First Boat Project

[mark1961]

Re: First Boat Project

Thanks will give that a shot......

As for drill size, around 3/32" would be ideal, drill only as deep as you need to get the sample, not right through.

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

If the OB mounting bolts are indented in the transom is that a sure sign of a rotted transom?

 

[ezmobee]

Re: First Boat Project

That's a pretty good sign.

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

I'm gunna call the transom officially bad then. Who knows though, when I pop the cap off it might be fine.... in my dreams.

Having said that, I'm trying to find good prices on resin. So far UScomposites is the cheapest, but i'm worried about shipping. HD has 3M branded resin for $37.00 a gallon. Then I checked out TAP(I live near a store) and they have two diffident resins. The first they call "Structural Lay-Up resin" - $50 a gallon. Then they have "Laminating Resin" - $30 a gallon. (neither one comes with cat.) I think the difference is the cheaper one isn't waxed? What do you guys think?

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/category.php?bid=3&

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

It's been raining here so no real work on the boat, just doing the planning.
I have started to desgin the back bench even though that is way down the road. I made it so the front portion lifts up to access storage. I did an intial design on AutoCAD, then rendered it on 3DSmax. I tried to attach the PDF's I made from Auto CAD but they were to large, so I just have them as pics below.

Does anyone know a good way to link PDFs?

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

We ar getting ready to open her up and take a look at the stringers.

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

So I have been working on a sort of timeline/plan for the restoration. Check out the PDF below let me know what you think or if i left something out.

PDF

P.S. the PDF is on my windows live skydrive, so dont think its some weird download, haha.

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

I am officially calling this project started.

Today we started removing the cap, taking hardware off, and opened the floor up a little.

First we started taking off the rub-rail bumper. It was really brittle and cracked in a few places. I'm trying to save it in case I cant afford a new one.

I bought a new titanium brill bit set on black Friday to drill out the rivets. I used a 13/64" bit to drill out the rivets. Originally, I used the 13/64" to just drill out the head of the rivet and used a 3/16" to drill out the rest out of fear of making the holes bigger. Turns out that didn't drill out enough so ended up just using the 13/16". We ended up getting the two long side pieces off.

Then we started to get the hardware off. They were all attached with horribly rusted nuts and bolts. We ended up with one us on the outside and the other on bis back with a pair of vice-scrips and basically broke them all off by wiggling them back and forth.

We also started to take a look at under the core. We ripped up a patch where it was the softest. The ply under had basically fallen off the top layer of glass. It wasn't wet, though, just really dry and brittle. We were able to get a good look at two of the stringers(we found out today it has four!)

Our day got cut short due to rain.

Before dinner I scrubbed down one of the rub-rails, didnt come out to bad.

Tomorrow I am going to my dad's work to pick up some huge sheets of cardboard to make a core template before we tear her up.

 

[patpel]

Re: First Boat Project

Hi Jetskier16

I will be following your thread very closely. You are doing exactly the same thing I just started last weekend. It also happens that your boat looks just like mine. I had to look real close at your pictures to see a few differences or I would have thought that my 67 Searay wasn't one afterall. Have a look at these pics and tell me our boats are not related. Maybe we have the same hull and only the top is different.

cheers
Patpel

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

Patpel- You are right! I've been having a really hard time finding anything about my boat. The plate inside the boat says its an AstroMarine from Salt Lake City, but then we just found that the pink slip says the maker is Comet. Neither one I can find info on.

But ya, even our hardware looks the same, the splashwell is a little different though.

Is yours 17'?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: First Boat Project

Hey JS,

Go to HF and get one of these kits.

This is what I did to my old tarnished aluminum on my boat.

You can do the same thing on your rub rail and all the other aluminum/chrome parts on your boat. 3/8 inch drill and you're in business. Use the white rouge first then finish with the red.

I'm just sayin...

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

Wood- Thanks I will have to pick that up

I when down to my dad's work today and picked up some big sheets of cardboard to make a core template with. So I got that done, now hopefully we will get the core out in the next few days. Our plan is to keep the cap on while we take out the core so we don't have to worry about the hull flexing.

I also opened (by mean of accidentally stepping in it a few times) up the hole in the core some more. I stuck my camera down and took some pics. Below are pics of it both ways.

Towords bow:

Towards stern:

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

We started getting the old core out. The area where that hole was was easy, but a lot of the other wood was still really dry and strong. We dont have our tyvek suits yet so we tryed not to cut to much fiberglass around the edges yet.
And oh ya, turns out there are 5 stringers.

Today we are building a mount for the OB. Its raining but rain or sine we are going to get this done today.

 

[archbuilder]

Re: First Boat Project

Nice project looking forward too following it! Don't complain about your weather or we'll send you some from OK Wood is right, your project is a lot like Micks, let us know if you need help.....think of this as the online brain trust

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: First Boat Project

Get your circular saw out, set the depth to the thickness of the deck material and start cuttin.

I'm just sayin...

 

[mr 88]

Re: First Boat Project

Do a search on this forum on transom repair before you do anything . Pros and Cons to fabricating a transom with wood or pouring one out of a can.On a budget you would probably be better off by going wood.

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

mr. 88- Ya we have decided from the beginning to do a wood transom; seacast is way to expensive.

wood- we used the circular saw for a few cuts, I'm just really worried about cutting the hull even with it set. We actually had good results using a rotozip.

As a said before, we built the OB stand today, and ya it was raining hard (at least it wasn't snowing) We just used wood from a play structure we took down and some other 2x6's we had left over from a deck, so it didn't cost us anything which I have found out is rare with a boat.

Also note that we (not shown in the pics) made the base longer in the back

Our goal tomorrow is to get the OB off. Do you guys think we will be able to get the OB off the transom and onto the stand with two people?

 

[patpel]

Re: First Boat Project

Hi Jetskier. I see you are keeping an eye on my thread. Thanks for the post.
You guys are making some good progress too.
In answer to your question, my boat is only 14'. I would like to strecth it like Oops did but I think that it's too narrow to be made longer. Besides, its more work than I'm willing to put in right now.
Keep up the good work.
ps. have you guys consider working "in" the garage when it's raining? lol
cheers
patpel

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

I wish we could! But with the rain our already full garage gets even fuller with everything we have to get out of the rain.

I went on fiberglassics and it turns out that my boat is almost the same at the 1967 SeaRay 17', so thanks for bringing up your boat, it lead to me finding out more on mine.

Oh and thanks Arch for the support!

 

[jetskier16]

Re: First Boat Project

Didn't get as much done today as we wanted. Got the OB off the transom but not quite on the stand, we need another person. The bottom two bolts we VERY hard to remove, we had to use some added leverage to get them off.

Also couldn't quite get the cap off due to 4 broken screws in the stern above the splash well.