My 14" 1959 Alumacraft Aluma Line project.

[gsh]

I recently posted about a boat and trailer I got and had trouble identifying (see here; http://forums.iboats.com/forum/gener...p-with-boat-id)

However, I decided that I needed a fresh thread to cover the work on the boat adn to ask questions on.

Some of the obvious problems are a broken bow cap, a small hole just under the cap and rotten transom and seats.

The bow cap is going to have to be a make it yourself repair since the boat is so old that replacement parts will be almost impossible to come by.

On the other hand, the transom and seats should be pretty straight forward. carpentry work for the most part.

A few questions though. I'm planning on using 2 layers of standard 3/4" plywood for the transom and I know I have to use spar varnish or epoxy to seal it and the seats, but what do I use to glue the two sheets together? Can I use liquid nails or is something else recommended?

How thick should the piece of plywood on the outside of the boat be?

Can I stain the wood to make it look nice or not and will the spar varnish make the wood darker?

I'm planning on using stainless hardware and screws and I'm assuming that the transom is held on by bolts that go completely through the transom and hull. Do I need rubber washers or something between the washers and the aluminum hull to prevent them wearing a hole in the boat?

Does the transom need to be glued or epoxied to the hull and if so, what should I use?

Finally, I was planning on using some foam sheets under the seats for flotation. Can I just use foam insulation from Home Depot or not?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Tnstratofam]

However, I decided that I needed a fresh thread to cover the work on the

A few questions though. I'm planning on using 2 layers of standard 3/4" plywood for the transom and I know I have to use spar varnish or epoxy to seal it and the seats, but what do I use to glue the two sheets together? Can I use liquid nails or is something else recommended? Titebond III wood glue will work good for this.

How thick should the piece of plywood on the outside of the boat be? Depends on how much of an opening your motor's transom clamp has. Your transom will allready be 1 and a half inches thick not counting the outer alluminum skin.

Can I stain the wood to make it look nice or not and will the spar varnish make the wood darker? I would not stain it. The spar varnish I used didn't darken the plywood on our Starcraft's transom when I did it, but you might be able to find some tinted to darken yours up.:noidea:
I'm planning on using stainless hardware and screws and I'm assuming that the transom is held on by bolts that go completely through the transom and hull. Do I need rubber washers or something between the washers and the aluminum hull to prevent them wearing a hole in the boat? I don't think you will need ruber washers but some 3m 5200 on each through bolt would be a good idea.

Does the transom need to be glued or epoxied to the hull and if so, what should I use? No simply bolted with the through bolts should be sufficient.

Finally, I was planning on using some foam sheets under the seats for flotation. Can I just use foam insulation from Home Depot or not? Yes blue foam booard or pink I believe will work good.

 

[jbcurt00]

Based on other vintage aluminum boats and the pix you posted, IMO, you'll use a 3/4in piece of plywood on the inside AND another on the outside of your transom skin. Not 2pcs glued together on the inside.

 

[Tnstratofam]

^^^^ That makes sense. Jbcurt has lots of experience and knowledge with this style boat.

 

[gsh]

Thanks for the answers.

I just got back from the boat. It's really cold and windy this evening so not much was done other than remove that last piece of transom board and the makeshift drain plug and take some measurements.

The drain hole is 1" so I should be able to get a new plug for it easy enough.

The transom is a bit odd since the transom cap isn't 1 1/2" thick. Instead, It's 1 1/4" thick. That means I'm going to have to use a piece of 3/4" plywood and a 1/2" piece. I'm thinking that the outside piece will probably be 1/2" as well. That should give me a finished transom that is a hair over 1 3/4" thick.

As for the seats, my brother thinks I should use some cedar boards, but I'm thinking that I'll use plywood instead since it won't warp and will not split with age. Either way seats can be replaced pretty easy.

I also found a 1976 6hp Johnson for $400 which should work well on the boat.

This weekend will be spent fixing the trailer up, cutting the wood and making sure the transom will fit properly and making the seats. Next week will be spent varnishing. Hopefully by next weekend I will have everything ready to assemble.

Maybe.

 

[gsh]

I got that motor for my boat. It is in great shape and looks to have been well cared for. No oil leaks, the hoses are all supple and clean, the starter cord is even really clean. The outside shows some wear, but that's to be expected from a 41 year old motor. It also came with a gas can and fuel hose. The guy selling it forgot to give me the owner's manual, but he's sending it in the mail.

 

[gsh]

No Title

Time for a little update.

Work on the boat has been sporadic due to work and family stuff, but I have been getting some things done.

I've been working on the seats and have managed to get them to the point of varnishing. I made a template out of 3 pieces of plywood, The center piece was too short to touch at any point in the boat and the ends were about 1/3rd of the width of the widest part of the boat. I could then place the pieces in the boat and adjust the ends until they made contact with the sides. Using a fender washer I followed the outline of the boat and got a fairly accurate shape. once cut, the pieces were moved outward until they fit perfectly. Then I used that to mark the ends of my plywood.

I repeated the process for each seat and now had perfect fitting seats.

Except they were 1/4" too thin.

Back when the boat was made, a 1" x 12" board was exactly that. I was using 3/4" plywood, so I was off. That required me gluing a 1/4" sheet to the surface to get the proper thickness.

Once that was done I used the same process to get a decent outline for the supports under the seats, leaving enough room to slide the seats in and out for easy repair/maintenance. I used cedar decking and trimmed one side enough to get rid of the rounded edge. once cut, I placed the seat top back in the boat and centered the side. I used five 3 1/2" stainless deck screws to attach each side and countersunk them so that they are below the surface of the seat. I used Owens Corning 2" 150 purple foam sheets to make the flotation.

The bow has a small seat as well, but it is small enough that I didn't put any flotation or sides on it.

Now I have them all stained and I'm waiting for the 3rd coat of spar varnish to dry.

The square piece you see in the pictures is part of another project that also needed staining and varnishing and not part of the boat project.

As for the boat, I have that going in to a shop in a few days to have the couple cracks repaired. In the meantime, I'm stripping the blue green painting over spray out of it. The previous owner just spray painted the old seats while they were in the boat and it looks terrible.

I've also been working on the trailer replacing the old, rotted pine bunks with new cedar, prepping it for painting and replacing a BUNCH of old rusty hardware with stainless nuts and bolts. A lot of the bolts ad nuts had square heads on them, so they were OLD. I figure there's no reason to trust them only to have them fail and destroy my boat by causing an accident.

 

[gsh]

Well, it's been awhile since I posted anything about the boat, even though a LOT has been done.

Since my last post, I have the seats installed, the holes in the boat and the bow cap are repaired, the trailer suspension has been rebuilt, the trailer was sand blasted and painted with bed liner and new trailer lights were installed.

The boat has also been on the water a couple times and I'm VERY pleased to note that even after several hours, the most water I have seen is less than a cup and some of that is from putting the anchor in and out of the boat.

I also installed a Garmin Striker 4 fish finder. The 6 hp Johnson Sea Horse motor runs very well, but it will never win any races. According to the GPS in the Garmin, with myself, my buddy and his girlfriend in the boat, I maxed out at about 7.5 mph on a mostly flat lake.

However, I'm sure you'd like to see some pictures, so here we go.

This is the trailer on some saw horses getting painted. My daughter wanted to pose with the trailer, so I let her. As you can see, the round pipe construction allowed me to rotate the trailer as needed to make painting it easier.


All in all, the paint came out really nice. I just have to touch up the places where it rubbed on the saw horses.

The next post will have some pictures of the (mostly) completed trailer and boat.

 

[gsh]

Here's the (mostly) finished boat and trailer.

The trailer has a couple small issues that I need to address. The old winch had the crank on the port side, but the new winch is on the starboard side and the spare tire is in the way. I'll probably end up moving the spare down a bit and adding a second one on the port side as well.

The trailer also needs a jack to keep the tongue out of the mud. However, with all the jacks today being made for trailers made of square tubing, I need to have something welded to the tongue to mount it to. If I don't, the jack will simply twist around the tongue and it will end up on the ground again.

The lights are submersible LED lights from Blazer and the brackets they are mounted to are just light sheet steel pieces that I fashioned myself. All the exposed electrical cable was covered in shrink wrap to keep it from flapping around, protect it from the elements and also to make it look better. The wood on the trailer is all cedar 2 x 4 to prevent rot.

As you can see, I took a little time to get the seats to follow the curve of the boat. It may not be perfect, but it's much better than the old seats that were in it.

All the screws and bolts on the boat are stainless steel and all the screws and bolts on the trailer except the leaf spring bolts and the lug bolts are stainless as well.

I have three small projects that I'm working on still, but those should be done by next weekend at the latest.

I bought a boat cover but it didn't have an opening in the front for where the winch strap connects to the boat, so I have a local shop adding one.

I'm also working on some bows to go between the oar locks to lift the center of the boat cover so water won't collect on it.

Finally, I want rod holders, but don't want to put any more holes in the boat, so I came up with what I think is a pretty slick solution.

A 4' long and 3" to 4" wide piece of cedar deck board with a 5/8" bolt through each end spaced so they fit in the oar locks will be on each side. They will be trimmed to fit the curve of the boat and the rod holders will be attached to that. I should have room for 4 rod holders. If I need to use the oars, a quick twist to remove the nuts and the oar locks are usable again.



I'll post more pictures later.

 

[Beagleville]

The old Alumacraft looks great. Nice job.

 

[Tnstratofam]

The boat and trailer turned out nice.