Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Thanks for the link Ez, i have looked at their products aLOT lately. They do have everything you need and it appears to be at a fair price.

The only thing i dont like about ordering from online is the high rate for shipping the materials due to the hazardous shipping laws etc. If i can get the materials from online at a decent price, then i am all for it. Iv heard horror stories of 200$ shipping and handling fees when shipping 10 gallons of resin, 2 gallons of acetone a pound of talc and 40 yards of glass. Id ont wanna have to pay that kinda fees just to get the product to me.

Ill have to give them a call and see what the cost would be said and done to deliver the stuff i need. If it is resonable, i will most likely go ahead and order it from US Composites and from what i have seen and read, they are a stand up company with good products and services.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

RC

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

cool boats those Allisons eh?
I have a buddy lives on an island in the atlantic (Bermuda), he has around 15 boats, 2 are older Allisons...thats the 1rst time I heard of em....

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Wow those winter moths really flew by for me. I was so busy with working and indoor winter projects that the boat took a shelf seat for a few months.

Well no i am back at the boat work with the coming of good stable warmer weather, I have been able to get back onto the boat project pretty hard this week.

I was able to pick up the wood for my stringers, transom and deck over the winter and allow them all to dry for a couple months. Now that they are dry, i have begun the process of sanding and prepping the wood parts to be wet out with resin and csm. So far iv got the stringers almost done and the cross braces for them also cut. I finished grinding the main frame area of the hull down to the original roving material the factory used. On my boat, the center of the hull was done in a coremat material and then a couple layers of heavy csm was used to lock the stringers in. All the core mat had to be grinded out! What a pain in the ***.

So now that the hulls frame area has been prepped i can begin the task of repairing all the small holes and areas of bad glass etc and prepare for a full base layup of csm and 1708.

I am going to fill in all the chines with a resin/short fiber/cabosil mix and make it a completely smooth and filled surface to lay a layer of 1.5 csm down, and then a layer of 1708 biax over it to take the place of the coremat that gave the hull rigidity from the factory.

Im going to be using 3/4" outdoor grade top shelf plywood for my transom. I plan for 2 layers compressed together with a csm, 1708, csm middle and then on the outside a csm,1708 cover. Gonna be tabbing the transom in with csm and 1708 and then doing a full 2 layer layup to lock the transom into the hull skin. AI will also be adding knee boards that will lock into the stringers and deck.

Once i get the base hull layups and transom done, i am going to bed the stringers in PL premium and tab them in with CSM and 1708, followed by a complete 2 layer encasing of csm and 1708.

The stringers are made of a top shelf hardwood that i cannot remember the name of. It is pretty rigid and very strait, so i dont forsee any trouble with it. It isnt outdoor grade wood, but i will be water proofing it VERY well with resin and csm, and i dont plan for it to ever be touched by water. My boat will always be garage kept and the upper deck will be correctly sealed for ever. I aint messin around with rot any more!

The deck will be 3/4" outdoor grade top shelf plywood wetted out with resin and coaterd with csm. I dont plan to put carpet in my boat, so i will be finishing the deck in a no skid paint so i plan a layup of 6oz E cloth to finish the deck out.

After the frame and inner structural areas are finished and have had time to fully cure, the hull will be flipped so that all the nicks and gouges that are in the bottom can be fixed using body fillers, marine tex and fairing compound.

Bottom will be painted, but i havnt settled on a brand or color just yet. That will be after a little more research.

Heres some pics as to where i am now.

More to come as progress goes on this week.


Whats this!!! Big heavy boxes from US Composites?

Ah yes now we can get started! 10 gallons of 435 poly resin, 15 yards 1.5 csm and 15 yards 1708 biax. Also some glassing supplies and cabosil in there.

LOL i got wood.....

Test fitting stringers after trimming...HULL not yet fully ground out.

How the old ones loot during tear down...

Stringers contoured and notched for cross supports. Cross supports will be 2x3.5 sections of outdoor grade lumber seen in next pic.

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Stringers and cross supports test fit and cut to length. Still need to fit them to the outer stringers later.

More test fitting...This shot shows the rough pieces of wood i am going to use for the outer stringers. They still need to be fully worked and wet out with resin as well. This shot also shows the coremat crap that i had to grind out. Its a spongy type material covered with thick resin and csm fibers. Very nasty stuff to grind out. Took FOREVER!!

So thats where i am at now. The core frame area of the hull is fully ground out now and i will be working to finish the bow area and all other areas this week. Glass will start rolling out prolly nest week some time, so stay tuned!

RC

 

[89nissanbassboat]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Nice work so far...my 15.5' Nissan is being redone for the same reason...lucky for me though my stringers were wrapped in glass before the deck was installed...it took me 2+ hours just trying to figure a way to separate the transom from the cap...I will continue to watch your progress...are you doing any other upgrades beside opening up the rear section of your boat?

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Yeah i have a lot planned for it in the next month or so.

I am opening up the rear to install a bench type seating arrangement in the back for more passenger comfort.

Also installing a hydraulic steering system from teleflex, and new thrittle and shifting cables.

all new paint for the bottom and top cap. Havnt decided yet what colors they will be but im leaning toward a red/grey/black theme.

Ill watch your progress as well.

Thanks for the reply!

RC

 

[boatflipper]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Looks like you are coming along very nicely. I can't believe your transom came out in one piece! It must have been completely detached from the outer skin
Great progress! keep it up!

 

[osborn159]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

i like the sounds of opening up the floorplan, i always thought bassboats felt kinda cramped for there size, you are coming along nicely, keep it up!!!

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Hey thanks guys!

Yeah man my boat was so tight for me to sit in i was always cramped and had to stick my left leg out into the damn front passenger leg area to get comfy and even then i was still cramped.

I am 6'3" 245 pounds so this little seating area needed reworked to fit me better.

I am also converting my boat to center helm, but not console, i am still using a helm sized setup just moving it to the middle of the boat about half way up. I will post drawings and plans later when i finish the design. Gonna be using a glass over plywood method and also glass over building foam as well. More to come on that later.

Thanks for the support and replies guys!

RC

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

First off what the heck is wrong with Iboats forums lately? The forum takes forever to load, and , or times out while loading....wonder whats up?


So progress was made today...the hull is 95% grinded out. All that is left are areas i am going to be sanding by hand to clean off old carpet residue and glue etc, and areas that i will be painting.

Next step is to cut and sand the transom, then repair all the damned holes i grinded in my hull lol. The hull was very thin in some areas and the grinder ate through with only gentle pressure applied. I will be fixing these holes by making layered patches of csm, and filling in the chines and any other holes or uneven places with a resil/cabosil/short strand filler mix.

So tomorrow i start the minor skin repairs and prep the hull to take a transom.

Also got both the stringers wet out with 2 coats of resin and ready for ruff and scuff to be coated with csm.

Heres a pic, and finally clean good glass!!

RC

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Looks like you are coming along very nicely. I can't believe your transom came out in one piece! It must have been completely detached from the outer skin
Great progress! keep it up!

Yea me either. It was just layed in there with no glue or anything and then it was vac bagged in with a couple layers of csm. That was it. No roving over it, no 1708...just csm. It was beastly strong tho with just that lol. I can only imagine what its going to be like when i am done OVER building it

The transom came right out, i barely had to pry it away from the skin after i cut the glass down both sides. My boat was built very cheap and bad from the factory. It literally looked like they tossed it together in a back yard with scraps they had laying around there. Its a good boat none the less, but it will be great when i do right what the factory did wrong. It lasted 26 years how they did it, id say itll last 260 the way ill do it lol.

Take care!

RC

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Ok so i got the hull cleaned with acetone and ready to glass...next thing i am wondering is should i lay a full layup of csm down on the roving first, OR being that the 1708 has an 8oz csm already on one side, can i just lay that down as my base layup? It would save glass and resin if i could skip the csm layup and just do the 1708 layup, but will the matt attached to the 1708 stick good to the roving? The hull was made using ply resin, and thats what i am using now, so i dont think it will be a problem. Input and suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

RC

 

[osborn159]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

i cant say what you should do, i was repairing some minor spots on the interior of my hull last friday, scuffed well, cleaned w acetone, wet out area, layed csm down, weted again, placed cloth over csm, rewetted, let cure. was in there doing a little dress up sanding, man is that stuff stuck down, no bonding issues at all.
in my case i will not be placing a ply of csm down b4 the 1708. im not doing it more for weight than anything, im oversizing all structural pieces so i have to be concious of weight.

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

thanks for your reply...at least someone has posted a reply after over a thousand views.

thanks again.

RC

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Made more progress tonight.

Got the transom cut and sanded, and the two pieces laminated together.

Not the best woodwork as i am a beginner really, but it came out well enough for me. Its feels really strong already and it hasnt had any glass added to the outside yet.

More to come over the next 2 days. No work for me so its all boat time.

RC

Beauty and the beast!! Old and new.

The rough cut wood...

Not perfect, but good enough for me. It fit right in place in the boat also.

Bout 175 pounds sittin on top, and i added clamps all around the rim.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Looks real solid. That oughta do a better job of holding that beast of a Mariner you got.

 

[system-f]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

This is my understanding othe order of cloth/mat application when using poly resin:

On wood, 1708 can go down as the first layer CSM side first as the CSM in the 1708 will properly seal the wood.

On glass, I do not think it matters if there is CSM or not as you do not need to seal glass the same way you would need to seal the wood.

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Cool thanks guys for the insight.

I been just reading around a lot and i think the csm on the 1708 will stick good to the roving the hull is made of. To save weight and resin im just gonna lay the hull up with 1708 and then do the stringers in 1708 also.

Thanks a lot for the input guys!

Im going out to start working on the boat with my 4 yr old daughter now. She really really wants to "help daddy clean the boat" LOL Shes my lil helper.

See yas in a while with more updates.

RC

 

[86RajunCajun]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

K so yesterday and today i finished glassing the transom and trimming it to fit perfectly against the hulls skin. I also got the 2 chines filled that i wanted to lay a level base layup of 1708.

Next to do, is finish the transom skin areas by filling all the low spots from grinding out bad glass and filleting all the corners etc to accept the transom and get it tabbed in.

More to come, as i am activly working on this now till it is done. Ihave all materials i need and all the time in the world! Now all i need to keep up on is my motivation..too many projects going at once!

Thanks!
RC

Gettin ready to lay the first layer of glass on the transom here..

Working on fitment here...

Here is the transom being test fit into the boat. I still have to put the caps around all the edges of the transom yet, so here it is pictures ground down around the perimeter ready for the caps. Also the holes at the bottom there have been fixed with csm.

 

[boatflipper]

Re: Diving in...Bass boat remodel!

Looks really good! Makin some nice progress!
Before you lay your glass over the transom, ne sure to fill the gaps between the bottom of your transom and hull with some sort of filler-I used my resin mixed with talc and 1/4" Chopped fibers. made it to a very thick consistency and just smeared it in all the gaps. I also used it to round off the corners going up the side of the transom core.

Keep the progress and pics comin!