Gheenoe stretch and widening

[Wsideshow]

Hi all . Name is Marshil and most call me Sideshow.

I have been lurking for awhile. I stumbled onto this site from a random search " Stretching a boat " I ran into a thread where a guy on here stretched his 25 " boat " .

Well I own a 1987 15' highsider nmz Gheenoe . I love this boat to death , but wish she was a bit bigger . I searched for advice and help , but not many have given me any advice other then don't do it . Well my OCD kicked in and I haven't been able to sleep well over the thoughts about doing this.

Well I'm doing it and I'm about 1 month into the process . I decided to start with the hardest part and if I fail I can get it over quickly. Sanded down the outside with 40 grit. Cut the livewell out and sanded the middle section out . Cut her in half. I then made a homemade metal mold. Installed and today I glassed her. I am new to this and a local shop is giving me advice on what to do. Other then that I'm kinda clueless.

So the plans. Extend her to 19' then widen her 20'' or so in the rear. Add a lower flat deck with stringers and foam. Add upper decks and get her back on the water.

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

First set

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

next

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Next

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

next

This is from today.

I might pull the mold Saturday or wait till Monday and see if I fail or exceed in my work . Very nervous .

 

[boatnut74]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Very impressive. As long as you got good prep and a fair amount of overlap to the existing skin you should be just fine.

Are you using poly or epoxy resin?

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Awesome work sideshow! I'm a native Floridian myself and I love Gheenoes. I can't wait to see how she turns out. Check out customgheenoe.com and/or microskiff.com for lots of other cool Gheenoe mods. God luck!

BTW, how did you make the mold for the extended section? Where do you plan on using her when she's finished? What type of motor? Have you seen the LT25 Gheenoes? Sorry, for all the questions, I 'm getting giddy

Some cool Gheenoe vids in their native habitat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqcEkibszt0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vOjs6nhu4

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Prep was all 40 grit. laquer thinner to clean on the boat . The metal was waxed 4 times . first layer was 4'' lap on both sides, then 8'' , then 12''

I am doing a 2;1 epoxy .

KFA I am already on that site .

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

It looks good and should work fine, I've done the same thing with small boats. My only comment is that sanding all the old gel coat off will increase cost and labor when it comes to repainting it.

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Understood. I just want her to start a new life fresh. I was thinking about doing it all over what I have left to glass. I will be building the sides up from the bottom , adding stringers, and bottom deck. If I only sand where I'm doing this then there won't be much gelcoat left anyways.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

When the gel coat is removed it exposes thousands of tiny pin holes in the laminate, they can be a bugger to fill or cover up, that's the only issue.

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

I plan on doing epoxy primer them fairing itout. Won't the layers of primer fill these pin holes ?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

The problem is when you spray it the primer may not cover the pinholes. If it becomes a problem use a bondo spreader to sread some primer on the surface and force it into the pits, don't build it up on the surface, squeegee it all off. do this to a small area first so you can see what works best for you.

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Ok thanks for the advice.Should I use an epoxy filler and squeegee it on thinly instead . All of the stuff I have been doing is off of reading and a man named Pat at FGCI . the only fb work I have ever done was speaker boxes when I was a kid and there was nothing to worry about with them lol . I'm not looking for any shortcuts. I want to build this boat to be a beautiful keeper for years to come.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

The pinholes will be too small for a thickened filler type product, it needs to be a liquid to fill them.

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Well I went in today and the mold popped right off. I am happy with the lines.

Now what not happy is the center is not level . On the inside I leveled it and my lines were right. I put a chalk line down the center and the front part of the boat aims downward about 1/4 '' . Should I mark the low spot. Build it up with glass till level ? Should I ignore it and when I do the center cut make sure my metal mold is level since these spots will be pushed outward and not in the center anymore ?

Pics from today.

Where you see the metal end is where the gap is. It start about a foot back from te end of the metal to about 2'past the new mold.

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Someone just told me the 2x4 stringers could pull it straight since these boats have a lot of flex to them .

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Your work looks good!

I wouldn't worry about the 1/4" camber right now and would do like you said and take it out with the stringer. Build a cradle for your boat before installing the stringer and deck and then make any fine tuning adjustments.

Do you plan to wrap the entire outside with another layer or 3 of cloth after widening it?

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

I will be doing 3 layers on the widening. 4'' bite on both sides per layer. First layer 4'' bite then 8'' on 2nd then 12'' on 3rd. after I finish that I planned on 1 to 2 layers on the whole bottom.

I will be adding braces on the inside on top of the stringers side to side then a flat deck glassed in to marry everything together .

 

[Wsideshow]

Re: Gheenoe stretch and widening

Went in today and she is solid as a rock. Decided to rough it up and sand out the air spots for future fixing.