwarned. Those tarps are prob poly based..expect dust clinging to those as well. Wear cotton clothes.

2. Get some baby powder..and pre-powder your grinding suit . It will help alot with the itchy kinda thing that goes with major grinding

3. For your 4.5 grinder that your gonna use..I would suggest bucking up for a 3m "Grit-lok" assembly for your 24 grit disks. It will come in handy when laying down and not have to unscrew your disk.

Have fun and be safe

YD.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

O.K. the transom is rotten. Not terribly so ,but Its better to deal with it now. I took the rub rail off but couldn't get the cap to budge. I had to cut into the first ply of the transom and use a pry bar to pop the cap off. The splash well was glued to the transom or some glue had seeped behind the splash well. The cap is push forward and supported with 2 X 4's. The hull is supported by the eye bolt in front and with concrete blocks and wood in the rear. The boat is now off the rollers. I was surprised how much rigidity the cap provides to the boat.

Glue seeped behind splashwell

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

The stringers are removed and the transom is gone. I got the stringers out in one and two pieces the transom came out in little pieces. Sorry I didn't take pics of removal. Sometimes I get moving and I forget to take pics. Still have allot of grinding to do. I had to pick up a new grinder as my old one bit the dust. I ordered my fiberglass supplies yesterday. I am taking a week off from work around 4th of July. I hope to do some fiber glassing. I plan on putting down a layer of 1708 biaxial on the entire hull prior to installing the stringers. Some areas of the hull are thin. The third pic shows a wear spot on the hull. I figure I could fix this from inside and it would be a much neater repair than trying to fix it from the outside. Which leads me to a question. The Keel area has some fiberglass worn off about a 4 foot section. What would be the best way to build this area back up? The hull does not leak.

 

[keepNitreel]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Nice job on the gut, Keel looks worn from beaching, should be a simple fix. The Yacht Dr. or another pro will tell ya the best way to go about fixin it.

 

[7designs]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Nice work. That is a cool boat. Will be watching this thread.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Thanks guys. I think I might just leave the keel as it is. Its not too bad. That part of the keel has a round over and doesn't come to a sharp point. Since I will be reinforcing the inside of the keel and eventually add one of those keel guards you wont see that part of it. Any way It will be awhile before I get to that part so I am kind of jumping the gun.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

I know its been almost a year but I am still working on the boat. I fast forward a little bit and didnt take a lot of pictures but this is where I am at now. I hope to get the boat in the water this year.
1 Coat of 6 ounce cloth applied to bottom of boat. 1 layer of 1708 applied to the length of the keel. The two stringers that run the length of the boat where tabed in. 2 layers of 1708 applied to each side of the stringers up to the top of the stringers with 3 layers of 6 ounce cloth wrapping the tops.

1 layer of 1708 applied to the inside of the transom and plywood over that. Still have to work on the edges with some thich epoxy. couple of pictures at various angles,

The stringers are tabbed to the rear of the transom skin

Thats all for now. I will be adding the center section of the transom(inbetween) the stringers this sunday. I will be adding more pics next week.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

I added the center section of the transom

I beveled the center section 45 deg. so that the cloth would more easily go over the transom

Except for the drain tubes the transom is done All the paint has been removed from the sides.
I will lower the cap and put the center stringers in and then the floor.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

I am a little behind on posting pics. I am further along than this. I will post some more pics this week. I am taking off this week to do some
more work but it looks like the weather might not cooperate.

The rest of the stringers tabbed in. The center piece will be notched into the stringers. I saved the old stringers for patterns but they were too rotten where they contacted the bottom of the Hull. I used cardboard and scissors to get a template close,cut it large with a Jig saw and did the final fitting with a belt sander. The cap was lowered before I put the stringers in.

The drain plug installed.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

The stringers are all glassed in. I used 2 layers of 1708 on all the stringers topped with 1 layer of 1708 for the middle stringers and 3 layers of 6 ounce for the stringers that run the length of the boat. I know it's way overkill but I figure if the wood rots in 40 years it probably wont matter. Who ever came up with the idea to run the cloth up to the top of the stringer and use a separate piece to top it was a genius. Just trying to get a layer of 1708 over the top of the stringer was a pain. Also theses two side pieces are epoxied into the corners. They are just 2X4's that I used the belt sander on to contour them to the sides of the boat. Oh if you look on top of the left stringer you will see a piece of wood. I got a little carried away with the belt sander so this part of the stringer ended up being being too low with the other stringer.

A shot from the front

After reading allot of post on how people set up there bilge pumps this is what I decide on. One pump and 2 floats. One of which is a back up in case the main float fails/sticks. Just behind the pump you can see part of the drain tube. They sit on pieces of aluminum epoxied onto the bottom. I didn't want any wood in this area. The triangle piece glassed into the bottom of the bilge is to carry any water from the front of the boat into the bilge area. What do you call this? I thought about using Pvc for this but in the end I just decide to replace it the way it came from the factory.

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Pic of me fitting the plywood deck in. The rear piece is done, working on the middle section. I decided to go with 3/8 inch plywood because that is what I took out. I will put one layer of 6 oz cloth on the bottom and one layer of 1708 on the top. That should make it plenty strong.

 

[coolness]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

Very nice work on the the Mark Twain!! You are doing a professional job!! Looking forward to more pics!!

 

[wambs8]

Re: "68" Mark Twain runabout 15 ft restoration with Pics

The plywood went in three sections. The bow section took a couple days of cutting sanding and fitting. before I started demolition I wanted to make a template from some brown kraft paper for the bow area but it was hard to tell where the plywood ending and where the hull began. The first two sections are coated with epoxy but not tabbed into place yet.

View from front.

The floor all tabbed in with epoxy and screws. Ready to start laying down some fiberglass on the floor.