boats on a budget

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I started cutting wood today, I think it's going to look pretty good when done, I'll get pictures, I'll sand the boards down, get them drilled and ready to mount, then stain them and if I remember correctly, don't I want to finish them off with spar varnish? ...I'm thinking that I want to get them completely finished and drilled for mounting before I put the varnish on, that way every little nook and cranny is covered, and when it comes to bolting the stuff back in the boat, I'm going to be better off to go with stainless steel hardware (nuts and bolts) what do you think?

I'll get some pictures posted as soon as I get a chance.

Stuart

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I haven't got a whole lot done, but I did manage to get one part cut out for the boat, I got side tracked again, the big boat busted a throttle cable, (waiting for a new one to show up) and was having some car problems, (had to buy a new radiator for the old truck) so with the car fixing behind me and nice weather this weekend, I decided to do something different and go canoing, I'll get back to working on the little boat, but so far, all I have done is the back transom support cut out, I still need to do some sanding on it, and get it drilled out for the bolt holes before I stain it and paint it with spar varnish, so it's a little bit of a slow process, but I'm slowly getting there.

 

[redfury]

Re: boats on a budget

When choosing a wood, hardness isn't the important factor so much in a boat as its dimensional stability and ability to resist ROT. My Glastrons transom was made out of Redwood Plywood. It rotted, but only barely. It absorbed more water than anything ( it was also 2 inches thick ).

Teak is an oily wood, which is why it's used in boats so much. I'm not familiar with hemlock, so I can't say much about it.

Brazillian Walnut however is a REALLY oily wood. Trust me, I KNOW. It does not like to dry with oil based polyurethane and is EXPENSIVE ( I refinish hardwood floors for a living ).

AT the very least, I'd make sure to seal the end grain of your pieces well to avoid water saturation.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

When choosing a wood, hardness isn't the important factor so much in a boat as its dimensional stability and ability to resist ROT. My Glastrons transom was made out of Redwood Plywood. It rotted, but only barely. It absorbed more water than anything ( it was also 2 inches thick ).

Teak is an oily wood, which is why it's used in boats so much. I'm not familiar with hemlock, so I can't say much about it.

Brazillian Walnut however is a REALLY oily wood. Trust me, I KNOW. It does not like to dry with oil based polyurethane and is EXPENSIVE ( I refinish hardwood floors for a living ).

AT the very least, I'd make sure to seal the end grain of your pieces well to avoid water saturation.

I'm sanding on the part that's in the last picture I posted, I planed on coating it real good, but before I stain it or put that spar varnish on it, I want to get it drilled out and ready to bolt in, so when it is done, I got every last nook and crany covered, it's going to slow me down getting the boat done, (I'm already slow, but that's ok) it looks like the weather is about to turn for the better around here, so I should be able to start making some progress on it, I have to shuffle some stuff around at home, then I can bring the boat out and start working on it again.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

simple question:

do I need to seal the wood with some sort of sealer before I put the spar varnish on it? or can I go right over the top of the stain with the spar varnish? the stain is oil based, I'm slowly working on the wood parts but have been side tracked lately with car trouble, need to have the car running before I can tow the boat to the river

 

[redfury]

Re: boats on a budget

Spar Varnish should bond with the stain just fine. It's super quick drying, so if you have any concerns, do the scratch test after the first coat has dried. If you can't scratch it off, you should have a good enough bond.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

Spar Varnish should bond with the stain just fine. It's super quick drying, so if you have any concerns, do the scratch test after the first coat has dried. If you can't scratch it off, you should have a good enough bond.

Thanks for the info, I'm going to try to get something done on the boat this weekend, I have a little car work to do, then hopfully it's back to working on the boat, the gluvit is on it's way, so I need to finish sanding the inside to get the rest of the paint out of it, I want to get it done so I can use it this summer.

 

[Warlord]

Re: boats on a budget

Well Mr. Stuart it sounds like you are making some progress on your boat. Can't wait for you to post some pics of what you have done so far. I finally got the inside of mine all primed and painted and the wood for the seats cut. Those too are primed and painted, and just need to be covered in carpet. I just keep changing my mind on how I want to finish some of it up. So that makes for a lot more time staring at the boat and thinking, than actually getting something done, hahaha! I will post some pics this week as soon as I get all of the tools and lumber off of the boat.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I'll get some pictures up here to just as soon as I figure out what I did with the darn camera, I've been looking all over for it and still can't find it, I did get some of the wood cut, and am working on sanding it now, I want to try to get some sanding done on the boat this weekend, I have new axels coming for the jeep, so I may end up doing that instead, I kind of went over board with the car after it broke down on me (I hate getting stranded) so now I'm replacing all the stuff that seems a little worn, but I NEED to get back to the boat, I want it going.

On a side note, I was looking on eBay for an amp meter for the 9.9 I'm going to be running on the boat, it's my understanding from reading the owners manual that the 9.9 has a 4 amp alternator in it, so I was looking for a small enough analog amp meter that I could build into an instrument panel that would show charging or discharging amps that would be about equal to what the 9.9 put out and all I could find was stuff that read plus or minus 20 amps or so, and I thought that was to much instrument for a 4 amp alternator and it wouldn?t give me a very accurate reading, then I happened upon a John Deere garden tractor amp meter that reads plus or minus 10 amps, that I thought would be perfect for the boat, it sure looks vintage enough, I can?t seem to find any NOS (new old stock) meters, but maybe I can buy a used one and clean it up ?they look like their selling for about 10 bucks at most used, here?s a picture of one, I want to go for the vintage look, and I can?t think of anything more vintage then an old John Deere, I kinda have a thing for John Deere anyway, I had even thought of painting the boat green and yellow, but came back to my senses, I really don?t want to go to over board, or in my case, get tossed over board ???..

 

[Warlord]

Re: boats on a budget

Wow I can't believe its been over a couple of weeks since I have posted on here. Anyways here are some pics of my boat all painted on the inside. You can see I built some framework in the back to raise the rear seat up a bit for more clearance underneath. The seats are all cut and painted, and I have been putting carpet on them. Those pics will go up soon. I even have turned the middle seat into a dry box area for storage and the trolling motor battery will go in there to get more weight forward. Those pics will be coming soon also. I painted the boat inside with a satin finish AMERICAN ACCENTS - STONE GRAY. I didn't want to go too dark and have it absorb lots of heat, but yet I didn't want the sun reflecting off of it and blinding me. Well thats it for now but more to come real soon!

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

wow warlord, that's looking good, but I'm not far behind you I took mine in today to the guy at the body shop that's going to paint it, I was able to swing a pretty sweet deal, not 100% positive of total cost yet, but it looks like somewhere around 50 bucks or so, plus a little help and trading on my part, so I think were both going to come out good on this one.

I'm going to get some pictures as he works on it, so you can see the paint work in progress, it looks like it's going to be painted next week, he's going to do the gluvit, then the paint work, he wants to use a product called Valspar LIC40, I don't know anything about that one so any comments you people have on it would be greatly appreciated, I did look up Valspar lic40 on the net and found this information "LIC40 Polyurethane finishes are perfect for use in areas where long-term performance is desired. LIC. Polyurethane provides exceptional gloss, color, and durability coupled with a chemical resistance that makes it a great choice for tough environments." so I think it's going to be an ok paint, the first thing that's going to happen is he's going to look for what he calls "mistake paint" in the shop, and see if there's anything he has there that he can use or mix to be able to put a good color in the boat, if that doesn't work, then I'm going to be able to buy some through him at cost, so either way, I think I'm going to come out fine on paint price.

this is supposed to happen next week, so I'll keep you posted and get some pictures up here of the progress.

Stuart

 

[Warlord]

Re: boats on a budget

Well Stuart that sounds great on the progress of your boat. You are definitely catching up to me on the work getting done, so congrats on that! I have managed to get the carpet done on two of the seats and front floor so far. Let me tell you though, cutting the piece for the front floor and trying to cut down on how deep the curve towards the bow is in the hull, was tricky, so that the floor is somewhat flatter, it took a lot of thinking. It took like 3 template/prototypes to get it right, hahaha! The dry box under the middle seat came out excellent though, it will also house the trolling motor battery. I just need to cut the piece for the back floor and figure out a couple of things for the back seat and I will be getting close to completion.....yeah right! I will post some pics of all this soon and then you can check it out. I hope that yours is coming along good and can't wait to see pics of yours either!

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

Hi Warlord

Mine’s stalled at the moment, seems I've been posting with "good intentions" but the work hasn't been getting done, still waiting for the guy at the body shop to paint the boat, it should have been done a week ago but he hasn't started on it yet, so I'm still waiting, the floor in mine will be a slat floor instead of solid plywood, but I'm curious on how your going to run the wiring from your battery to the electric outboard, my plan is to put the battery under the front seat, but I'm not sure yet how to run the wiring to the back of the boat and have the wiring hidden out of view,

 

[tonyg11780]

Re: boats on a budget

Here is a small skiff I did a while back. Just got me to thinking when you said small 12ft boat...It was RUFF when I got it...and the guy wanted it to look new again...sooooooo

http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/imageDetail,p,461,i,7645,00.html


http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/imageDetail,p,461,i,7646,00.html



http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/imageDetail,p,461,i,7647,00.html

 

[bgolson]

Re: boats on a budget

From personal experience I've found that Boating and Budgets don't go together. But if you really want to stay under a certain $ amount, here's a pretty good formula for what you'll spend over the first year.

$total cost of boat x 2 = 1st year's boating costs

Bishop
http://boatsaroundtown.com

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

From personal experience I've found that Boating and Budgets don't go together. But if you really want to stay under a certain $ amount, here's a pretty good formula for what you'll spend over the first year.

$total cost of boat x 2 = 1st year's boating costs

Bishop
http://boatsaroundtown.com

since I got the starcraft last year, I've spent $17 on a new throttle cable, probably around $250 on fuel (fuel is a wild guess and may be a little high)
bought an anchor for about $25, and a new through the hull fitting for the bilge for about $20, and paid something like $15 for 100 feet of anchor rope, $12 for new spark plugs, $5.00 for grease to repack the trailer wheel bearings, and lets say another $50 for miscellaneous stuff that I'm not thinking of at the moment, I scrounge for everything so I can find the lowest prices. ad it all up and it comes in at just under $400 for the year, and that's way less then I paid for the boat, Oh and ad insurance at about $125

I'm finding that it's not always true that a boat is a hole in the water to pour money into, I see it no differently then camping, or working on my personal car for that matter, I spent a heck of a lot more then that on my car in the last year, consider in fuel, and all the driving I do, plus insurance, and maintenance costs, and I could say my car is a hole in the road for which to pour money into.

and when it comes to camping (my other favorite past time) and maintenance on the travel trailer, buying gear, paying for camp grounds, plus fuel to tow the thing, and it ads up to.

this is all recreational stuff, and there's always going to be a cost involved, whether your building that high performance hot rod to take to the drag strip on Saturday night, or a boat to go fishing or water skiing, or camping gear whether it be tents or trailers, and it's all going to cost something.

the Canoe on the other hand, I haven't put a dime into it yet, and have had fun with it as well.

just my thoughts

 

[Warlord]

Re: boats on a budget

Yeah I would say I am spending a good chunk on getting my boat done, but its all worth it. I am actually getting close to finishing it, well at least the major stuff. I will put up more pics soon. How is yours coming along Stuart, did you get your boat painted yet?

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

The boat is officially in the body shop, I was out of town over the weekend and the guy was supposed to work on it this last weekend but I haven't heard anything yet, there were a few little dings and dents that he is or was going to work out of it, but that's about all I know right now, once I get back into working on it again, I'll be posting pictures, but right now I don't have anything to report.

I really wanting to go down there as he is or was working on it and get pictures of the work in progress but I've been to busy to stop by and check on him, but when he is done with it, I think it's going to look pretty nice, we decided to go with a light blue/green sea color in it, more or less it's going to be a mix of left over automotive paint, he's supposed to do it in a semi gloss, I don't want it shiny like a paint job on a car would be, but somewhat flatter, but I can't really say what it's going to look like until he's done with it, because, I don't know, I just hope I'm not disapointed in the outcome or the color, don't think I will be but you never know until I have it back in my driveway.

 

[dubnvento]

Re: boats on a budget

sounds like it's going to be nice. I finally finished my 14ft klamath mostly. I ended up doing a duck boat olive green paint inside and out myself and replacing all the rotten wood from the transom to the seats. I added a fish finder and I'm set to go. Good luck with yours.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

hey guess what? I'm catching up with you guys, the boat is officially painted now, here's some pictures.

I stopped by the body shop today to have a look, I thought it came out pretty good, he's still working on it though, so it;s going to be a few days before I can bring it home, he still needs to get the gunnel polished up on it, then I think it will be about ready to bring home.

he coated the bottom of the boat with the gluvit, that stuff goes on thick, you can see where it was applied, then he painted 3 coats of a light sea blue paint on it, he used some left over paint in his shop for the color and did some mixing and matching to come up with the color he used, the paint is Valspar LIC40 and he says it's an industrial one stage paint that's pretty tough stuff, he showed me a boat he put it on about 8 years ago, and the paint still looks like it was just recently painted on, so I think it's going to be a good paint for the boat, he did try to ad some green to the paint, but he had very little of it and the green didn't really show up in the finished product, so it looks mostly blue, but to me, I think the color he chose was perfect, it looks like a nice shade of light vintage blue to me, so I'm pretty happy with the paint job, now it's just a matter of getting the boat home and putting it back together, but I think I'm headed in the right direction, I waited a long time for the paint but from seeing the results, I think the wait was well worth it.

Stuart