My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Got some more stuff done this weekend. Painted on the Durabak. 1 Gal was enough but BARELY. Got the gas tank back in and hooked up. Got all the foam in. Started to put the deck back down but need to get some rivets with a longer grip.
Computer at home is on the fritz...hope to get some pics up though,.

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Worked for an hour last night and got all the hinges and handles back on the hatches.
longer rivets should be in today and I have thurs-sun off, so hopefully I can get the deck down and casting decks done.

Sorry no pics right now but the wife said no going on the internet from home until we get a big old dose of penicillin for the home puter

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Hey Target good to hear the Gallon of durabak was enough . Sounds like your almost ready to go splash her gain .


Rick

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

well,
I haven't gotten anything else done during this week
Her are a few pics of the deck pieces etc

and getting 2 coats of spar varnish on all sides

get back at it on Friday

Hey target nice job on the Sylvan, I like the pitch on the bow she looks fast

If possible could you post some more pics of how exactly the Z brackets work for your hatches? I'm currently building a hatch for my little tin can in the middle seat and need ideas for the proper way that it is done. I figured I'd ask since yours are looking great! Congrats

 

[henrye718]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Hard to believe someone let such a nice boat get in such poor condition so quickly. It will be great when you're done with it.

The inside I blame on the manufacturer, I don't think they put one dime into preventing rot and failure of anything under the decks and decks themselves. Just build it as fast and as cheap as possible. How could they build something that inherently leaks (a riveted boat) then expect everything in there to withstand being wet all the time. Just a little ventilation would go a long way to at least drying the boat out when its not in the water or in the winter even.

 

[henrye718]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Hi Target, in the picture below I noticed the rear of your boat is designed almost exact like mine. Two storage boxes left and right a splash well in the center. a raised seat pedestal mine is larger I think I have a good sized livewell in there too.

I was thinking about removing most of it and getting some room back. And saving some weight in the process. Also this area is one big sauna basically. Every time I open one of the storage hatches or remove the big screw-off splash well plug I am greeted with a nice gush of hot humid mildew smelling air.

Considering we both have leaky boats and most likely no matter how hard we try they will always have some water in them. I will do something about this and ventilate the hell out of the thing especially this area since this is where the water sits and also the transom is just sitting in damp air because of this.

In the picture above if we were to cut a few holes in that area where the plastic fish holder is mounted there would be plenty of ventilation and no rain water would get in.

K, thanks for the thread and posting pictures of your work.

Keep up the great work!

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Henrye once you get yours stripped out Like Target has we will teach you about the all important way to keep water out of a Tin Can Gluvit .


Rick

 

[henrye718]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Henrye once you get yours stripped out Like Target has we will teach you about the all important way to keep water out of a Tin Can Gluvit .


Rick

I have owned aluminum boats for 25 years about 11 boats total now, from row boats to brand new fully rigged bass type boats. I have not had a riveted one not spring a leak yet from a rivet. I must admit I have never used gluvit, I always wondered about the stuff but I have tried every other product out there for sealing leaks in rivets if it was made for that or not, haha.

One thing I know the elements have alot to do with rivets leaking since row boats really dont take a beating in a small lake and yet their rivets fail quite often considering.

The 3 all welded boats I had never had a leak anywhere, one of them was a 89' model I still have to this day and use it in choppy water with a heavy oversized engine. Wish I could afford a all welded hull boat at this time they have gotten so expensive :/.

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Henrye I figure a 2 pound kit of Gluvit will do the seams and rivets in my hull for $50.00 . I figure its worth a shot at that price it cant hut it and the guys who hvent used it wished they had .


Rick

 

[henrye718]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Henrye I figure a 2 pound kit of Gluvit will do the seams and rivets in my hull for $50.00 . I figure its worth a shot at that price it cant hut it and the guys who hvent used it wished they had .


Rick

yeah, Im sure if I opened the decks and redid everything then got another leak later I would be crying. I think I would pay $200 its half as good as you guys say it is. I will keep at my SC boat, maybe someday I will come across a large, high end, all welded boat I can afford.

Here is my 16ft 1989 boat i was talking about its all open bench seats. Duranautic still sells this exact boat the price for the hull alone is $4k and its just a simple utility boat, all-weled is so expensive : / .

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

I should have som pics tonight. Home computer is on the mend.

I worked on the boat Thurs, Fri and Sat and got it all back together.

Some things I learned...carpet sucks. I used all my old pieces as templates, cut out new ones, spar varnish on all sides, predrilled holes, 2 coats of Durabak. Installed each side piec from the outside working in. THat went great until I went to put the center gas tank piece of the deck in...can you say GAP. I never took into account for the thickness of the carpet on each side of every piece of wood. A few places in the boat with gaps up to 3/4"...lesson learned. I ripped a piece of plywood and screwed it into the gap on the main deck, I have to recut one small piece for the front deck as well...very disappointing, tools went flying. As for the Durabak, neither me or the wife were happy with the color, and the 2 coats that I put on were real thin...so I ordered a gallon of the dark gray and we will put on 2 more coats on all exposed surfaces etc. this week. It will also cover over all the screws and rivets.
The hatches need a bit of weather stripping to tighten them up and build them up a little.

On the bright side...I splashed the boat with a friend yesterday...and it is a whole new boat without the waterlogged foam. Jumped right up on plane. Previously he and I were hitting a top speed of 9 or so mph, yesterday he and I and most of the fishing gear hit 20.4 on the gps...big difference when you remove 300lbs of wet foam from an underpowered boat.
The leak(s) that were previously in the boat are now gone too. after a 3 hour ride/troll/ride in the boat there was no water in the boat. I even parked it on the hill of my driveway for 2 hours to make sure that if there was anything trapped up front it would have time to drain down to the back...there was no water. So I was VERY pleased with that result as well.
Like I said, pics tonight

 

[henrye718]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Congrats on your success!

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Well Target I guess at least she is dry now sorry to hear about the fit issues with the wood I know that was alot of wood to cut too.


Rick

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Huron Angler...the z brackets were there, I just took them out and remounted them the same way. They are on 3 sides, just not where the hinge is. If the brackets didn't work I was going to screw plywood strips from the bottom up just to give the hatch a lip to rest on. Not even sure if the z brackets are an item you can pick up locally, I never looked.

Henrye...you are right about that area getting "sauna" like...hopefully now that the Gluvit sealed the leaks there won't be much moisture back there. I will definitely consider cutting some holes if I find any moisture getting trapped. Maybe use a hole saw and mount a thru hull fitting there to dress it up a little.
Pics are uploading to photobucket now, I'll post them in a few

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Well here are the pics.

2 coats of Durabak ""sand"

Gas tank back in and cross braces riveted back to stringers

Foam in

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Reassembling main deck

Livewell and front deck

Floor and back deck

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Things I learned that I hope others will take note of and use in their builds

1) I measured very carefully and used old pieces as templates but if you are going from carpet to a roll on type coating, take the thickness of the carpet into account. You can see the piece of plywood I had to rip down and screw in to fill a 5/8" gap.

2) I put all my durabak on first, next time I would reassemble then use the durabak, all seams and rivets/screws would be hidden.

3) for a boat this size you really need 2 gal of durabak. I have another one arrive today and will put 2 more coats on all the visible deck surfaces to hide all the seams, fill in any gaps, cover the screws rivets.

4) hatches are a pain in the ***...I picked up some rubber weather stripping to put in the hatches tonight, that will tighten them up and keep them from rattling.

my materials list for this project was

2 sheets 1/2" AC exterior ply
2 sheets of 3/4" AC ext ply
1 gal spar varnish
1 2# kit of Gluvit
2 gal durabak UV textured
misc rollers, brushes, wire wheel, nuts bolts screws weather stripping etc.
JB weld, 1 tube of PL premium and 1 tube of 5200.

I will not tear this boat apart again, any questionable areas got extra gluvit, coats of JB weld, and filled a bunch of areas with 5200 or PL premium. Overkill under there.

When you gluvit along your ribs, make sure you leave a spot for the water to run under the rib to the bilge, I coated them all and the gluvit sealed them and water had to flow over the rib like and ice cube tray. As far as I can see now, any water that does get in (hopefully none) can run right back to the bilge for the pump to pick up. This alone should keep the decks and foam in MUCH better shape than the factory build.

I hope the gray looks better but only time will tell.

 

[targetpanic]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

Took the boat for a ride last night. Still no water and still jumped right up on plane.

Friday is the day for the extra coats of Durabak and Sunday is a big test fishing with the family. I'll post the last pics after the gray durabak is on...thanks for following along and offering suggestions/advice guys!

 

[sylvanskipper]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

I know this is an old thread, but I wondered how your restoration project finally turned out. I have the same boat with the same problems. I just started tearing it apart and wondered if there was anything you would do differently.

 

[Hydra-sport_Road-kill]

Re: My 2000 16' Sylvan Expedition Project

OK skipper, so it's an old thread and maybe you checked that target has been inactive sense May of this year. Now I'm not like some of these guys that will jump Drill-Sargent in a cadet's face and and abuse their family lineage for such an slight infraction, I'd just say, "you don't want to do this kind of thing this way, again." Maybe PM the guy instead, but posting to an old thread pulls it out of slumber and slaps it on the front page of "News" It's a cadet mistake and sorry for the admonishment on your first post. Welcome to iBoats and it's good to have ya.