The inevitable 1973 15 Reinell tri-hull restoration!

[Cadwelder]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Now these are valuable lesson here. Working over you head is never easy, and yes once it starts to kick, your done. Your patch looks fine from the pictures. Just some minior grinding and faring left.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Thanks Cad. Hopefully I'll have this area done this weekend and I can move back to working on the inside of the boat. At least then I'll have gravity on my side.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

This weekend I got some time on the boat. The first thing was to finish the patches on the hull. I sanded down the stringy mess that I made last week. Then I made a putty out of waxed resin and micro-bubbles. I added a little bit of talc to thicken it up because I?m working upside down, and I didn?t want it to run. Next time I think I?ll pass on the talc, and just use more bubbles. I covered the area using a plastic putty knife and tried not to get too thick.

Then I went back the next day and sanded it down.

For now I?m calling that project done. It will need a little more filler, and a little more sanding, but we?ll just call that prep for gel coat and move on.

I went back to shaping the stringers. I had to remove a ? inch from the height of the stringers to allow for bedding. After that was done, I covered them with resin and let them dry. I was back and forth on whether to use PL or pink foam to bed the stringers. I decided to use the pink foam. With 1 ?? wide stringers, the gap from the curve of the hull at the bow end just seemed like too big a space to fill with PL. I may double up on the foam to fill the space at the end. I?ll use the PL to adhere the foam to the hull, and the stringers to the foam, but just a thin layer. I cut 1 1/2? x ?? strips from a 1/2" panel of pink insulation.

This is just a test run to check for deck height. You can see the foam under the stringer.

If this were it, the deck would fit snug on the stringers. But I realized that I didn?t allow for the layer of 1708 that I?ll be putting on the stringers, and the mat that will be on the underside of the deck. I might do a test to see if I can get the deck to curve a little. That will also help water drain to the side and not pool in the middle. We'll see.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

What thickness is your deck material? If it's 1/2" then you should be fine. If it's 3/4" it won't flex much so get em where you want em. That's my opinion.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

I'm using 3/4. That's what was in there. You're right, I should cut them down. 3/4 won't bend in that short of a distance. How much should I shave off to allow for one layer of 1708 and one layer of mat?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

1/8 to 3/16" oughta be just about right

 

[Cadwelder]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

You don't need a layer of 1708 on the deck, just a layer of mat will be fine. You can use the 1708 to tab it in on the sides.

 

[parrisw]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Looking good!

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Hey Guys, thanks for the input. It?s much appreciated.

I?m in the middle of a three week stretch with no off days (I?m not complaining, It helps pay for my new habit). But I?m back to working on the boat late at night. Since my last post, I was able to cut the height of the stringers by about 3/8? to allow for the fiberglass. Last night I did a little grinding. I made some PB and did some fillet work the bottom of the transom. When I installed the transom last summer, I was still in denial, and the deck was still in place. So the transom was never tabbed to the hull. Before the fillet had totally set up, I decided to go ahead and bed the stringers. That way I could get the stringers right up to the transom. Then I discovered that my experiment with the ? inch of pink foam has some draw backs.

First I ran a small bead of PL and laid down the strips of foam.

Then I ran a fat bead of PL on the foam and laid the stringers.

The idea was that the pink foam would hold the stringers above the hull, and the PL would fill the voids. Then I would use PB for my fillet. I still need to go back and run some more PL under the stringer near the bow to fill the gap. So far so good. But here?s the problem. When I was adjusting the stringers to get them in place, I noticed that the fillet at the transom had stated to melt the foam. I don?t know if it was the heat, or a chemical reaction. Either way, if I fillet the stingers with PB, and the PB melts the foam, it will change the position of the stringers. If I had left gaps in the foam, the PL would hold the stringers in place, but I didn?t. Then I thought about making fillets with the PL. I tested a small area, but as soon as I smoothed it out, it bubbled up. So the new plan is to run a bead of PL along the foam, like a mini fillet, and then go back and fillet the stringers proper with PB.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they just don?t. Yesterday I grabbed an hour in the middle of the day and ran a mini-fillet of PL along the stringers to protect the foam from melting under the peanut butter. Then I went out late last night and mixed up some peanut butter, and went to town on the stringers. I was feeling pretty good about the progress.
Here?s a picture from last night.

Then I went out this morning to check out my work. Not so good. About a third of all of the fillets I ran last night were pulling away from the stringers.

After about ten minutes of staring at this mess, I realized what happened. PL needs a minimum of 24 hours to cure (when all else fails, read the directions). I only waited 10 hours. Everywhere the PB is pulling away, there is a thin layer of soggy PL behind it. Oh well. Sometimes you just gotta learn from your mistakes and move on.

Now I just need to clean out all of the bad stuff, re-prep, and try again.

 

[parrisw]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Yep live and learn, I've had to go back a few times and fix some mistakes! You could just grind down a bit on those fillet's and go over them, just grind down enough so your confident that there will be no air pockets.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

I had intended to get a lot more done on Memorial Day, but family plans took priority. I was able to get ? of both stringers glassed with one layer of csm and one layer of 1708 before I ran out of time. I ran the csm and 1708 up and over the stringers. It was laying down really well when I left. However, when I went out Tuesday morning to see how everything was looking, I found a rash of bubbles along the top edge of the stringers.
This is the worst of it -

I almost wrote in to see if this was acceptable. But I wasn?t really happy with it and decided to give it another try. I grinded down all of the edges and leveled out the seams while I was at it (man, grinding out the factory stuff in the beginning is one thing, grinding out glass that you put in 24 hours ago isn?t near as satisfying). Then I ran a cap of 1708 over the length of the stringers. I stayed with it for a long time, and it seemed to be laying down well. But I checked again this morning and it was pretty much the same story. Same amount of bubbles, just different areas. So this time I think I?ll just grind out the bubbles, then lay another layer of csm, and try again with the 1708. I had planned on building up the stringers anyway.

I also started to build the bilge and cut the wood for the hull supports. I hope to have something to post this weekend with more pictures.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

This morning I grinded out the bubbles on the second layer of 1708, this left some low areas. I went back and filled those areas with small patches of CSM. Then when that was about set up, I recapped the stringers with another layer of CSM. The plan was to give me a base for another layer of 1708. But after seeing the last layer of CSM, I think the stringers might be done. When you consider that the original stringers were just bare wood, then I think I?m way ahead of the game. I still need to glass the back end of the stringers and bilge area. But I can do that from outside of the boat. I just wanted to get all of the bend over and kneeling down out of the way.

I was also able to get the center hull support down. The supports are made up of 8?, 16?, 24? and 32? planks. The idea was to off set all of the joints. This is kind of what they had done originally. Only they had left a couple of 1? gaps. I used just enough peanut butter to stick it down, and fill any voids from the uneven hull. If any squished out of the sides, I just started to fillet the edges. I?ll go back fillet the edges properly after I sand down the planks.

About a month ago I had to patch two holes in the hull. The patches left raised areas so I needed to get the hull supports to form to that curve. I?m a big fan of cinder blocks.

Hopefully I can get back out there tonight and get the end of the stringers and the bilge area glassed in.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Mom was mowing (she likes it), kids in the pool, and I had a whole Sunday afternoon with nothing to do but work on the boat. I started my day with dropping the plastic tent and grinding out a few small things that I have been meaning to clean up. A corner here, a blob of peanut butter there, and before you know it I had a boat load of dust. While I was there, I went ahead and used the grinder to level out the planks that make up the center hull support. I know a sander would?ve left a smoother finish, but man, that grinder makes quick work of wood. And it just needs to be smooth enough to lay glass. I cleaned it up and wiped everything down.

I lined the bilge with 2? planks of 3/4? plywood. I thought about leaving the wood out of the bilge and just reinforcing with a few layers of glass. But then my drain would be almost 2? above the bottom of the bilge. Once the gas tank is in, I won?t have any inside access to the bilge, so I decided to build it back up the way I found it. I also installed the outer hull supports using 8? planks. They have the alternating seems, same as the one in the center.
The original supports were made up of 6? and 8? pieces. And the starboard side support was about 3? longer than the port side. I don?t think that there was any reason for this. There are a lot of things that I think were just kind of thrown together and sprayed over. I?m not knocking the boat builders of the 1970s. I know they were cranking out a lot of boats. And they probably didn?t expect them to last more than ten years. But sometimes I get the impression that my boat was the Friday afternoon boat, or the first day on the job boat.
Anyway, all of the supports will be glassed over with CSM and Woven Roving. I probably have enough 1708 to cover them, but I just want to work with some different materials while I have the chance.

It?ll be a few days before I can get back out there and do anymore work. But it?s starting to feel like I?m getting somewhere.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Nice Glassin!!!!!

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Nice Glassin!!!!!

Thanks! I don't quite have it yet, but I'll get there. Any improvement is due to fact that I dread having to grind out the mistakes! I look forward to finishing all of the under deck stuff. All of these corners are driving me nuts.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

I don't think you're gunna like the Woven. Its not so nice to work with. Especially the thick stuff.

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Nice work. I am with Wood on the woven. It is really hard to work with.

 

[dOb]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Yeah, it's the 18 oz. stuff from USComp. I think I remember reading in Drewpster's thread that he put the woven over wet CSM, and that helped it to stay down. I'll go back and re-read to be sure. It's just for the supports. They're pretty flat. If it's giving me grief, I'll just go back to the 1708. But if I do that, I'll probably have to tab my hull with the woven.

 

[parrisw]

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Re: The inevitable 1973 15? Reinell tri-hull restoration!

Woven isn't that bad. I've used it in my rebuild, it needs a smooth soft curve though, it lays into inside corners better then outside corners. If you plan it out and prep for it, its just fine. I don't know that I'd want to cap 3/4" stringers with it though.