1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

[panfisher]

Hey everyone,
So it is my first time posting and ever restoring a boat. My grandfather bought me this 14' fiberglass boat and remodled it, the only problem is that he forget to restore the floor. You can imagine what 38 years of wear and tear can do. So I have ripped out the floor and am going to place new stringers and floor onto the boat, then fiberglass it (4 layers) to seal it. But before I do the floor, I have a question....If I want to convert my 25 HP Evinrude tiller motor to a remote steering motor, where should I place the steering cable, does it need to go under the floor?

I will write back tomorrow with the year and serial number to my motor (as I do not know them). Also, I will post pictures of the boat with the floors removed and a picture of the motor. I am looking to either buy or make a console, so I want this to be a wheel steered craft, not stick steered. Thanks!

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

welcome to the crazy dust covered world of boat rehab, glad you joined us, you may want to resonsider 4 layers of glass that may be a little much depending on what your usin.
no you dont have to run your cables and wiring under deck, im using a peice out of a carolina skiff that covers them and mounts on top of the deck, kinda like a piece of wire moulding only made out of f/g.
as far as your console you can make or buy new or salvaged, most of my parts come from hurricane dammaged carolina skiffs console, livewell/baitwell deck, and that cable cover just had a few touch ups on the deck.
one of the f/g guys will prob steer you onto how much glass to use on the stringers and floor, that stuff is heavy more is not always better.
good luck, looking fwd to the pics

 

[panfisher]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

So I looked at the motor today and found the serial plate, according to a website I have a 1971 25 HP motor. The serial number is 25102S-E05396. I looked at shop.evinrude.com and they have parts for the motor. My question is where do I look for conversion parts (tiller to remote) for this motor?
Thanks!

 

[panfisher]

How much fiberglass?

How much fiberglass?

Hey everyone,
Just finished up today cutting out the old fiberglass floor. Tomorrow I get to grind the floor down smooth. Everyone is correct, it is a very dirty job and a 4.5 angle grinder works amazingly. After tomorrow I will be starting the new fiberglass and new stringers. I plan to fiberglass the stringers and the plywood floor. I have just one question: How many layer of fiberglass should I use?

 

[Panther2006]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

When i did my deck/Floor. I used two layers on the stringers, One was a thin mat and the other was roving mat. On the Plywood floor I used two Layers of Thin mat.

With that being said; The hull of my Crestliner is only 1/8th of an inch thick so I wanted structural hull strenght.

Also get a Iron roller for glass work to get the air bubbles out

 

[panfisher]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

Thanks for the info panther, did you use just regular plywood coated it yourself then glassed it or did you use marine grade plywood then glass it? Is there really a difference between the two besides the price....haha

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

you can use exterior grade ply, get finished one side as long as you paint all 6 side/edges with resin 2-3 coats and a layer of mat/cloth, it may suck up a little more resin than marine would, kind of a tradeoff marine is more $$$ upfront, exterior suck the $$$(resin) later, on your small project it prob wouldnt be to bad

 

[panfisher]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

Osborn so your saying the price would roughly be the same?

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

doubt it would be the same cost, id use the ext ply and glass over it. your project is not that large.

 

[Brando.01]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

panfisher:

My friend gave me an old, UGLY, beat up, rotten, yellow boat. All it had was a hull# and hadn't been tagged since 1995. That's all i knew about it. I did some searching on Google, and somehow I found a pic of another boat that looked just like it, I found out it was made by Appleby. I had heck getting it tagged, but months of time, and $14 later I got it tagged and even a title for it! I got to guess the year of the boat, so I picked 74, that's what the yellow color kept telling me lol

So I knew the transom was bad, so I cut into it and scooped out the old decayed wood, it was really bad, there were old holes in the exterior of the transom that no one ever filled, so the wood rotted. I spent a lot of time on it, could have been better, but turned out good enough. it was my first fiber-glassing ive ever done.
I don't have any good pictures at the moment, but here are a few of my progress.

I need to find a pic of when i first got it, it was terrible! The exterior was very dingy and covered in mildew. I always planned on this remaining an ugly boat, but the more time I spend with it the more pride i gain for it. I was going to buy some of that expensive boat wash that removes stains and mildew, but for some reason I opened it and smelled it, it smelled just like Wesley's Bleach White, so I grabbed a bottle of that instead and scrubbed the exterior with it, then wet sanded and waxed. I had some metal polish so I thought I would see what it would do on the rails, it shined it up a bit, then I took some of the 2000grit sandpaper and went over it and polished again, its really nice looking now! I'll get more pics tonight!
Anyway this is getting long, i just had to share my story

 

[Brando.01]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

Here is the battery box/extra storage/seat lol

I am going to center it toward the rear, take the pedestal seat off and mount the swivel chair to the box, It will probably look funny, but unclutter the boat a little and add extra storage. I bought another one of those toolboxes and will do the same on the front seat tonight.


I repainted the transom, I had a hard time deciding what color to use, because i knew i would never be able to match the yellow, so I ended up using some spray on bed liner. Still not quite done with it.

And here is after I used the bleach white, sanded the crud off of it, and waxed it.

 

[panfisher]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

Brando.01
Boat looks great, glad to see someone else is working on an old Appleby. My progress has slowed down due to funds, but is starting to kick back up. I am working on the transom now, console and boat layout.

 

[panfisher]

Re: 1972 Appleby Bass Boat Restore

Hey all,
It's summer time and thats means back to boat repairs. I am working on the transom and have a question. I know I need to add fiberglass to the back of the boat before I place the new wood in and then add filler and finally glass it completely in. So my question is how many layers do I use at each spot and what type of cloth????

 

[siberbro]

I just purchased a 1972 Sears bass boat made by Appleby for Sears. My boat seems to have a double layer plywood floor making it a lot heavier than originally certified. Can anyone tell me if two layers is normal. The live well has been removed and this may be why a second layer of plywood was added. Thanks

 

[Woodonglass]

siberbro, This thread is over 3 years old. Our rules dictate that only the OP can post to it. You should start your own NEW thread and ask your questions there. But NO your boat should NOT have two layers of Plywood for a deck.