Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

[Aussiefishn]

Researching for added info for my project I feel I have found the right place.

I was taking photo's of the project anyway and this site encouraged me to make a shareaproject.com as a log for the project.


Here's the photo's.
http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/projectTut,p,441,00.html


I've got a fair idea of whats ahead and read up on a lot, and of course still have questions and looking for tips.

I need to replace all the wood, (floor, stringers, transom, bunks/storage cabnets). I will use marine ply for transom, floor and bunks. Undecided on wood for stringers. Local supplier's best suggestion is Spotted Gum but they are not sure of its bonding ability with fibre glass. They (think) it should work.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Spotted Gum for stringers????

I cant find much info on this woods capability to bond with glass.

Does anyone here know?

Would be good if it is suitable, it basically comes in the right size, just needs trimming/ shaping to fit.

Other option would be to make stringers out of marine ply but that would be fiddly.

Can anyone advise me???

muchly appreciated.

Dan

 

[Bondo]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Other option would be to make stringers out of marine ply but that would be fiddly.

Ayuh,....

Personally,... For Any wood that isn't Seen,... aka. structual members,...
I use nothing but cdx Plywood... It's all covered in Glass anyways...
If you can't get a Size,... Glue up what you need....

 

[oops!]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

i dont know what spotted gum is.....but if you have spotted gums.....go to a dentist !

plywood .....as mentioned above, it the best choice unless you want to go compisite...(big dollars)

just search plywood and youll have enough reading for a year or two

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Thanks Bond-O, and Oops I'm glad to of re-found this place, after the project was put aside for a while, and a computer crash that lost a few things.

Yeah, I think that is the way I will go.
The spotted gum would have been nice since its practically comes in the right size plank.

But I will make some out of ply so theres no doubts.

Umm, I'm confused tho, Its covered in glass allready??

So its all ready to go? as in you dont need to dry it I hope. I'll do the research and talk to the guy on monday and find out exactly what I can get.

Cheers

Dan

 

[oops!]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

uh.....your confusing me now....

plywood is not covered in fiberglass when you get it......and it is allmost allways wet....and must be dryed......

when you get it .....its just a 4x8 peice of wood.....you need to dry it....then cut it so it becomes a stringer.....lay it in the boat and add the fiberglass....

its a little more detailed than that....but thats the process.....

in the compleated projects forum....read jason j's skanky beast.

the hull extension in progress thread is really good for stringer installation and how to glass them.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Oops:redface:
my missread, I thought it meant some special stuff covered in glass allready pfft

thanks for the pointers, I'll read on.


and yeah that extension is FULL ON!

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

I cant add to my (shareproject.com) There seems to be no way to retrieve a forgotten password.

Just felt like adding this if its handy to anybody.
Reading this forum and everyone's rebuilds has been very handy for me.

Choosing color???
Can be hard to imagine colors on your boat so I literally wanted to see the choices on the darn thing hehe.
I'm no computer wiz but I did this with the program -paint. Everyone knows that one ey.
Its basic but gave me a -basic idea, and I'm glad I did because I was never considering yellow but a rich yellow with black trimmings will be the winner in my opinion. After seeing it in about 36 different colors and all sensible reasoning considered.

Have a photo of the boat. Open photo in - 'Paint'
Scan the color charts or just use the color choice thingy.
size down the color charts so they fit on your picture somewhere.
Top bar:-edit-[past from] to get your color charts on there.
Place them somewhere out of the view, there there to stay! as soon as you move onto next step etc.
Enlarge the view (to get finer lines) and erase the color to be changed with [erase tool].
Use the [eyedroper tool], to sample each color.
Use the [Fill tool] to fill chosen color into (erased) areas,,,,,WALA!

To save the pics : Don't [save as] from the file list!
save them this way.
from the top bar:-clik edit list- select all- right click the picture-chose [copy to] and name it eg. Stej-golden yellow....whatever....
That way you only have to erase the area once and try as many different colors as you want.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

I'm looking at gettin stuck into re-construction for christmas hollidays.
still some de-construction too.

More repairs, a week spot developed on the left side of the boat were this beem in the cap de-bonded, Previouse owner thought he could fix it with silicon.

Chisel, hack, and rip it out. Can see were the cap had de-bonded with the hull over about 2 foot.
The cabin/top cap is coming off soon.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

The new beam straightening on the carport beams. That's how I will set my stringers straight when i laminate them together.
Not a lot of the splash well was in contact with the transom..(top right), I managed to literally rip the top cap off the transom with some help, Man! fibreglass is strong. You can see where it tore off some glass and a bit of some transom wood, the brown is filler that wasnt even in contact, the big hole is where the left motor mount weakened the glass,
and you can see, not much was in contact with the transom but it will be when I'm finished with it.

This pressure treated ply and (marine grade for the stringers) wood should be nicely dried by Christmas. Cant wait to get my fibreglass hehe.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Spotted gum does not have a uniform grain, not ideal for bonding. outdoor rated ply (not marine ply), 2 sheets doubled up, then glassed, all up about 40 mm thick - perfect.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Wow! What a great project. Love these smaller boats with cabins. Don't see many like that around here. BTW, I like the bright yellow and bright red colors on it. Those colors will really make that size boat stand out on the water.

Are you going to put in a permanent fuel tank?

You can get you'r password back if you email shareaproject support.

Best luck,

Mark.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Spotted gum does not have a uniform grain, not ideal for bonding. outdoor rated ply (not marine ply), 2 sheets doubled up, then glassed, all up about 40 mm thick - perfect.

Thanks for the notes on the spotted gum, I decided to go with what is known to work.
Treated ply for floor -15mm, 12mm doubled to 24mm thick transom. Marine ply for the stringers,
its 9mm thick and will be doubled, fibreglass laminated together to at least match the original ones that were 18mm thick. then glassed in a lot better than the original ones were...I've got good confidence in this boat being strong since it was good for 30 years even tho being slapped together a bit shabby. Exposed wood here and there throughout, the underneath of the floor wasnt even sealed, its no wonder these things get rot! This thing should last another 40 years after I'm finished with it.

Wow! What a great project. Love these smaller boats with cabins. Don't see many like that around here. BTW, I like the bright yellow and bright red colors on it. Those colors will really make that size boat stand out on the water.

Are you going to put in a permanent fuel tank?

You can get you'r password back if you email shareaproject support.

Best luck,

Mark.

Umm, hadnt thought about a permanent fuel tank..I will now haha.
I'll pritty much rebuild it like original only better, and build some additional (removable) items like a live bait tank. May have a fuel tank built that will slide under the splash well area.
I tried email shareproject but havent recieved a responce, i'll try again.

Cheers guys.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Theres no rush to finish this boat so I'm taking my time.
Here's some progress I've done. Top left pic is the 2 pieces of transom marked out on ply with cardboard template

Cut out the transome and stringer pieces. Preped them, filled any voides and sanded them with 80grit. Sculpted the edges of transom to fit snug in the curved corners of the transom but I lost those pics darn it...

To make the Keel stringer (3.6 meters) I made the four pieces based on the idea of a lap join, only extended the join over a longer distance, I will layer extra glass over the joins in the instalation (for piece of mind).

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Transome is (2 X 12mm thick pressure treated ply well dried) and stringers are (2 X 9mm thick Marine Ply) are made with 2 layers of the ply bonded with a center laminate of fibreglass, coz I like that idea and it seems the best to me. Its just makes for the strongest piece of ply for the thickness in my way of thinking. Wet out the transom pieces, left cure for a couple of hours, re-wet out, rolled out the glass layer, screwed the transom pieces together tight and put lots of weight on it while it cured. Has a very slight bow (only visible with a straight edge), I can live with it.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Stringer sandwiches...

Same as the transom, i wet out the bonding sides of the pieces, left for hour or two, re wet out, rolloed out glass layer(top left pic, on the floor), grip clamped the pieces together,
set it up on the saw horses in a sheat of waxed paper to catch resin drips and prevent the stringer wood bonding to anything you dont want it to, like the 4 straight long pieces of pine, (two each side) I clamped it all together as a sandwich. The planks of wood set the stringer straight and they absorb the dents that the clamps make when you clamp them up tight! to sqeeze any excess resin out of the fibre glass layer.

Fibre glassed bung holes.

I drilled all permanent through transom holes like, the ladder bolt holes, steering fitting, tie down hooks etc a larger diameter. Filled them so that I drill through fibreglass filler rather than drilling through wood.
the bung holes I made so that bung fitting will be fitted into a fibreglass housing. It may seem silly but I'm just being fiddly for piece of mind. The old transom had rot around all three drain hole fittings.
With the back of the hole seeled with masking tape
I rolled the glass strips around my finger and dipped in resin to saturate it, then wound the glass in reverse pressing to the wall of the hole. Then filled the inside with filler so I can drill a precise whole.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

This crazing is a hot spot caused by the side compartment thats built in (in design). Its caused a hump outside/ scollop inside. So i built up the scollop inside with layers of torn scrap CSM. You cant really see but I need that thickness to hopefully prevent it happening in the future, and I will sand down the crazed hump on the outside.

To glass in the transome I need to finally get rid of the old stringers. But before I did that I put in some supports under the strakes. This minimizes the flex of the floor really well. Basically just made them to set in place on the trailer frame with clamps.

So with a dremmil and the worm cord with cutting disks to cut a line through the stringer glass close to the hull a half inch at a time, then wiggling them out, then 4+ straight hours of grinding with 24grit pads and a wire brush disk to get right into the keel groove and corners without distorting the shape or digging to deep( I'm happy to say I DIDNT!),,,
Coupla beers, coupla more hours cleaning sweapng dusting the whole garage and boat,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the hull was clean. and I didnt take a photo

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

I ground that transome skin down really well because of rot that spread through the under/resined strand mat that bonded the old wood so added a layer of matt prior to fitting new transome wood.
I re cut out (Dremmil) all the holes to get clean edges of all holes. Then taped up all but the small holes with masking tape but poked a hole through to let transome filler ooze out

 

[jonesg]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

I removed a couple 8 foot stringers like that, left the glass on both sides.
I used a chainsaw (Electric) , took 30 minutes.

 

[Aussiefishn]

Re: Stejcraft 4.1m Half cab. Gut & rebuild

Wet out the transome once again..(about 300ml resin for 1 side) let stand for at least an hour or two, until it starts to tack,
make filler (resin and talc powder, 1.3 litres /slow cure) Rake it all over transom with a toothed trowl.

Place it into transom and bolted up with angle iron and clamps. I really wanted to sqeeze it up tight so the filler oozes out the edges and into all voids as well as filling the outside holes.

Filled in any remaining gaps around the edges of the transome wood.
I rounded off the corner edge of the wood so the glass will roll over the top encapsulating the wood in fibreglass, and reinforcing the lip that the top cap fits to.