1992 Crownline 196br stringers, transom and the whole bit

[steely85]

Hey Iboaters. It has been a pleasure reading all over the forums for the last year. I have been planning, gathering, designing and prepping for the overhaul of my 1992 Crownline 196br. I have seen a few of the other builds of these same boats and I have followed friscoboater on youtube for a while. Days and days of reading and watching builds taking notes and taking names. Well that's my background and this is where I am now.

I started last week and my stringers are out up to my motor. I need to build a gantry tomorrow to take the motor out. Not my favorite idea but a builder buddy of mine is giving me a bunch of 2x10's. Cant beat free. Once those are out i will grind out the rest of the stringers and motor mounts. I have measured everything and drew everything on grid paper to scale. Once those are out I will start to be able to make my mock stringers and bulkheads. I'm planning on PL gluing the stringers in just for the ease since I am doing it by my lonesome. I will elevate them using Frisco boaters tip to use a few pieces of pink foam to prevent the boards bumping the hull. (I keep going back and forth on weather to use PL glue or Poly resin with cabosil.) As soon as the stringers are in I will be leaving for a week to go to Michigan, so I'm not too worried about the degassing of the PL glue. So I will need to make a decision within the next 4 days. I will probably go with poly with cabosil. Watching Jay mix it up seems less daunting than just thinking about the hassle of mixing every time I'm ready for more bedding.
I have also cut off my deck leaving a one inch strip around the edge to use as a guide to the proper deck height. I have researched and researched, googled and yahooed. Heck I even asked Jeeves. So here are the two questions I am trying to work out. I will be cutting the stringers taller than they need to be so I can cut them to proper height once they are bedded. However once the stringers are bedded how do I measure for the final height? Do I make sure my boat is level then use a level from the remaining deck lip out to the stringer?
Second question. What are people using to cut the stringers with once it is in the boat. The only thing I can think of is a circular saw and a jig saw. But what about the corners where the bulkhead and the stringers meet. Both of those tools would leave me with about 2-3 inches unless I angled the jig saw to get the corner a little bit better. Then use a hand held miter saw and or a belt sander to knock down the rest of the corner piece. Now that I am writing it down it is helping me with my own issues. I will probably use the circular saw, then switch to my hand saw to knock the corners down.
Thanks to all of your help. I love the boating community. I am from Michigan and grew up on the water. I have built cars, motorcycles and helped with houses but this is my first boat rebuild. I?m really surprised with my progress so far, I am much further than I thought I would be. Anyhow thanks for reading. Hope to hear some positive reinforcement on these subjects. I will update more with pictures later. I have to load them to photo bucket first.

 

[steely85]

here are some pictures.

 

[steely85]

All polished up.


New used trailer I picked up for her.

 

[steely85]

Here is the rotten and cracking interior. Its all getting replaced. And I'm putting in a sun deck with captains chairs.

 

[steely85]

here are the new captain chairs I'm making.

 

[steely85]

Everything made of wood in the boat looks like this. Even the stringers.

 

[steely85]

If you look on the bottom left of the picture, you will notice the stringer rotting away where people step into the boat.

 

[steely85]

I pulled the rest of the carpet off and cut the floor off the cap.

 

[Mikeopsycho]

Looks like you're on the right track. You've done a bunch of reading and studying, and you've got a plan, so you're half way there. The knowledgeable iboats rebuild gurus will surely chime in if you need any help. Good luck and have fun with your project!

 

[JASinIL2006]

I haven't used PL on my boat, so I can't comment on that, but mixing up batches of PB is really not hard at all. Just takes a minute or two and you make it exactly the consistency you like. If mixing the PB is the only thing holding you back, I wouldn't let that stop you. It's not difficult or even all that time-consuming.

I'm impressed that you're building your own captains chairs! That's really cool! I'm going to tag along to see how this all turns out!

Jim

P.S. I really like the lines of your boat. Very sleek looking!

 

[Woodonglass]

I used to be a fan of PL but not any more. To much of a problem with compatibility with the Poly Resin. Just use some foam pieces to hold the stringers up then use PB to fillet and tab em in. As for cutting the deck out, set your circ saw to just shy of the deck thickness and cut around using the narrow side of the saw. Then use your grinder to finish off the left overs. Use a Magic Marker to mark the hull for reference where the old deck was for the new deck/stringer heights. Take a LOT of measurements as you're doing the demo especially hull width, stringer heights etc at various places so you'll have them for reference on the go back. You won't regret it. A 2x4 laid across the top of the cap and then measure down to everything is a good reference point. Do a lot of searching on the forum. You'll learn a lot. drewpster, sphelps, nurseman, oops, corjen1, archbuilder..all of em have a lot to offer in their threads. This link has some good info too Fabricating Decks, Stringers, and Transoms

 

[bigdirty]

Hey nice lookin boat man... like a little cousin of mine! I used PL on my rebuild, but had some issues.. if I were to do it again I would use pb to bed stringers..

 

[steely85]

Thanks for all the encouragement you guys. I just talked to the guy at uscomposites and he said he would not use polyester PB as a bed for the stringers... I'm confused now... I ordered ten gallons of resin and a tone of cabosil anyways. (I'm sure I will use it somewhere). But I'm confused because I know the bed is just to reduce the risk of hard spots on the hull and not really "gluing" the stringers to the hull. That is what the fillet and 1708 is for. Should I still opt for the poly, cabosil and 1/4 chop strand for the bedding? Or go with PL. Remember I will be leaving town for 4 or 5 days to let the PL de-gas.

 

[steely85]

I also have more pictures.

Here is the most recent picture I have, Unfortunately I have been to gung-ho to take more, but I have videos also I'm trying to load but not sure how to do it.

 

[steely85]

this is my attempt at a video. Pay no attention to me saying I was going to try to patch repair the boat. I said that to keep the fiance happy. LOL

 

[Woodonglass]

Technically, you don't have to bed the stringers in anything. I wouldn't advise it though. I've been toying with the thought of gluing 1/2" foam to the bottom of the stringers and then just filleting them in with PB. I will say that the guys here on the forum have Years of experience with hands on experience and have been using PB in restorations for years. I'd recommend following their sage advice and not some salesman!!! By the way what DID he say to use?

 

[steely85]

this is my second attempt at a video.

 

[steely85]

Technically, you don't have to bed the stringers in anything. I wouldn't advise it though. I've been toying with the thought of gluing 1/2" foam to the bottom of the stringers and then just filleting them in with PB. I will say that the guys here on the forum have Years of experience with hands on experience and have been using PB in restorations for years. I'd recommend following their sage advice and not some salesman!!! By the way what DID he say to use?

He wanted me to use Epoxy PB instead of poly because the epoxy is a glue for bonding wood to the fiberglass. Which I don't doubt it will in fact do that, but I am with you on listening to the words of wisdom from people on here who deal with this stuff day in and day out.

 

[steely85]

at $125 for two gallons?? I can swing that for the transom and the motor mounts, (which is what I am doing) but I cant swing that for all the stringers. I have a wedding to pay for.

 

[Woodonglass]

Yeah, that's what a figured. Salesman wanting to sell expensive EEEEEEEPOXY!!!! I've had personal discussions with their tech on this topic in the past. He agreed that Poly resin will adhere very well once it's properly prepped. Obviously he's going to try to sell the more expensive product. Don't get me wrong. He's correct that epoxy does have better overall adhesive qualities but there's a price to pay. You'll get excellent results doing it the way you are. Keep on keeping on!!!