Looks like a real handful you got there. I must say the top cap looks good. Might aswell make that lifting thing you made into a carport for your totally refurbished boat when you get done.
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Looks like a real handful you got there. I must say the top cap looks good. Might aswell make that lifting thing you made into a carport for your totally refurbished boat when you get done.
Man....WOW......MAN....
Man you want it bad, good luck http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif
http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif took me a month to get the nerve to cut my boat for the comfortroll. good luck to ya
Well, I havent posted here in a while so I figured I may as well give an update.
Shortly after my last post in mid July, I got all the plywood up and exposed the stringers and knee braces...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0016Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0018Medium.jpg
The two stringers up the middle are absolutley just crap.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0019Medium.jpg
Once I got to this point, things got on hold a bit. The following week I rented a new shop big enough to handle the boat repair and my other stuff. On the very same day, my brother passed away unexpectedly. Between work, moving, and my brothers passing, I hadnt had a chance to touch the boat until just before last weekend.
Well, over Laborday weekend I went over to the shop for a few hours Thursday, Friday and Sunday. I took saturday off and hung out with some friends. By Sunday night I had the knee braces removed, a pattern made for the center two stringers, the two center stringers removed, and the transom removed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Custom.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Custom.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Custom.jpg
I also manage to make a template for the new transom and cut that out.. The new transom is made out of 2 layers of 3/4" marine fir from 84 lumber. If I were to buy material again, I would make it out of Meranti 6566.. This Fir is heeeavy.
Test fitting of the new transom.. Note, you do NOT want the new material, be it the transom or the stringers, to contact the glass at the edge. You WANT a gap. The gap will later be filled with epoxy putty(epoxy resin mixed with wood flour to thicken).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0015Custom.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0011Custom.jpg
The new transom was removed again, and the surface was prepped with 16 grit on a grinder for the installation.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0016Custom.jpg
The next day(labor day) I head over for a few hours real quick to laminate the transom. First I fitted the boards to the boat, and marked all the holes with a sharpie. I then removed the transom board and clamped them together on a pair of saw horses.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...3/P9030001.jpg
From there, I put holes in the new transom WAY OVERSIZE. Basically to do the holes i had a 1 1/4" hole saw and a 2" hole saw. The 1 1/4" hole saw was used for the motor mount bolts(1/2"), tie down hooks(1/2"), and splashwell drains(1" or so). The 2" saw was used for the livewell drains. Why the huge holes you ask? One of the biggest reason for transom rot is the holes which are drilled in them that allow water to soak into the wood. I made these holes severely oversized, and in the next step I filled those holes with epoxy glue(epoxy resin thickened with wood flour, not the 5 minute junk from Home Depot). The actual holes for the bolts and fittings will instead be drilled in the epoxy, so the wood is never exposed again....
So the next step was to put some plastic down on the floor and coat both sides and edges with epoxy resin and let it soak in a bit.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...3/P9030002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...3/P9030003.jpg
Some epoxy glue was mixed up and spread across one of the transom boards, then the other was laid on it with a pair of batteries to provide some weight. You dont want to put so much pressure on the boards that all the glue is squeezed out! You actually do want a small gap of glue between the boards.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...3/P9030004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...3/P9040007.jpg
The next few days I had some other things to take care of, an apparantly I didnt make it back to the shop until Thursday evening. Again, I worked on it a few hours and wanted to get the transom bedded(glue the new boards to the boat). Started clamping the new transom in place then drilling it in 4 places for some 1/4" bolts. I drilled the lower motor mount bolts and one hole on each tie down.
I then removed the transom from the boat and laid it flat. I mixed up some epoxy glue and spread it across the side of the transom that was to contact the boat with a notched spreader. I then(quickly) set the new transom in place and ligtly tightened the screws and also put friction clamps across the top. You can see how SOME glue has seeped down below the new transom. Considering there was almost two quarts of glue mixed and only a few ounces has run out I would say I applied just the right amount of pressure between the fiberglass and new transom.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060002.jpg
The evening was still young so I began mixing up some epoxy putty(thicker than glue) to make the fillets which will fill the gaps at the edge of the transom, and provide a smooth radiused transition between the transom and the sides of the boat. I used about a pound and a half of woodflour to this point. I packed the gap with the putty, then worked a radius profile using a mixing stick that has about a 3/8" radius. I also made alot of use of a bondo spreader. One bit of advice, don't worry about trying to make the exact contour while the material is totally wet. As it begins to set up it will thicken quite a bit and hold its shape better. While its still wet you just want to keep it from running to the bottom.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/P9060010.jpg
On Friday evening I head over and removed the bolts. It is already fairly solid now! I then sanded the surface of the transom in preperation for the application of glass as well as sanded up the sides and bottom of the boat 12". Once I had the area prepped, I took out my transom template from before and added some to it for the area on the bottom edge that extends way below the transom. From there, I layed out the pattern for 4 layers of glass. To do this I laid the glass out, then put the template on it and transferred the profile to the glass using a sharpie marker. From there, I added 2.5" to that to end up with a profile that was 2.5" larger than the transom on the bottom and sides. The next layer was an additional 4", the third layer was an additional 8", and the final layer was an additional 12".
The cloth I used was DB1700, 17oz 45/45 biax cloth. I cannot say enough GOOD things about this stuff. It is SOOOO much better to work with than the junk they sell at BoatersWorld or West Marine or your local autobody supplier. You owe it to yourself to get you some of this cloth.
Well, after like a gallon and a half of epoxy, I finally had all four layers of glass done on the transom. I did it all by myself, and worked it on wet on wet. A better job definately could have been had with a helper, but I was too impatient to wait until the next day. It didnt come out bad, but I did end up with too much resin as can be seen in some of the photos on the horizontal surfaces. Because the surface is so large, it would take about a quart of epoxy just to coat the surface. Then you have to place the glass on it and try to get the glass to start soaking up the epoxy, but since a quart is about the limit of what you want to mix at one time(or the amount of heat generated as it sits goes up so much that it kicks off ALOT sooner), then you gotta run over to the bench while the epoxy is already beginning to set on your only modeerately wetted out glass. By the time you get back you gotta work really fast to try to get the top side of the cloth wetted, all the while not just putting on tons of resin. Another thing that would have helped is if I had a resin roller. The resin roller along with a peice of plastic can be used to "squish" excess resin out of the glass layup which can then be sopped up from the bottom.
Anyhow, heres how the transom ended up looking the next day.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0003Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Medium.jpg
Well, thats all for now..
Im going to spend the next few days doing an engine swap on one of my cars, which should free up some floor space. That space is going to be needed to laminate the new stringers. Getting 11 foot stringers from 8 feet of plywood and doing it right is a bit of work.
Modified by boostedone at 9:08 AM 10/29/2007
Where did you get your materials like your epoxy and you matting and so on. I'm getting ready to to the same thing to my hydrasports and was needing some help. By the way this looks good. I will probably be asking alot of questions. I'm putting it off because it seems kinda like a scary job. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/USA1.gif
hydra,
you definately want to bookmark two addresses... First this one:
http://forums.bateau2.com/index.php
and go to the "repair techniques" forum.
Those guys are about doing it right, which is really not much more work than doing it halfassed or wrong.
And this is where to get your supplies.
http://boatbuildercentral.com/
Those guys run the forum. You can usually find the materials for 5%-10% less by searching all over the internet, but the way I look at it their input has probably saved me atleast 50%, if not 100% from doing it wrong so I dont mind paying a few extra dollars to support them since they actually take the time to tell people how to do it instead of just filling orders.
Scott, that is an impressive adventure you are on. If you can pull that repair off with great results, I think you will have "boat repair" wrapped up. You have a lot of work there and I commend you for your willingness and enthusiasm to tackle such a project. The floor and stringer replacement on my boat was childs play, compared to what you have gotten into.
Here's to ya!!... http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif
Scott, you are doing a GREAT job! http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif
Thanks Larry... I might not be following in your footsteps, but without your project I wouldnt have known where to begin.
http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif
If Skeeter would have shown the same level of skill and workmanship as you have, they would have saved you a pile of work. You will have a lot of satifaction the first time you take your NEW boat out!
I am curious....Knowing what you know now would you have began the restoration in the first place?
Yes, because all manufacturers use the same half@$$ procedures.
They all already look like this, or will sooner or later... No matter how pretty they look on the outside. Its not just Skeeter.
If I had 45 grand to spend on my fishing hobby to buy a new boat then get rid of it in a few years and take a 10,000 hit and buy a new one then take another 10,000 hit a few years later, then maybe I would say its not worth it to fix this or worry about rot... But goin fishin isnt that high on the priority to spend that kind of money.
I hear ya
Great work! Glad you mentioned using bolts through existing holes.... I've been wondering how I was going to get some even pressure across mine. Your tip on the oversized, epoxied holes is great. Thanks for the update, and sorry for the loss of your brother. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/USA1.gif
Well Ritchie, I wish I could take credit for the idea but I cant. I got the idea over there on the bataeu forum. I dont think everyone does it, but enough do to be familiar with the process. Its one of those things that takes a few seconds longer that goes a long way.
hey Boost, I fished a tourney this weekend with a guy that has a skeeter, It says "hand laid hull" on the back, I thought you would get a kick outta that. you are doin a sho nuff jam up job keep up the good work, and keep us posted http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif
I'm absolutely astounded to see the level of damage done on that hull due to water intrusion. Just astounded.
Keep up the good work. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif
Haha, yeah Fluken.. My hull was hand laid too.... By an idiot. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/roll.gif
I was astounded to see the damage as well. But oh well, what can you do. Im not plunking down 40K on a new one, and Im sure not going to make the mistake of putting 10-15K down on a used one thats going to look like this shortly anyhow. But if your boat is 10 years old or more, if you feel like its sound, do yourself a favor and don't look to verify. You might not like what you see.
In other news, hopefully I will get back on the boat this week. I had my car in the shop(which is what the shop was really for anyhow) taking up space so I didnt have room to fabricate the new stringers. Now that its running again, I should be able to make some progress on them.
Keep the updates and pictures coming. I helped a buddy take his bowrider down to the hull and built it back up. Not an easy job but when done, it will be stronger than when it left the factory. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif
Scott,
Welcome to our world! Tearing a boat apart and rebuild it can be very frustrating. Especially once you find you have nothing but rotten wood inside.
Most boat companies could have made their boats so much better with just a little more effort.
Take careful measurements on the height of the stringers as well as the height of the floor when you go to rebuild them. If you build either too high, the topcap will not sit back down properly.
Good luck!
Thanks Mike. Since the edge of the hull is a rough cut when it came out of the mold, simply putting a straight edge across and measuring down would give lousy accuracy. Thats why I decideded to leave the outer two stringers in place while I replace the two inner stringers. I will lay a straight edge across the tops of the outer stringers to set the height of the new inners, and once I have those glued in place and filleted in, I will cut out the outer stringers and use the new inners to set the height of the outers. it would be nice to just chop everything out and go to town with fresh material, but this seemed like the most accruate way of maintaining sole heights.
Anyhow I guess its time for an update. I hadnt touched the boat since the first week of September until last Sunday, Oct 7th. That day I started grinding out the old "fillets" for the stringers.... I say it in parenthesis because its hard to call some cloth slopped into a corner with no fillers other than a mountain of liquid resin blobbed on so it has a giant air pocket a fillet.
Anyhow, since the method of building the inner layer was to slop on a ton of resin and some glass, it took alot of grinding to get it flat, and in the process I broke into the core at times. I found some areas of the core that were mildewed, and some other areas that were moist... http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/ohwell.gif
So, from there I ended up chopping out the core Thursday...I sliced and diced the inner glass skin with a cutoff wheel into 5" sqaures, then drove the core out with an air hammer. Hull consisted of a 1/4 layer of the usual sh*tty worksmanship Skeeter fiberglass outer skin, 3/8" balsa core, and a 3/32-1/8" inner skin.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...2/PA110042.jpg
After grinding out the halfassed laminations, and finding myself left with about an 1/8" of the outer skin, I decided to only grind the back 6 feet of the hull since it is flimsy as a wet lasagna noodle. I wanted to get some material on this area before grinding out any more. Assuming there is 1/8" material left of the original glass, I am going to replace the cored area with 10 layers of 1700. My transom is 4 layers of 1700 and measures out at 3/16" thickness, so I figure 10 layers ought to get me 1/2" for a total of 5/8.....Should be much more solid than what was there, especially considering the lousy layup. GO SKEETER..
After grinding on Saturday:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0003Medium.jpg
I only had about 6.5 yards of 1700 biax cloth on hand Sunday, so I cut the cloth into 1 yard lengths, giving me 6 peices 3'x50". When laying the glass, from the center of the vee it goes up 18" meaning I glassed the last 50" of the hull. I am going to continue doing the 6 layer buildups, the next one will be 50" and then the last one will be like 25"...then I will do the remaining 4 layers starting at the front and working my way to the back so that the joints in the layup are staggered.
Im not removing the core between the outer stringers and the chine. Once I have the new inner stringers in, I will cut out the outer stringers and some of the core under the outer stringers and tie it all toghether.
So yesterday I first made a work table IN the boat so I could wet out the glass on the table then apply it, rather than slopping it all on leading to a layup with 50% more resin than it should....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Medium.jpg
Result:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0006Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0007Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0009Medium.jpg
Welp, I got more progress done!
I got over to the shop Thursday night(I think) and prepped the front half of the core area. The core only went to the stiffener for the bow Vee, but I decided to notch the layup around it and continue it past that portion about 10" or so. I figured if I was to have recored it, I would have been tabbing the core in about that far anyhow.
After I did that, I laid out some plywood on the floor so I could precut the 1700 biax. I made 6 sheets that were 7' long, 36" wide, and 4 layers that were 12 feet long, 3' wide. In addition to my 6 layers already in the boat, this will give a total 10 layers over the area laid up so far.
One tip I got from Joel while down at E-boat picking up my stuff... For cutting the glass in large sheets, dont bother with scissors. What I did is a slight variation of what they told me. But what I did was to roll out the cloth on plywood laying on the floor, then mark it for cut lines. From there, I laid a 1x4(more dimensionally stable than 2x4's) along the cut line and sliced it with a new utility knife while holding pressure on the 1x4 to keep the cloth from moving. It worked great.
From there, Joel suggested rolling the cut cloth back up on extra tubes like the glass comes in. He was going to give me some, but I forgot. No big deal, I have a mountain of 3"dia x 30" long exhaust pipes to use.
I went back over to the shop Friday evening and got to work. I first prepped all the area.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg
From there I laid 6 layers of 1700 in the front portion....I ground the edge of the first layup to a slight taper, but still ended up overlapping the joint. There is about a 5/16" rise where the overlap is, but I will just notch the stringers rather than grind it down. I figure thats the strongest way.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0006Medium.jpg
A few hours later, I had all that down and moved on to the 4 layers that will cover everything, for a total of 10 layers of 1700...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0007Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0008Medium.jpg
Off to go out for dinner, but later on I plan to go over and make the peice that goes in the lower transom where the drain and livewell pumps mount.. Id like to get it cut out, encased in resin, and maybe glued in so tomorrow I can do fillets and glass it in.
wowowo thats an impressive amount of work!!! Good luck!
geez, dude. no way i could do that. looks great. cant wait to see it on the water. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChrisH »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">geez, dude. no way i could do that. looks great. cant wait to see it on the water. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif </TD></TR></TABLE>
Haha... That makes two of us.. And I didnt think I coulda done this at the start either, but if you got the determination.....
Well, since the last photos I did get some stuff done...
I need to replace that board that goes in the portion below the transom. Not sure what that area is called? Anyone know? I started out with a cardboard template, and cut a new peice out of 3/4" fir left over from the transom replacement.. The original was only 1/2", so this is overkill but its all I have other than 3/8". Another way this is overkill is because the original one only went between the two middle stringers and outside of the inner stringers was just globbed up fiberglass. Im not extending all the way to the outerstringers, but should still be much stronger than the original design..
Anyhow, after cut out the peice, I stuck it in and transferred all the holes for the livewell pumps and drains as well as the main drain and like my transom holes cut them out with a holesaw way oversize to be filled with epoxy putty.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg.
That was done the other night, as well as coating the peice and filling the holes. I guess I forgot to take pics of it but tonight I made up some wood glue and stuck it in place.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Medium.jpg
GO SKEETER AGAIN!! Its going to be fun making the fillets for this.. the horizonal portion goes up and down in elvation like crazy, and the transition to vertical was even worse. The vertical portion of the skin was thin as to be expected since it was stiffened with wood, but the horizontal part was just a sloppy build up of lots of chopped glass and resin. With that, attemps to get a nice smooth contour resulted in hitting the gelcoat a few times on the radius so I backed off and just decided to roughen it up and fill it with putty...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0006Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0007Medium.jpg
Tomorrow I will do the fillets and lay 4 layers of 1700..(Edit) ended up just doing 3 layers of 1700 on Saturday)...
Since I was already wearing a tyvek suit from prepping the surface for that lower transom board, I decided to move on to the bow stem and get that chopped out.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0003Medium.jpg
The mounting area for the bow eye was rediculous. The holes were wallered out so instead of being a 1/2" diameter they were like 1/2" x 1" ovals and filled with silicone. I cant tell if it was made that way or a halfassed repair. Getting to the nuts to remove the eye to fill with silicone is normally a massive pain in the butt, so Im not sure, maybe it was just a silly design. Once I cut the glass cap off, the wood under it just fell out in about 10 peices.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Medium.jpg
Here is the progress as of Friday night/Saturday morning...
Got the lower transom area filleted in and ready for glass...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Medium.jpg
Then for some reason I started concentrating on the bow stem. I know I wanted to have this done before I started doing the stringers, as its one less thing to trip over.
So Thursday evening I laid 3 layers of 12oz biax tape over each one of the stiffeners in the hull. Damn, that took forever. I also laid down 10 layers of 6" biax tape in the bow eye area. I staggered the layers, the first one being say 4" on one side of the vee, the other 6" on the other side and the next layer was alternated the opposite way. So each edge is about 5 layers thick with 10 layers in the middle.
Then I went over and used the old bow stem to make a cardboard template which fit reasonably well. I extended the new bow stem to come in contact with the bow eye pad, and tapered the ends. Why Im not so sure. I was thinking of capping the bow stem and figured it may make it easier to do so, I dont know.
So fast forward a few hours and I have a 3/4" thick fir, about 5" tall bow stem, and I pre cut 4 peices of 12oz biax tape to be prefitted and rolled them up. A little while later its bedded in the hull using epoxy putty. I did a quick job of making the fillets...
At this point I was waiting for the putty to harden up some so I could clean up the fillets then I remembered a post where Joel suggested laying the cloth on a stringer while the fillets were still workable. Result? It worked GREAT!! There was no trying to make the absolutely perfect fillet with no residue on the adjacent surfaces, when the tape was put on and wetted out it knocked the high stuff down and the glass went right into the radius. It saved a ton of time too, since I didnt have to wait for the fillet to harden, then knock down the high spots, then resand since all the epoxy would be hard...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0007Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0003Medium.jpg
You can see some airbubbles in the stiffeners, but they were not the smoothest things in the world. The factory layup on them was crap, and making them smooth would mean totally removing. I keep hearing when it comes to stiffeners the strength is in the shape, not the filler so I figured 3 layers of 12oz tape in the proper shape would serve the purpose.
Heres the bow eye pad... Once the bow stem is hardened up, I am going to cut a peice of 3/4" fir about 5" wide, 10" long or so, and put a slot in it so it extends around the bow eye a bit. I will use epoxy putty under the wood to fill the void, and then tape it in using 12oz tape...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Medium.jpg
Will post more pics tomorrow. On Saturday I glassed in the lower portion of the transom, and last night I finalized my stringer template, made a support to hold them in place will glassing them in, cut out the peices and have them laminating. Tonight I would like to get the new center stringers bedded in and taped out.
Guess this isnt as interesting as discussions about Bass Boat Saver or carpet, but maybe someone will get some benefit out of these pics..
Ok heres some pics from Sunday and Monday.
I started out by doing a final run at my stringer template.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Medium.jpg
Transferred those dimensions to some 3/8 Meranti and prepared for the laminations. Unfortunately I didnt get any pics of the lamination. I thought I did, I guess I was mistaken...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0003Medium.jpg
Tonight I final fitted and trimmed the laminated stringers to fit the hull...Some places the gap is huge, some places its just right(about 1/4")... I wanted to bed and tape both stringers, but I guess I will have to settle for one :cry:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0006Medium.jpg
The transom area came out like dog poop. There was a clamp there I was trying to work around. I will end up reworking this area later....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0008Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0009Medium.jpg
Down to about 2.5 gallons of epoxy left.... Looks like another order.. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/doh.gif
Dang, that's a lot of work. Looks good though! Hope you are still having fun and enjoying the process. That's what it is all about. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedone »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Guess this isnt as interesting as discussions about Bass Boat Saver or carpet, but maybe someone will get some benefit out of these pics..
</TD></TR></TABLE> i was just thinking when i opened this thread if BassBoat Saver would have done your boat any good.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stein »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dang, that's a lot of work. Looks good though! Hope you are still having fun and enjoying the process. That's what it is all about. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif </TD></TR></TABLE>
heh, not at all.. I hate it.... this isnt a 'fun project' for me.. its the means to an end, haha. And quite a learning experience.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChrisH »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> i was just thinking when i opened this thread if BassBoat Saver would have done your boat any good. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Unless it has a way to penetrate the glass, and then the wood, I doubt it..
BBS may have made it look like a prettier pile of crap, but it would still be rotten under all that shine... I I have a feeling that if most bass boat owners of rigs that are older than 10 or 15 years looked, no matter how perty it looks outside, the actual structure of it on the inside is getting pretty ugly.
yeah, i had an 81 ProCraft before I got my Skeeter. The transom was rotting out and wasnt going to last much longer. luckily, somebody rear ended me while pulling it and it was totaled
Scot, you are doing a HELL of a job on that Skeeter. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif You are going to need a 250HP to make it go now. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif
Modified by Skeet'r89 at 8:12 PM 10/30/2007
Great work http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif Nothing boring about all this! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChrisH »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah, i had an 81 ProCraft before I got my Skeeter. The transom was rotting out and wasnt going to last much longer. luckily, somebody rear ended me while pulling it and it was totaled</TD></TR></TABLE>
I cant be so lucky.. hahaha...Unless they were in a truck I imagine a skeg didnt do their car any good either?
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SkeetÂr89 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Scot, you are doing a HELL of a job on that Skeeter. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif You are going to need a 250HP to make it go now. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif
</TD></TR></TABLE>
Key word being 'hell' there Larry. Im about sick of this crap.. LOL... Oh and the $$... With my last order Im now up to almost a grand in resin alone! Oh well, when you replace every bit of wood in the peice of crap I guess you have to expect it..
250? Think that will be enough? I might grind off the sponsons and make the rear of the transom flat and just put a trio of 200s on the back like the offshore boats.
Well i finally got the other stringer partly glassed in tonight. The fillets at the rear on the transom kicked off and hardened before I could get the cloth on there, so they will need to be ground to a fillet and then glassed up..
Gonna do that, then chop out and replace my outer stringers and fix the core there, then things should be smooth sailing after that...
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedone »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Guess this isnt as interesting as discussions about Bass Boat Saver or carpet, but maybe someone will get some benefit out of these pics..</TD></TR></TABLE>
LOL....i was just gonna ask what kinda carpet you were putting in there and if you were gonna be using the 3m buffing compound on that skeeter.....LMAO
Good work bro!
This is really impressive. Great job!!! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/bows.gif
When you laminate do you use epoxy and thin out with mek so it soaks into the wood fiber? I have done that on several boats using regular hardwood plywood and it soakes the thing to the core. I have had no rot even accidentally leaving the plug in the boat with a hole in my tarp and it filled with rainwater. I even had a tree growing in the carpet but the roots could not penatrate the floor which was coated several times with epoxy thinned out with MEK. If you are looking for cheap foam there is a guy selling closed cell pour foam on ebay he also sells resin and epoxy cheap, the foam will meet Coast Guard requirements and that closed cell stuff is so much better than that old crap they put in those boats. His name on ebay is AeroMarineProducts. Keep up the good work, It sucks but somebodys gotta do it.
No, I dont thin out the resin at all.. From what I read its either unnecessary or not even recommended. Basically the epoxy being so much better than polyester, just by virtue of being epoxy I been reading that its adeqate. This is from guys who are basically making their entire boats out of wood with a thin layer of glass on it to prevent abraision.
Thanks for the tips on the ebay guy, but I dunno. Im just going to keep buyin the stuff from the guys at E-Boat, as their service and advice has been invaluable. I might pay a little more than I would from the lowest price guys on the net, but its still a fraction of the price of West Marine or Boaters World, and they saved me hundreds to thousands on doing it wrong...
Well, heres the latest progress...
Two center stringers are finally glassed in. I have to clean up where the glass bubbled when it was wrapped over the top of the stringer. Im probably going to cap the whole knee brace section of it anyhow. When I do that I am considering putting a bead of putty along the top of the stringer and just as it sets up get on it and lay the cloth for the cap. That way its firm enough to keep its shape, yet pliable enough to where the cloth and the putty work together to get a nice form...
And I must say E-BOAT ROCKS! I put an order in for a bunch of different line items at 3:45pm, and they still got it shipped that day!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0006Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0001Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0003Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0007Medium.jpg
You can see where your "practice" is making your glassing more "perfect" Looks good !!!!
went over for the shop for just a few hours tonight.. wanted to get the rest of the stringers out.
This was a bitch. These two things were so close togetther I couldnt get the cutoff wheel between them to cut out the fillet. Sliced it all the way through from one side and thankfully didnt burn up my grinder.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0002Medium.jpg
And a little while later, sucess. Stringers are out.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0004Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0005Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0006Medium.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0007Medium.jpg
May go over to the shop and grind down the fillets tomorrow, and prepare to finish up the core work.. Then after that lay the last of the core glass in and get ready to make the new outer stringers. After that its frames, foam and soles, and unbeleivably will be almost done with the big work!