jonathanwsmith
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2010
- Messages
- 102
Hello all,
I am new to this forum and am sure glad to have found it. I am the proud owner of a Duratech V12, Serial Number 16413. This boat had been dumped at a landfill in 1975; it had been dented, gashed, mistreated, and left for scrap. Already having one Duratech V12 at home, Dad fetched his "new" salvaged boat home, an act only a lover of boats could understand. It lay upside down on the shore of a small pond in middle Tennessee for 30 years. Dad died in 2002. This spring I brought the boat to my home in central North Carolina. Thirty five years later, I'm restoring her.
My only reference points are:
This forum, the Duratechboats.com website, a Duratech brochure from 1963, and what I remember about the V12 Dad bought from Phil Sarro in Pittsfield, MA the summer I was 13. That was 47 years ago.
I started her restoration two weeks ago - I removed the bow and stern seats (the middle seat is missing). I hammered all the gash wounds flat and flush and laid epoxy and glass cloth outside and inside over the holes. I cut off all the rusty old bolts, nuts, and washers that held the transom wood in place. I cut two pieces of 3/8" thick marine plywood to sandwich around the transom and bolted them in with bronze bolts, nuts, and washers.
Fortunately the only rivets I need to replace are the ones which hold the bow thwart (bulkhead?) to the hull and port and starboard ribs. I was all set to use some aluminum blind rivets which I had around the boathouse before it hit me, those things have a hole after they've been drawn tight, and won't do me any good. I was pretty naive not to understand that the Duratech rivets are all watertight, I believe you call them POP Closed end rivets.
Can anyone recommend what kind of rivets to use and where I might be able to get them?
I'll post a few pics here, and new ones as the restoration progresses. Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Gratefully,
Jonathan Smith
jsmith@jonathansmith.com
Lake Tillery (Pee Dee River)
Montgomery County
North Carolina
I am new to this forum and am sure glad to have found it. I am the proud owner of a Duratech V12, Serial Number 16413. This boat had been dumped at a landfill in 1975; it had been dented, gashed, mistreated, and left for scrap. Already having one Duratech V12 at home, Dad fetched his "new" salvaged boat home, an act only a lover of boats could understand. It lay upside down on the shore of a small pond in middle Tennessee for 30 years. Dad died in 2002. This spring I brought the boat to my home in central North Carolina. Thirty five years later, I'm restoring her.
My only reference points are:
This forum, the Duratechboats.com website, a Duratech brochure from 1963, and what I remember about the V12 Dad bought from Phil Sarro in Pittsfield, MA the summer I was 13. That was 47 years ago.
I started her restoration two weeks ago - I removed the bow and stern seats (the middle seat is missing). I hammered all the gash wounds flat and flush and laid epoxy and glass cloth outside and inside over the holes. I cut off all the rusty old bolts, nuts, and washers that held the transom wood in place. I cut two pieces of 3/8" thick marine plywood to sandwich around the transom and bolted them in with bronze bolts, nuts, and washers.
Fortunately the only rivets I need to replace are the ones which hold the bow thwart (bulkhead?) to the hull and port and starboard ribs. I was all set to use some aluminum blind rivets which I had around the boathouse before it hit me, those things have a hole after they've been drawn tight, and won't do me any good. I was pretty naive not to understand that the Duratech rivets are all watertight, I believe you call them POP Closed end rivets.
Can anyone recommend what kind of rivets to use and where I might be able to get them?
I'll post a few pics here, and new ones as the restoration progresses. Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Gratefully,
Jonathan Smith
jsmith@jonathansmith.com
Lake Tillery (Pee Dee River)
Montgomery County
North Carolina
