1963 Elgin Restoration

[larcher]

Wow - I just found this forum yesterday and have spent hours reading through past and current projects. What a gold mine of information!!! And I have many questions of course.

I've just started a restoration of a 1963 Elgin runabout - 14' 9". I know, I know - an Elgin... from Sears... the most generic of boats! Hey, it looked like it needed someone to love it, and the PO sold it for $25!! These photos are how i found it before I dragged it home.



Here's what I want to do:
- Replace the floor and transom
- Reinforce the hull (will need some ideas on this)
- New updated seating
- Change the color of the topside and add wood accents (I've built wooden boats from scratch)
- Replace most of the hardware - the stuff I can't restore
- A whole bunch of other stuff I'm sure

I'll start the questions next post!! And post some of the photos I've already taken of the dismantling.

Thanks
Lee

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

WOW!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!
Very similar to my 61' Flamingo. I would have LOVED it if I had the original seats like yours. That is just Way Kool!!!! Do everything you can to keep her Original. I Highly recommend you take a look at this thread.
http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto.../mfg-rebuild-getting-started-pics-523969.html
The links in my signature below have a lot of helpful info for bringing her back to her glorious Original self.
I have suscribed to this thread and will be here to help whenever needed.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Wood - thanks for the quick welcome and the links - I guess I have some more homework to do!!

I do intend to keep the bench seats, and to keep as much original as possible. I have the rear bench seat too. The seats could use a little more padding though. And your Flamingo is beautiful - maybe has a bit more freeboard than the Elgin. Will post more pix tomorrow - it's getting late here on the east coast!



Lee

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Nice Elgin ! I love to see these old classics brought back to life ! Gunna tag along if it,s ok . Looks like the original steering wheel . Thats a plus ! Welcome aboard and good luck !

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

A few more pix as I found her below. I have to set up a phptpbucket account so I can post them larger.

The topsides are in amazingly good condition - someone took good care of this for some time in her life. The PO I bought it from left it out in the elements for years though, so that's when most of the damage probably occurred. It was nose up on the trailer, so a lot of water, snow, ice collected in the aft, so there's significant spider cracking in the gelcoat on the aft end of the hull - I'm thinking it was expansion/contraction.
I'll need some ideas here - do I re-glass the ourside of the hull to seal everything back up? Can I just glass over the gelcoat?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

I'm guessing you will need to do a full restore. If so, the first order of business is to remove all the hardware including the windshield. Once thats done I'd get her off the trailer, onto the ground roll her onto her top and then placed on a cradle to begin working on the hull. Check out my thread on how to build a cradle. My two nephews rolled and flipped mine and lifted her onto the cradle. Pretty easy to do.

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Whats that poking though the hull on the bow ?

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Wait a minute there Larcher. You just can't come on here with a nice little project boat, with pictures posted (and sized correctly), your location listed and a plan of what your going to do. Your going to make us look bad.:joyous: Welcome aboard. Nice ride. What are you going to power with?

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Hah! Pretty funny Jeep man!
I mention in my profile that I'm in advertising - that would be advertising DESIGN more specifically so I do a lot of online work!!! So the boat building/fixing thing is therapy - very tangible, ya' know?
Don't know what I'll power it with - it was sold with a 45hp - and rated to75 hp.

sphelps: regarding the things sticking out of the bow sphelps, they run all around the boat just under the rub rail. I suspect it was some sort of snap system for a cover.

Wood - I have removed the hardware, including the rub rail and the windshield and drilled some exploratory holes in the floor. It's wet and "mulchy" in there - ick. Some of the threads I've reviewed show that you revove the top, do the floor and transom first, then flip and do tha hull. Are you suggesting I should work on the hull first?

Thanks all for the welcome! Nice to do this with others!

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Hardware off - except for the steering wheel. There's a big nut in side the barrel that I can't get to until the top comes off. Rub rail is off - drilled out 40 rivets. Note the Dr. Suess-ish clamp stack - my third hand!!!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Well on second thougt, since you need to replace the deck, Yep I'd do all that first before flipping her. That way if you accidently cut thru the hull you can make the repairs when you're done with all the rest. Sorry bout dat!!!!

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Some Sunday progress...

Hewre are a couple of pix:
- Realized that I didn't have a photo of the rear seat in place so I did put it back in for a pic.
- Built the start of a cradle - the photos are of it in progess - need to take some more.
- Here is a pic of the mulchy deck plywood in my test holes.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Ooops - rear seat pic here:

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Found an old Sears catalog page online for what appears to be this boat - the blue one. Pretty cool!

 

[greenbush future]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

If you throw a 70 HP on this baby, I have a feeling it will just flat out fly? I'm going to follow you on this one, my Lone Star/Fleetwood sport is very close to the same age and style as yours.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Hi all -
A little more progress - got the beast off of the trailer and onto the cradle base. I have a 2 car garage to work in, but "the boss" has to have her car indoors every night - thus the wheels. Will be adding some side supports to maintain the shape when the top comes off, and some wedges underneath for stability.
So now I have a trailer that I'm not sure what to do with. I'll need a trailer in the future of course, but for now, I live in a nieghborhood where you can't store a trailer outside - with or without a boat on it. It's a '62 Zantop. Anyone interested? Which also reminds me - after some research, I think the boat is actually a 1962 - not '63. Who knew!! The model numbers by year seem to go 62150, 63150, 64150. The identification plate says 62150, so...

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Nice job on the cradle cart Larcher ! I like the bench seats and the palm tree adds a bit of class to the interior ..

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Testing to see if I have this photobucket thing worked out.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Yay! Now I can post cool pix!
That's "Lake Elgin" above - sorry for the burriness. Big puddle along the keel after the ply was removed.
More to come - stay tuned.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Hi Kids!

Okay - so it's been a week since I posted, but I wanted to be photobucket savvy before I continued.

I've been moving along - tried to get the top off - I had drilled out all of the rivets but it still was stuck. First I thought it was all of the caulking that one of the POs had added below the rub rail. So I dug all of that out but still no-go. crawled under the dash and found that one of the POs had done some reinforcing - some sort of resin-y fiberglass-y quick fix. Had to cram myself up in there to cut out the "repairs" to get the top loose.

Port:

Starboard:

(Note the absolute minmal construction techniques -- one-layer fiberglass tab every foot or so!!)

But before I could cut out the cheesy repairs, these foam blocks had to go so I could get my 6' 2" 240 lb self in there.

"AAAAAHHH - MICE!" Okay, not live mice, but they were definitely in here at some point. Who knew mice were aquatic mammals!!!!!

Damn!!! It's a good thing mice don't chew up fiberglass!!! They tunneled through this styrofoam!

Okay - top loose!

More tomorrow folks!

Lee