1993 Chaparral Gemini 190: Chronicles of a New Boat Owner (Deck Rebuild) [SPLASHED June 2018]

[bpounds1991]

I see. I?m planning on gluing bases for the seat mounts; essentially as little screwing into the deck as humanly possible. I?d really like to find that AraucoPly, but I doubt I?ll be driving 40 minutes just to take a look at. We?ll see, Sunday we have to head 2 hours away to my wife?s side of the family for Christmas so I may see if we can make a detour. I?ve already called a local lumbar yard that has AC ply, the 1/2? is 33$ and 3/4? is 38-40$ I believe. Saving 10$/piece could make quite the difference.

 

[bpounds1991]

I've decided to take the first break of the morning after getting roughly 16 feet of foam out on the outside of the left stringer. I'm still trying to figure out how this boat even functions structurally. No bulkheads, 2 stringers; what I believe is instead of the bulkheads they fiberglassed in a 1x1" piece of plywood at the ends of the fuel area running to the hull and called it a day. I'll have plenty of pictures up after I finish, as I plan on knocking out ALL the foam today.

 

[oldrem]

Could be structural foam (4lb or better)? That along with the decking may have provided sufficient structural integrity.

 

[bpounds1991]

I figured the foam being more structural, I think I was already planning on getting the 4lb at the very least. As far as the "bulkheads" are concerned, I may just do three (one at the very front, one forward/behind the gas tank). As much work as it's going to take to make sure everything lines up with the top cap, I'm a little bit relieved that it's not as much wood and other materials as I've seen on some of the rebuilds. My wallet just stopped frowning lol.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

The foam was definitely more structural on my Chap than for flotation. She only had two cross members, (bulkheads), to seal off the bilge cavity, (aft), and the ski locker, (forward). I decided to move my fuel tank forward 20" so her rear end wasn't as heavy getting on plane. Doing this, I was able to add another cross member. My point is that you can add a cross member in there, however, the foam is a pretty darn good adhesive to tie everything together structurally. It WILL prevent the hull from twisting as a structural member.

If you look at my rebuild, that Chap only had two stringers, and two cross members and is 20.5' long. That's not a lot of structure compared to several of the restorations I've seen on this forum.

 

[bpounds1991]

I'll go check it out shortly, taking another break after I finished the left side of foam. You're right about the foam being adhesive, it's a huge PITA. What I ended up doing was leaving about 2" of foam under the outside of the deck just to make sure it stays the same height. I'm uploading a video now, good news is it's all right side up this time lol.

 

[bpounds1991]

No Title

99% of the foam is out, man that is not a pleasant job. The foam in the compartment that is completely filled with water appeared to be much softer than the outside-the-stringer foam. All in all it wasn't the worst job in the world though, having my wife help with some of the clean up probably saved about another hour at least. Video to come later.

 

[chevymaher]

Wow you sure know how to have fun. I got some pics of black water in the foam from when I was having more fun than any human should be allowed.

 

[oldrem]

I feel for you. I pulled 270 lbs of wet foam out of the Ouachita and know I'm going to be doing the same with the Sylvan next Spring. Definitely not a fun job

 

[bpounds1991]

[No message]

 

[bpounds1991]

Not a whole lot to update since the weekend. The boat is foamless and my next order of business is taking/marking measurements Wednesday afternoon so I can begin removing the stringers. My goal is to try and save as much as possible up next the bow, but as you can see in the pictures that might be easier said than done.

In other news, I called around 10 lumber yards or so to find out about plywood costs. Everyone sells an AC and CDX but not ?ACX?. One place said under the description it says Radiata Pine ACX, so I?m assuming essentially all the lumber yards around here carry the ACX (4 places said it was AraucoPly AC). Prices for 1/2? ranged from 25-40$, and the cheapest is a lumber yard 5 miles away. Nice to catch at least one small break with this boat lol.

 

[bpounds1991]

Not a whole lot to update since the weekend. The boat is foamless and my next order of business is taking/marking measurements Wednesday afternoon so I can begin removing the stringers. My goal is to try and save as much as possible up next the bow, but as you can see in the pictures that might be easier said than done.

In other news, I called around 10 lumber yards or so to find out about plywood costs. Everyone sells an AC and CDX but not “ACX”. One place said under the description it says Radiata Pine ACX, so I’m assuming essentially all the lumber yards around here carry the ACX (4 places said it was AraucoPly AC). Prices for 1/2” ranged from 25-40$, and the cheapest is a lumber yard 5 miles away. Nice to catch at least one small break with this boat lol.

I thought I posted this last night but apparently there was an error.

 

[bpounds1991]

Weather lately has been god awful. We had 2 days of rain then 2 days off and Christmas through the 27th is supposed to be another monsoon. Unfortunately not a whole lot that allows me to do in the mean time, I guess unless you’re my wife then that means I’m not spending money lol. We’re heading out of town until the 26th and I’ve got a basketball tournament to work the 27th-29th. Once that’s done I’ll be getting my plethora of measurements and then going to town on the transom and stringers, need to get those out and get to GRINDING. Just got through about 25 pages of your thread Baylinerchuck and we all know how much you love grinding LOL. Anyways, I plan on using your thread as somewhat of a guide since the layout is almost exact as mine, minus the I/O. Getting the finances back in order after the Christmas gift spending spree that raises my blood pressure 40 points, and then getting after this restoration. Last thing, does anyone know any GA/SC Resin suppliers? I don’t mind making a 1-2 hour trip to save the $$ on Hazard costs, but I’ve had no luck finding any.

 

[bpounds1991]

I’m also going to see if I can recruit my wife to do some of the filming while I work on the boat. She gets a kick out of me being awkward so it should be a field day for her lol.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

You’ll need to buy from a supplier who sells a lot to ensure your resin is fresh. Resin has a shelf life of around 3 months. Most folks here use US Composites out of FL. I used fiberglass site out of MD. They we’re semi local to me. Both places you can order on-line.

 

[bpounds1991]

I was hoping I'd be able to find a supplier within an hour and half or so of me in order to avoid the hazard fees, looks like that won't be the case sadly lol. Happy New Year everyone! Celebrated Christmas, my birthday, and am now back and ready to get working on the boat. I recruited some of my friends to help take some measurements yesterday, 15 measurements down the length of the hull including the transom area and deck thickness. Tomorrow I'll be starting on both stringer and transom removal, as well as starting to grind on the RIDICULOUS amount of carpet glue I have on this boat. The entire bottom cap was covered in carpet, so I'm sure that'll be a fun endeavor.

 

[bpounds1991]

Spent a couple hours grinding and removing stringers today. I'm not gonna lie, these 30 degree days are for the birds, even with the Tyvek suit I was freezing but I think that actually works in the favor of the massive amount of carpet glue that needs to be removed. The 36 grit flap wheel worked great, no glue gummed it up but man the amount of glue is no joke. Here's a few pictures of the progress today, as well as a few of how much glue is on this thing. Also removed the gel coat on the transom and found some moisture/rot in there; can be seen in one of the pictures.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Boy does that all look very familiar!!

Trust me, it really is best to grind when its cold out. I actually picked some days that it was pretty windy to help get rid of some of the dust in the boat.

Once I thought I was done with all the grinding, (and washed the boat out), I discovered that all the chines in my Chap had little strips of wood on them. As you might guess, all those teeny wood strips were rotten. I couldn't leave them in there, so back to the grinder.

Just giving you a little heads up, I'm guessing yours is similar. Nice work thus far.....

 

[bpounds1991]

I kept thinking about your post as I was grinding away today LOL. It was annoying but went a little quicker than I expected, I was just worried about taking off too much and slowed down to get some pictures on here before I continued. I'd like to have the whole top half of the boat done by the end of tomorrow, and hopefully attempting to pull the gas tank.My plan is to gel coat most of the inside since it's visible, hopefully it'll look a lot nicer than the 24 year old carpet that was in there lol.

 

[bpounds1991]

Finished up all the grinding this morning and, although some spots weren't completely void of glue, the top is completely finished. I just did my best to make it as smooth and even as possible, without trying to get too deep on the grinding. I noticed some spider webbing around the swim ladder which I hope doesn't lead to any drastic repairs. Here's some pictures.