First time old boat owner ?s

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Thought you all might like to see a four pics I took at an antique boat/motor gathering this weekend at Louisville TN near Knoxville. No Starcrafts. Go to my photobucket page, boat album. Unusual cold gray day kept lots of folks away so displays were not in abundance.

I went to see the Feather Crafts that were usually well represented, only 2 showed up. One restored and one cherry original about to get worked on. I saw another 2 sitting in a boat yard across the road and met the guy that owns them, not for sale. If I do another boat that is what I might look for.

One guy I met said he had just picked up a Feather Craft from his local aluminum recycler for the scrap price. Go figure. The recycler must have had a boating background.

Some of the vendors did not even get their motors out of the vans/trailers and one guy had a 1906 model I had to bend around the door to see. I might go to Paducah KY on Oct. 31 for another antique boat show depending on SHWMBO.

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Albert that little red trailer with all the old Merc in it almost shorted out my keyboard ( from the drool ) . You get all the way up to Paducah you'll be in my neck of the woods.



Rick

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Some new pics of progress.

http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab164/bananabert/Boat/IMG_0904.jpg

http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab164/bananabert/Boat/IMG_0905.jpg

http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab164/bananabert/Boat/IMG_0900.jpg

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Big problem! I used the original decking to cut my new ones and kept inside the line knowing that is necessary. But when I did that I had not yet decided to use vinyl on it (not that that it would have occurred to me then to cut even smaller).

So now my decks (both halves) are about 1/2 inch too wide from midship to the bow area. Going to have to un staple and peel back the glued vinyl a few inches and re cut the curve. Hope it works.

UNLESS any of you have a better idea and taking a sledge to the hull is out of the question. Already thought of that.

New pics on photobucket.

 

[lakelover]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Big problem! I used the original decking to cut my new ones and kept inside the line knowing that is necessary. But when I did that I had not yet decided to use vinyl...
So now my decks (both halves) are about 1/2 inch too wide from midship to the bow area...

I checked out your latest photos. Is your vinyl really that thick or did you cut off the full 1/2" on each half to give yourself a little extra wiggle room? I'm glad I decided to go with marine-painted wood with some non-skid added. My original floor was too rotted out to remove in full pieces, but I traced paper templates before I tore it all out. I'm curious to see how accurate that will be, usually when I get something going, Murphy's Law rears its ugly head!

And how difficult was it to line up for drilling your rivet holes?

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Hi Lakelover,

Here is the story. I cut 1/2 inch off the port deck outside curved edge and decided to see how it fit before doing the starboard side. Seemed to be OK. So I put the un trimmed side in to see if I needed to use the same 1/2 inch cut off or less. Surprise. It fit, a bit tight but after I get the cupping pop riveted tight at the bow I think it will be OK. Even the center line of the deck edges are inline with the center of the boat. Go figure. If it wasn't I was prepared to cut the starboard side. The vinyl added a bit to the width but not enough to cause the fitting problem.

I did not try to use the old pop rivet holes. That would have been nearly impossible. So I moved about an inch away from the old ones. I am about to take a bigger pic of the half I have installed and you will be able to see the pattern. I went 3 inches in from the edges of the deck and then put two more rivets at 7 inch intervals in line with the rib. So I have 4 rivets in each rib like original install. Lining up the drill holes to hit the ribs in the middle is necessary to get a good grip. I laid out tape and used a straight edge lined up with the exposed rib. I missed on one a bit and I need to figure out a way to do that rivet better. Of course it is in an area that will be very visible after the seats are installed and I am a bit anal so I am wrestling with how to do that. Might just let it go and see what happens.

You will remember from a PM I sent you that the pink foam is a bit thicker than the space created by the ribs. Luckily my rivets are long enough to catch the rib. I put my 230 lbs. at each pop rivet to be sure the deck was as close as possible to the rib while setting it. There is a space between the bottom of the ply and the rib but the rest of the deck sits on the foam and is rock solid even though it is 1/4" marine ply, one coat epoxy.

You did what I should have, paint!

Also invested $20 in a swivel head pop riveter fm HD. Glad I did!

Hope this helps. While it is not "cold" here my southern climatized body does not want to go the the 55 degree garage to work. Supposed to be 65 and sunny tomorrow so will drag it outside and do some more. Any snow your way?

Albert

 

[lakelover]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Hey Albert,
You're really coming along, I'm jealous! Besides getting cool, the sun is setting at about 4 p.m. now. No snow here yet though. I did file that away in the back of my mind about the thickness of the 1/2" foam, I am planning to get the 1", that should fit just about right. Thanks for the riveting tips, I too figured on drilling new holes, matching new and old would be just about impossible, I think. I'm planning on using 1/2 plywood and am a little concerned about getting the bend for riveting.

Thanks & the great pics are appreciated!

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

FYI, I can barely get the 1/4 to bend to the forward most rib.

 

[lakelover]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

FYI, I can barely get the 1/4 to bend to the forward most rib.

Thanks for that info. I think I'll still try the 1/2". That's what the original flooring was that I took out. But I don't plan on going all the way up to that frontmost rib, just the one before it, with a little less curve.

I'm not going to replace the small deck up front, I'll just leave it open. When I got the boat, that area was full of a huge, smelly, occupied nasty old mouse nest, so I want to reduce the opportunity for boarders. I plan to put foam up underneath the top deck along with under the plywood.

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

I remember the nasty find under your front deck and your note that you will place floatation up high.

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

5 new pics of deck install @ photobucket. Making progress now. Only 7 more months til Lake Anna.

I cannot figure out how to get the images to show up here automatically. I've read some clues about the IMG option in bucket but cannot see how to reduce size to fit limits of this site. Or am I wrong. Thanks.

Albert

 

[vote4me4pres]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

If you have not done your floor yet- when I took out the old curved floor in mine to make a flat deck the previous replacement was 1/2 in plywood with scores cut on the bottom with a circular saw to make it bend to meet the ribs. Just a thought if you have trouble getting it to bend.

 

[lakelover]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

I cannot figure out how to get the images to show up here automatically. I've read some clues about the IMG option in bucket but cannot see how to reduce size to fit limits of this site. Or am I wrong. Thanks.

Albert

I'm not sure how to resize using Photobucket because I always resize mine in Photoshop before uploading. But here's how you get the images to insert into your post:

In your Photobucket upload page, all your photos show up below the upload panel in thumbnail form. When you mouse over the photos, a drop down menu appears with four HTML options. All you do is click on the box to the right of "IMG code" and the HTML text will highlight. Then right click on the highlighted HTML text, and click the "copy" option. You then go to your iboats reply, place the cursor wherever you want the photo to appear, right click there, and then click "paste". After you paste the IMG code, when you preview or post your reply, the photo will show up.

Hope I explained it well, I'm a little wrung out tonight.

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Thanks lakelover, will try it next time I post new pics. .

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Hey BB
If ya wanna resize in photobucket, there is a EDIT option up on top in the blue toolbar. From there select RESIZE.

What I do is that when you upload pics tp photobucket, you can set your settings so they automatically upload at the iboat friendly 480x640 size.

 

[tim.california]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Banana,
Thanks for posting all your pictures, particularly those on photobucket. I purchased a Lone Star 14 last year and will be undertaking a more complete restoration soon. All of the forum posts are VERY helpful for someone like me who is tackling aluminum for the first time. Keep up the great work. I look forward to following your progress.
Tim

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

The Jet is looking great bananaboater, nice work

I really like those feathercrafts too and now I want to go to a old boat show too. Looking forward to seeing her at lake anna.

By the way, does your depth sounder just give you the depth or an image too?

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

"By the way, does your depth sounder just give you the depth or an image too?"

Suspect just depth, have not gotten it to work yet. Instruments next task.

Albert

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Unexpected surprise. There is no paint under the stern end cap of the lower rub rail. And I can find no signs of repainting in that area. Is it possible the paint is original? Any ideas how I could determine that?

And I just insulated my garage door. If you want to do that there is a kit on the market that works surprisingly well and is less than $50 for a single garage door. I got two for my big door from Lowes, shipped in no time too. Took about 4 hours and I tweaked the final installation a bit. Very satisfied. Probably my imagination but it seems warmer out there. My brother is a remodeler and said if the door was steel he would not recommend after market insulation because of rust.

 

[bananaboater]

Re: First time old boat owner ?s

Moderators, just figured out the photobucket resizing system by seeing the results of my post. Will make smaller from now on!

Sorry, thanks, Albert