1965 Duratech Comanche

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ASub

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Hello All and Happy Thanksgiving - tomorrow. Progress ground down to a stop this week because a cold bug hit my household, started with my wife then hit me. Finger crossed, it skips the two year old. Down time gave me some time to read page 1 to 84 of the Chief resto Watermann. Insane, great work. Onto chemicalwire, oldhaven and others. Starcraft Chiefs seem to be what I can most easily identify with when talking to people about what the Camanche is.

Anyways, I still have to remove the top and transom, hopefully over the holiday weekend I can get started.

Wanted to ask some opinions on my next thought. I found a guy local to my area that does a water/glass blasting that seemed like a viable option for stripping the old paint down to bare AL. Please check out his website www.330dustlessblasting.com and let me know your thoughts. He is going to stop over to the shop next week and take a look at the boat and let me know what the costs are. Viable option?

My mom stumbled on these old postcards on ebay of the Camanche. I thought they were awesome. They are going into the binder for sure. I am going to scan the back and put it on here too. It gives a little blurb about the boat. Neat stuff. Love the colors, I will be doing this scheme for sure.



 

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ASub

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Here's the back of the postcard.



Need to start looking for the hat and sweet shorts the guy is wearing in the photos...
 

Watermann

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Super cool look to these old cruisers but I may be a bit biased :lol:

Thanks for taking the time to look over my Chief.
 

ASub

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Hello All -

I am in the process of tear down and have a question for the group.

I took the handles off the stern of the boat with some difficulty. The rivets were fine - then I came to the three screws holding them on. Stripped, could not be drilled out - mega pain. I finally pried them off, which I didn't want to do but it worked and the aluminum of the hull held up ok. I had to hammer it back into place.

Here are some photos -

Rivet toward the top.


Three rusted out screws on the bottom.


Finally off


Now I have access to the rub rails, but they are held on with the same rusted out screws that will not budge. You can see in the photo where I removed the rubber to expose the fasteners for the rub rails (three dark spots).

Here is the inside of the gunwale where you can see the rusted screws. First one in the photo is a rivet - I know.


My question is - IS there a trick to removing the rusted fasteners? I tried an easy-out, drilling - nothing. Should I just pry them out?

Thanks in advance!

Adam
 

kcassells

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IDN? I would start with good carbide bits, small to large to just gone. Lets see how others would approach this.
KC
 

sphelps

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Looks like the screws just go through the rail into the hull not the cap ... I think .... Maybe a drimmel tool with a small grinding bit to grind the heads off ... Then once the cap is off you could get to the screws with some pliers and twist them out from the inside ... idk
Just throwing it out there ...
 

gsxrdan

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ive trashed a few alloy bits in the past trying, best way i found is grinding the head off with those pointed stones (they go in a die grinder or drill) then once the gunwale is off, work on the shank with vice grips... god luck!
 

Watermann

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Old rusted fasteners, yeah I had tons of them too on my Chief. They fought me tooth and nail. I tried using PB, time and removal but ended up using a grinder then punch on some, vice grips and brute force snapping.to get rid of the rusty stuff.
 

kcassells

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dang I forgot about the cut the head off technique like said above. Head off....hammer/punch tool out..pop...gone.
 

ASub

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Thank you all for the input. I ordered some pointed grinding tips for the die grinder. I will update with some photos when I get that going.
 

64osby

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The rusted hoop is an old ski bar. The modern version would be a ski pylon.

Are the rusted screws actually old stainless screws? Will they stick to a magnet? If the are SS then grinding is the best bet. Drilling SS is a waste of good drill bits.

Great find on the postcards.

Really nice project. Tagging along.
 

ASub

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The holidays and busy work schedule have kept me from working on the Comanche very much lately. I have been researching aluminum boat repair shops in my area with little to no success. Just about everyone I talk to wants to weld the pin holes and the crack in the bow. The comments on iBoats have persuaded me that a riveted patch would be the better route. I am not sold that I will be able to do the fix on my own and have quality/safe results. Does anyone here know of a shop in the Great Lakes area that would be able to do the riveted repairs? Cleveland area is preferred, but I can travel.

Another update - had a windy night last week and the top windshield blew off. Still have all the hardware and some scratches to buff out. Add that to the list I suppose.
 

DeepCMark58A

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Cool old tin you have there, being big makes it awesome. I hope to work my way up to a restoration on a boat like that.
 

Watermann

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Ah don't despair, none of us had experience in working with these old tin boats. We're here to help, everything you describe has been repaired here and more.
 

ASub

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Wondering if the West Systems G/flex 650 would be a good option for my pin holes in the hull? Has anyone used this product with success? Thanks for looking. Link to the PDF is above.
 

ASub

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Watermann - One step at a time. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that. Thank you for the encouragement.
 

Watermann

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Coat-it, Gluvit and the West 650 are 2 pt epoxy for the same type of interior waterproofing of seams and rivets.

My advice is to fill the pinholes with either Marine Tex or JB Weld and then use one of the above mentioned epoxies on the inside. A one 2 punch with the epoxy and MT or JB too which is actually stronger than the AL and you can sand it smooth on the outside.
 
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