1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

[Pasechnik]

One Day we decided to buy a BOAT. As most here didn't want to get second mortgage, so went with a used one...... Here is my restoration story:

I did noticed a few soft spots when checked the boat but reality was much worse.... You know this all....
So... floor is rotten, stringers are gone. Somebody fixed the back part of stringers and rear floor section but it was all wet (including new marine foam). Transom was in perfect shape (lucky me) completely sealed and I could see light wood through fiberglass.

I decided:

1. Replace stringers with laminated 3/4 plywood X 2,
2. Put new floor 3/4 plywood.
3. Use no foam
4. Seal everything but leave inspection access holes (will be with water tight cap) 2 on each side (front and back 4 total)
5. Make sure water can drain along stringers under floor (if it gets there) all the way from to back inspection hole.
6. Gellcoat interior. No carpets.


I decided to use polyester resin (I know many don't like it) and csm 1.5.

I need to fix engine but this will be in the other thread.

I live in Vancouver Canada and we don't have too much choice where to buy supplies. But I was lucky to find fiberglass supplier who sells to commercial customers

 

[Jimmy H.]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Welcome, sounds familiar... Looking forward to hearing your story!
James

 

[carribbean soul]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

csm is a filler material your going to need to use 1708 for load carrying in the stringers and elsewhere like tabbing of the deck.

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Few things that might help other people:

Removing foam was a real PITA especially "aftermarket" one. I used Ridgid one-hand reciprocating saw from HD to slice foam and pushed pieces with flat prybar. I really liked this saw because it is not too powerfull to damage the hull but can easy and fast cut foam. Here is its picture:


The prybar I used was like this one:


It is wide and doesn't make too much pressure against the hull.

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

csm is a filler material your going to need to use 1708 for load carrying in the stringers and elsewhere like tabbing of the deck.

The original fiberglass was just a chopped string somewhere. I could just brake it with my fingers. I did put 2 layers and some areas 3-4 layers of 1.5 CSM. Original stringers were not even completely fiberglassed. Also I added extra wood and fiberglass to top stringers (actually doubled them). Also the original floor was max 5/8 (hard to say because it was almost a dust) and now it will be 3/4. Original stringers were just laid to the bottom and glassed over (not completely) I glued them with a ton of PL glue. I think what I build is much stronger than original construction.

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

One of the major concerns was low temperature and humidity (40-46F @ 90-100%). Some people say resin won't harden at all. I bought ISO polyester resin added about 50 drops of cobalt per 1 kg and used 2% MEKP. Resin sets overnight next day it is sticky gets completely rock hard (not even sticky) in 2-3 days. I used no heat at all. Here is the rasin I used:

Ashland Aropol 7334 T-15

I left some resin outside in rain overnight at 40F. The next day it was as hard as rock.....

 

[tpenfield]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Foam would have been a good thing to add during the restoration. Foam is a victim of moisture, not a culprit.

Flotation and strength are the key benefits of foam (pour-in type). Your boat is probably a sinker without foam. You could still add it if you wanted to by cutting holes from the cockpit deck into the stringer chambers, then patching them back up.

 

[Triangleboater]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

No pics? we love pics! Also, I am totally for the foam. I only boat on small lakes, 3 to 4 miles wide at the widest spot and if i got swamped even with a pfd, i would still have something to hang on to and i would still like my boat to be able to be towed back to the ramp. Rather that than on the bottom of the lake.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

CSM is probably under weight (strength) for structural applications

You may notice additional hull noise & vibration w/out flotation foam of any kind below decks, hopefully you'll never need it for flotation....

 

[Triangleboater]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Right, hopefully not actually for floatation.
I have a friend that works for the Wildlife commission as an officer. I have heard many a story of sunken boats. Never know right?

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Thanks for suggestions about foam. I didn't try to sink this boat before I took it apart but I bet it would sink like rock considering how much wet stinky foam I took out..... I guess many people use their wet rock heavy boats with false sense of security. How often people actually check their boat flotation ??? Never until one bad day.

I will know about lack of flotation and will have other safety means.

Also I was thinking about putting foam in gunwales instead of floor.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Best of luck w/ your project, since it is your boat, your efforts & planning, proceed how you see fit.

Boat resto & boat safely.

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Here some pics:
Rainy cold winter West Coast
Perfect gas chamber for working with polyester resin




I don't have "Before" but have "In process..."

Front bulkhead drain holes left for water drainage. All holes are fiberglassed from bottom as vell



Small bulkhead between stringers (drain holes)



Just how it looks half way




All this bulkheads are just glued and peanut buttered. They are not tabbed and not glassed yet, but will be.... Stringers will be glassed one more layer together with bulkheads.

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Here is one VERY USEFUL tool I used to cut old glass, plywood and roughen the surface of the hull:

This is 5" steel disk with carbide surface. I think I bought it at Princess Auto a while ago. It was something like $12-15 It saved me a lot of time and MANY flap disks...

You can see it is like new after many hours of grinding all guts from my boat



It cuts like a real beast and creates less dust and more like coarse sand grains than flap disks(which are just a dust generators....).

I think originally this disk was designed for grinding concrete.... so fiberglass is just a peanuts for it...

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

The other thing I wanted to share is respirator. Working with polyester resin requires a very good respirator especially in my case when I work inside the boat covered with plastic from rain..

The smell was so strong my eyes were watering. I tried organic respirator (one from HD). It works well but lasts only about 1 day. The next day I can smell resin. I decided to add a corrugated poly hose (Sold at HD for for water pumps) which I put one end outside of my boat and the other end I attached to my mask. It works well but hard to move around.

Later I decided to build my own air filter. I took 1 water filter (I just bought a bunch of them for my osmosis water filter at Amazon). I attached temporally attached filter to my mask and tried to smell resin. WOW no smell at all.

Here are some pics of my "respirator":

Here is modified mask. I just glued poly fittings instead of filters



Here I took top plastic cover off filter and glued a piece of corrugated hose inside:



Here is the back side of filter. I plugged hole with duct tape



Here is a whole respirator together. I put filter inside a backpack and wear it on my back.



I tested this DIY mask for a few days. It is a bit bulky but works very well. No acetone smell no resin smell nothing at all.

I don't have flexible rubber hoses like on army gas mask hoses I used are poly hoses they are a bit stiff but for what I use this mask for it is very good.

The volume of activated carbon in my mask is many time bigger than any organic respirator.....

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Materials and prices:

1. Polyester ISO resin Ashland Aropol 7334 T-15 $105 for 5 gallon (local supplier no shipping charge) used 2 and will use 1-2 more

2. Acetone $60 for 5 gallon used half yet

3. CSM 1.5 Paid $60 for half 50" roll still have a bunch left

4. Plywood 3/4" One is used for road singes $38 per sheet (local lumber yard) used 3 sheets.

The place I bought resin you can Google it (fiberglasscenter). No showroom just a warehouse.

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

My goal is to build a good fishing diving boat no carpets.

Here is a picture of gunwale:



I ripped old panels from inside the gunwales. I want to lower sides and gelcoat them. Behind this sides (gunwales) there will be a lot of room for foam. I am thinking about putting foam there and not in the floor.

This will solve flotation problem, wet foam under floor, and raise gravity center for flotation (with foam in the floor you have a chance to have you boat upside-down). Also there is much more room there than under floor...

 

[Jimmy H.]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

Materials and prices:
The place I bought resin you can Google it (fiberglasscenter). No showroom just a warehouse.

I've heard of that company recently, prices seem very reasonable. My poly resin I bought localy in Kelowna and was $120 per 5 gallons. The other supplies like cloth, foam, etc... I paid way too much. Next rebuild I would buy from there, though I'm on the lookout for an old aluminum starcraft islander for my next boat so I shouldn't need most of that stuff but you never know.


Any pictures of the boat without the tarp? Seems a lot like the one I am working on.
Thanks,
Jimmy

 

[Pasechnik]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

.....so I shouldn't need most of that stuff but you never know.


Any pictures of the boat without the tarp? Seems a lot like the one I am working on.
Thanks,
Jimmy

You are right you never know.....

Unfortunately I don't have pics without ugly tarp. It is Campion ( built where you live Okanagan lake area) 1987 It has a caddy in the front. I had to put this tarp because of our "beautiful winter weather".

BTW I used very cheap 1" pvc pipes from HD 6 mil poly and tape. This cover works very well and cost next to nothing....

 

[Jimmy H.]

Re: 1987 Campion Floor Stringers Engine (Merc 470) Restoration

BTW I used very cheap 1" pvc pipes from HD 6 mil poly and tape. This cover works very well and cost next to nothing....

That's exactly what I want to do for the summer if and when it does rain here. I'm lucky enough that even on the trailer I can still fit mine in the garage which I plan to do for the winter.
Anyways nice project, I will follow along with your progress.