Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

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I got my brother to stop by again this morning and we pulled the console out. He had to take off so I started on the floors and foam. 99% of the foam is out, and I will finish that up tomorrow and she will get her trip to the car wash. I layed the piece in the picture back in for something to walk/crawl on.

Notice the one crossbrace has no top piece? It look as though there was never anything there, no holes for rivets like the others. The one below where the console and livewell were is banged pretty loose. it will take a couple rivets or SS nuts bolts to reattach.

This all came out in handfuls, no template for either of the 2 forward pieces.

There was a lot of wet foam and thru hull rivets that appeared to have rust on them. It wasn't rust because it wipes right off and the aluminum rivet is clean underneath, but it sure looks like it. None appeared to be loose or missing. The wash out and a little close inspection will show me more. No matter how much I vacuum more crap just keeps rolling out of hidey holes. I figured to walk away tonight and let it dry out some.

I got tired of crawling around on my hands and knees so I put the steering in the tracker console. I don't think the rack steering is going to look right in the console. That may go to ebay and I'll buy the one you guys used on here. Can someone remind me of where that link is?

I'm checking with my buddy on the availability of decent plywood through his employer, gonna round up the floor (15/32 I think) and transom sheets.

Edit: I found the steering link.

http://www.lowcostboatingstore.com/...e-9-ft-to-20-ft-with-STEERING-WHEEL_p_19.html

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I will put a tach in the left side of the console and I'm really considering one of these stereo's for the other 3" hole. Anyone ever seen one or heard one? I will have one small gauge hole left then. I have a volt meter in my Lowrance so what other gauge would you suggest. I will have a clear view of the motor for tilt position, but the sending unit is there so T/T gauge would be easy install. I'd really like to get engine head/water temp if I can do that.

Stereo link:

http://www.basspro.com/Milennia-MILPRV15-AM/FM-Multimedia-Receiver/product/53523300/255735

 

[LonLB]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I will put a tach in the left side of the console and I'm really considering one of these stereo's for the other 3" hole. Anyone ever seen one or heard one? I will have one small gauge hole left then. I have a volt meter in my Lowrance so what other gauge would you suggest. I will have a clear view of the motor for tilt position, but the sending unit is there so T/T gauge would be easy install. I'd really like to get engine head/water temp if I can do that.

Stereo link:

http://www.basspro.com/Milennia-MILPRV15-AM/FM-Multimedia-Receiver/product/53523300/255735

Trim/Tilt. If for no other reason than for a quick reference of where you are, before taking off, without constantly having to take a look.

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Here she is just before I pulled her out to go to the car wash. Everything is out of the hull, down to the channel they had down the center for cables and wires. I don't know why all the pictures are blue, they look that way in the phone too. I must have touched the wrong thing on the phone. I found that problem anyway, white balance was on "incandescent" moved it to "auto" and blue haze went away.

I wanted to see how my little Tracker would pull her so off we went. The car wash is just across town so it was OK, the Tracker is rated for 1000# and I bet we were under that. I wouldn't pull her far with the Tracker though.

The car wash got a lot of garbage out of a lot of hidey holes and the boat didn't want to drain well over there. I brought her back and she's drained out pretty good now. I'll give it a day or two to dry out and hit it with the vacuum again. Slowly but surely I'll get all the crud out of this hull.

I also got in and drilled out the remnants of all the old rivets.

I hear ya Loni, it's good to have that starting out point. I could always put another small hole on the other side and have T/T and temp.

 

[Teamster]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I used to pull a heavy glass bass boat with a Plymouth Sundance,.....lol

Breaking is your biggest concern, Take your time and be safe,....

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Before I got the Ram I pulled the pontoon a couple times with the Tracker. That is not something anyone would want to do too many times, believe me.

I'm pretty certain I want to screw my new decks down, anyone got a good stainless screw to recommend?

 

[Teamster]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I pull double trailers for a living,......Not much fazes me while I'm driving anymore,...lol

I bought screw at Menards when I redid my boat a few years ago, If I had to do it again I might use rivets because I had a couple of screws break of when I was installing them and had to fiddle around getting them out to replace them,....

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I'm thinking of these guys in the 12x1" size. They are called Sharx and have a double saw toothed thread that is supposed to help keep the screw anchored in marine applications.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...yName=316+SS+Sharx+Pan+Head+Phillips+Screws++

Each screw could get the washer under it, but that seems like a lot of little stainless rings all through the vinyl. I did a quick count on the boat last night and there are right around 100 holes for rivets that held the deck down before. I will have a similar number of screws. I'm going to go with a pilot hole for each screw. I'm going to make a drill guide block to let me put each hole a specific distance from the edge of the plywood and drill straight down on every hole.

I'm open to comments or suggestion from anyone who might have done this before and can show me a different way.

I hear you Teamster, breaking one of these off would be a big PITA, I hope the pilot hole helps me not do that. Thanks for trucking man, that's a tough job, there's a lot more to it than sitting behind a wheel.

 

[chasmo]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Lar,

Depending how soon you need them, I can get SS washered rubber seal self tapping siding screws

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Thanks Bro, Email me a link if you can showing me what you mean. I think I have some of those, and they might be good for out of sight stuff. I don't want to use any fastener that can rust, it will be aluminum and stainless only. If you want to find me something check on a couple of 1/8 sheets of aluminum for the floors, we'll skip the plywood altogether.

100 #12 X 1 of the Sharx are only $21. I'll have a couple hundred $$ in vinyl and I want it to look good. The body of that screw is .160, and I will use the drill guide in 5/32" which is about .156. The guide will make certain the pilot hole is straight and in the same location from the edge of the ply. The .160 minor diameter of the screw will be a good fit in the .156 pilot I think. If I don't tear vinyl with the pilot drill or screw heads I'll probably skip the washers.

 

[WeldZilla]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Hey Imuss it is great to see yet another project in progress. I often wonder why the splash pans are so huge on so many boats. When removing my splash pan on the Starcraft Chieften you saw behind my Sylvan I was having a great time drilling out the rivets. I looked up and my face was about 4 inches from a very full wasp nest. I have no idea why I did not get stung half to death by them. I know I got the hell out from under there as fast as possible. I look forward to watch your project come through to fruition, should be great.

WZ

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

New splash pan should be much smaller. I think they made them so big because the boats were to be used on the "big water" of the great lakes. I may take a trip or two to Erie with mine, but I won't be too far out.

I'm happy that it's winter because I have pulled about a half a dozen wasp nests out of the boat so far.

To answer a question I asked above, the missing cross brace was missing because that's where all the aluminum pieces that formed the "utility" channel went in and came back out.

Not that it matters but my user name is Lmuss, (for Larry). I should have hit the caps for the L because the small l looks like an I.

I wish I had just some of your welding skills, I'm going to epoxy the extra holes in the transom soon and I'd rather weld them, but it's not important enough to me to drag the boat to our welder. I'm pretty sure I can get them sealed up with the epoxy. Thanks for the encouragement and for dropping by.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Nice work so far. Soon time to start putting new stuff back in. I used regular deck screws on both my project boats and they worked fine. I also put some construction adhesive on the stringers and ribs. I felt that couldn't hurt. I put my final coat of epoxy on the deck board after they were screwed down in the boat in order to seal everything up. I then installed my vinyl and man I'll tell ya, that stuff is so tough it's practically like I glassed it.

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I'm thinking I want to wrap the edges of each section with the vinyl, which means I would have to run screws through the deck board after the vinyl is on. My plan is to lay everything out, dry fit it with gaps for the vinyl, drill the holes, run screws, pull everything back up, epoxy the plys, wrap them with the vinyl, lay it all back down and run the 5200 laden screws back down through the vinyl and the predrilled holes. I know the holes will be filled with epoxy, but I figure the screws will find their way back down through it all and the 5200 will seal it all up. I have a couple of tubes of construction adhesive, but what if you have to pull one of the boards back up sometime?

 

[wlg]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Nice work so far. I am doing a 79 Sylvan Sportster which is posted on this site. I used noodles and 2" pink foam for my under floor floatation. Stainless steel screws on the floor. No adhesive on stringers. If you use enough screws it will be solid. I put carpet on my floor. I wanted to wrap mine also, but I did not want to see all the screws, so I screwed and then put the carpet down. Not perfect, but way better then what it was.

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I guess even if you don't touch the boat you can make progress. I dropped $200 on Auruco ACX plywood and Rusto Urethane today. I have enough epoxy to do the transom, and maybe all the edges on the decks, but I have decided to go with urethane on the decks. They lasted almost 30 years the first time untreated, so urethane should get me all the time I need out of them. The screws that were $21 online were $52 at lowes, so I will order them after checking with one more local hardware guy.

 

[wlg]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Did you check with West Marine. I bought most of my stainless from them. Way better prices on bulk than single. Check them out online.
As you see from my thread, I only used exterior porch paint. The transom was 32 yrs. old and only had paint on it.
Are you going to put the boat in at Raystown when it's done. It's been awhile since I have been there. I was on a 16 ski and fish for fourth of july one year and thought I was going to get killed after the fireworks were over. What a memory.

 

[lmuss53]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Raystown is my home lake, and yes it can be intimidating in the "pig boat" crowd. I go early, and either leave early or find a cove to hole up in. I'm mostly a Striper fisherman and that is usually a night into early morning bite. I really enjoy the fireworks from on board the boat, and I try to catch all the shows. I will use my pontoon and tie off with a friend or two and make an evening of it. I'm fixing up the Sea Nymph so I have something to do some night time plugging and a little ripping and running on. If you ever get in the neighborhood let me know we'll meet up somewhere and BS a little.

Thanks for the West Marine tip, I'll check them if my local guy can't help. He is an Ace Hardware guy and a friend so I'll see if he can get me a decent price and still make a little money.

 

[chasmo]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

Lar,

I use McMaster-Carr for most of my hardware, good prices, easy to order and is usually here the next day if you order by 1600 hrs.

They are where I got the #9 naval brass phillips head screws I used for the whirly-gigs. If nothing else thier catalog is an encyclopedia of hard to find (when you cant think of what its called) stuff.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Aluminum v hull restoration, how-to's? Lmuss53's 171CC Sea Nymph Striper

I've had good luck recently at ACE Hardware too. While you can certainly buy in bulk from them, I also like them because they're one of the few places you can still go and just buy 1-2 fasteners at a time. Good luck in your hunt. Keep us posted.