59 Crownline Project

[MIKE DIBO]

Hi All!!

First post and it could be a good one!

Well this will be a little place for me to post my updates on my new and first boat project. im not sure how often it will happen as i am starting this project after just moving into a new house a few months ago. the project was given to me for free by a neighbor, was not expecting it to happen, so funds were not put aside yet. funds should start coming soon though. just gives me more time to read and research and to tear down the boat a little. ive done fiberglass and wood working in the past so i am feeling pretty good about starting the project(for now)

Little background on the situation.

Moved into the hosue in March and was aware there was a lake down the road but was not expecting to have rights to the water to be able to launch/dock a boat. i was planning on making due with my old fiberglass canoe. fast forward a few months and all of the neighbors around us were saying that we need to get a boat for the pond. well i caught the bug at that point but knew it would be a few years before i had the extra funds to get a boat, to be honest i didnt even know what i wanted for a boat. fast forward to 4th of July weekend. got a call from my neighbor across the street. he told me he had a boat i could have so i walk over and go to see what hes got, i was execting an old aluminum boat or something like that. well he brings me behind his carport and shows me this old fiberglass boat with a bunch of stuff thrown in the back and said its mine if i want it. told him i would clean it out and see what i was dealing with. well needless to say it didnt look that bad(from the little i know about boats, which is next to nothing!!). well ive started to tear into it slowly by surely in my free time, i will have photos below of how i found it and current progress.

So now that you know the story behind how i got the boat here is the little history i know of the boat.

Neighbor said its a 1959 or very early 60s Crownline, from the brochures i have found online i agree with this.
Its been sitting in a few yards over the years and hasnt been in the water since 1993.
I also have an Evinrude 50hp motor he is giving me with it. he called it an Electronic Shift(i have not looked into this at all yet)

Here are a few photos(if they work!!!)

How i first saw it at this point not to sure it was going to be worth it.







After a little scrubbing and cleaning one afternoon with the girlfriend. Looking a little better!!




Cool Wrap Around front seating



After getting the cleaning done i started to look at the floor and i saw a few areas i knew were rotted. so i started to pull it up, i should ahve taken photos before i started ripping into it. but remembered before i did to much damage.



And this was an hour or so later after using the jig saw and dremel to start taking more of it out. i still need to clean up the top of the stringers. but it looks ok. Stringers appear and feel solid(i know i need to core them to be 100%sure)




So thats basically where i am at this point. i started to remove the rubrails the other day to see how the cap to hull seal looks and it seems pretty good. i havent taken any photos of this yet but ill try to get some soon. was going to but its storming pretty bad at the moment!

My plan is to take my time and go through the boat and replace what i need to replace. but do it in a way that i dont have any major surprises and costly errors. since this is my first boat project i know i am bound to make some errors but i want to keep them to a minimum.

I know it would probably be cheaper to just buy a new boat and im sure it will be mentioned a few times as it always seems to be during boat restorations/rebuilds. but lets face it new boats are pretty boring. they all look the same and if boats are like most other things, the old saying of "they sure dont build them like they used to" is still true. also the girlfriend has already fallen in love with the way it looks(so have I!!) and since we payed nothing for the boat and motor i feel like we might be a little ahead of the game.


Well thats my overview of my project and i hope a few people will tag along incase i have questions, hell who am i kidding i know i will!

Mike

 

[Corjen1]

Welcome to Iboats, and good luck with your build!!

 

[Rickmerrill]

Had no idea Crowline was around then, I'm restoring a 1994. Hope the title is all good, that can be a pain in some states. Keep us posted and do check into those stringers and the transom as well. Best of luck!

 

[coolbri70]

:welcome: I like the look of the old boats too. it will be a lot of work, most likely need a transom too. you will want to sample that also. it can be done, the gelcoat looks pretty cracked up. you will not profit from this but for a sense of accomplishment and a unique boat to float in

 

[MIKE DIBO]

Thanks! hope it goes pretty smooth with no big surprises. as a whole it seems pretty solid, well so far anyway.

@ Rickmerrill- from what i have read its actually 2 separatecompanies who have nothing to do with each other. they just happen to have the same name. that’s just what i read anyway and you can’t always believe everything you read online!

@Coolbri70- i plan on taking a sample of the transom. i have toyed with the idea of replacing it no matter what. since i have a lot of work to do anyway i feel like it might be a smart move to just do it now and then i know it will be good for a while. pulling the cap doesn’t seem like it will be that bad. my main goal like you said is a unique boat to float around in. profit is not needed with this project.

 

[MIKE DIBO]

As far as checking the transom for rot how big should the holes be that i use to check this out? would a small drill bit work? or would i need a larger hole around 1" or so to really check it out?

 

[Woodonglass]

1/4" drill bit with tape @ 1" deep mark Shaving will tell the tale. Light and dry...Good to go. Dark and Wet...Nee to replace. If she's been out in the elements I'd highly expect the transom to be "Gone"

 

[MIKE DIBO]

i am fully expecting the transom to be gone. when the neighbor had her she was sitting under a crabapple tree in his yard for a decent amount of time(prob close to 6 years) with no actual cover, except what the tree and stuff in the back provided. hopefully the weather holds out and i will be able to get out there with the drill today and start checking some spots. i cant wait until i get my garage door issue fixed so i can get it inside to start working on it.

guess ill need to start reading up on repairing a transom. i have a feeling it isnt as simple as i would like it to be. and since i would be removing the cap to do this i am assuming i will also need to build some sort of a cradle/support system for the boat while i am working on it so it does not flex/get out of shape. research research research is the name of the game now i am guessing.

 

[Woodonglass]

Yep, and it's ALL right here on the iBoats Forum. Just use the search and type in Transom replacement, Stringer REplacement, Deck replacement and you'll find plenty of examples of what you'll be doing.

 

[MIKE DIBO]

ive been doing alot of reading so far. i actually started to skim your thread, well as much as i can at work and looking through the links in your sig. ive been skimming through a thread that a member by the name of OOPS! started and ive been bookmarking stuff along the way(lots of good info in that one!). its alot to take in to say the least. im going to spend the night searching and bookmarking and hopefully have a little better idea of what i need to do.

 

[MIKE DIBO]

Ok so got home from work today and got right to it. Got the drill and went to check the transom. It's shot nice and dry for maybe the first 1/4 inch then it's all wet. So it's got to come out. Time to start my research on that tonight and start getting a supply list together. My focus then went to the stringers. I grabbed the drill again and went to check them. To my surprise they appear to be made of just fiberglass. I tried various places on multiple stringers and found the same thing. That would explain the extreme lightness of the boat. The brochure I found online listed it as 290lbs. Here is a screen shot from the brochure. My seat layout is a different configuration.

Is this a common find in older boats? It all looks very solid an seems very strong. I have a slight feeling that it's just to good to be true.

My next plan is to:

Cut the bottom of the wrap-around seat base from the boat floor so I can then remove the top cap. I also need to use the dremel and remove some fiberglass putty along the inside of the boat that's holding the cap on. Plus make whatever bracing I need to keep the hull from tweaking while the cap is off.

After that is done I will tackle the transom repair. I may go with Seacast. From what I have read(which is limited currently) it seems like a good option and will last a lot longer than wood. If the stringers are in fact hollow fiberglass I might fill them with Seacast as well and make those even stronger.

 

[Woodonglass]

Yup hollow core All glass stringers are fairly common for that period. Consider yourself a Lucky man. No need to do anything to em. I MIGHT put a layer of 1708 over em and call em good. You can use Seacast if you want but...A properly done wood core transom that's maintained and cared for will last 50+ years. My boat is 53 years old and still going strong on the original transom. I see no reason for her not to last several more decades.

 

[MIKE DIBO]

Yup hollow core All glass stringers are fairly common for that period. Consider yourself a Lucky man. No need to do anything to em. I MIGHT put a layer of 1708 over em and call em good. You can use Seacast if you want but...A properly done wood core transom that's maintained and cared for will last 50+ years. My boat is 53 years old and still going strong on the original transom. I see no reason for her not to last several more decades.

well thats good to know one less thing i need to deal with.

one question. i have been looking into supporting the boat after i take the cap off and it seems like alot of people only do the supporting when they are removing both the stringers and the transom. so would this mean that i do not nessesarily need to add extra suport to the boat when i pop the cap off to do the transom? i plan on keeping the hull on the trailer as long as i can and not remove it until i am able to attempt to flip it to redo the hull bottom. i just dont want to mess the hull up by trying to save a few bucks and some time by not buying wood to make a frame work to support the hull.

im still on the fence about the seacast vs wood core transom. i like the idea of wood because its origianl to the boat, would be cheaper(im not sure by how much yet) and seems easier to work with.
but i like the idea of Seacast because its a do it once sort of thing and since i dont have to worry about the stringers rotting i like the idea of having the peice of mind that i will not need to touch the transom again. and since the boat will be put in the water in the spring and remain in the water until the fall Seacast seems like a better route to go. i need to take some measurements and use the calculator and see what the cost will be.

but like you state a properly cared for wood core transom can/should last as long as i need it to. oh so many choices to make!