18' Thompson Calae transom, stringers and deck

[F14CRAZY]

Yeah the markup on glass and resin most anywhere else is ridiculous

 

[F14CRAZY]

Resin has shipped from West Palm Beach today. 245 lbs and $178 to ship by RL Carriers. I'll have to pick it up in Battle Creek (I guess that's their closest terminal) but it's OK since that saved over $100.

Tracking says it should be in on the 6th (next Monday) and work will resume then.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Picked up the 20 gallons from the R+L terminal in Battle Creek.

Glassed in the midship-starboard stringers and the bulkheads in front of those. Will be back at it tomorrow.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Still can't get over how much wood is in that boat....wow.

 

[F14CRAZY]

I hate when it looks like I didn't get much done, but today I glassed over the midship-port stringers and the bulkheads forward of them. I used up 5 gallons of the epoxy I picked up yesterday morning. It's crazy how much resin this project is sucking up

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Yeah, that seems like an awful lot of resin. She'll be a tank tho.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Yeah, that seems like an awful lot of resin. She'll be a tank tho.

Yeah this ought to be the strongest 19' bowrider out there after this

 

[Slager]

I just finished reading through your thread. Looks like your making good progress. Where in the Lansing area do you live? I live just S of Lansing in Holt. It's good to know that USC will ship via freight to Battle Creek. I may do that when I'm ready to order my supplies. I'm working outdoors so I'm waiting a while to get started again.

 

[F14CRAZY]

I used to live in the Lansing area. I'm now in Grand Rapids but the boat is in a commercial building in Lansing, that my mom owns, that my father in law rents from her, in the Waverly area

 

[Slager]

Ok. Sweet deal. It sounds like you have done a bit of research into resin suppliers. Did you check resin prices at Fiberglass products in Grandville? I've been trying to find a local supplier to avoid shipping costs. I haven't started calling places yet. I was also thinking of calling Advanced Fiberglass over near flint. Thanks

 

[F14CRAZY]

Ok. Sweet deal. It sounds like you have done a bit of research into resin suppliers. Did you check resin prices at Fiberglass products in Grandville? I've been trying to find a local supplier to avoid shipping costs. I haven't started calling places yet. I was also thinking of calling Advanced Fiberglass over near flint. Thanks

I used to look and look for cheaper prices, but even if you have to pay $200 in shipping, US Composites is still cheaper. I'm not like a spokesperson for them but no one can touch them

 

[F14CRAZY]

I glassed the outer stern stringers and finished the port-inner stringer and engine base. It was wet out in this photo and I later got it glassed. I was going to do the starboard side but the power went out so I cleaned up and called it a day.

I'm taking tons of photos (many of which aren't posted here) to document my work and share on Facebook. I've tried to take some that show the process, though most of you are too familiar with this kind of stuff already.

I forgot to add but yesterday I sat the new tank in again to figure out how much extra hose for the breather line is needed. I previously ordered new hose for the old tank and the new tank's breather fitting is at the front of the tank. This makes sense, as boats sit with the bow up a little bit when at rest. My Capri's tank has the breather near the rear which means that gas spits out of the breather when filling the tank while in the water (I've bought one of those suction cup catch cans for that).

I've been working on the boat more or less as a full time job but my wife is pressuring me to go back to my day job next week. Work will slow down a bit but I'll keeping going on weekends and probably evenings. The shop is about an hour away from where I live in Grand Rapids so it's a bit of a commute.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Great work.

 

[Slager]

There is still plenty of time before boating season starts here. With the progress you have made, I would guess you will still be able to get it on the water by summer even if only working weekends.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Sorry I haven't posted much in the past couple weeks. Work on the Calae has been slow as I've been working and had other stuff to do the past couple weekends, including riding with my bets buddy to Kentucky to pick up a travel trailer (those things rot just like boats do) and getting into grad school.

But since then:

ALL wood is glassed.

Bored limber holes where needed. Hole-sawed some holes and used 5200 to bond in some PVC pipe. I feel this is a safe way to keep the wood dry.

This is where I'm at as of today. Tank is sitting on the neoprene sheet and held in with poly plumbing strap. I believe it's impervious to chemicals, rather strong, snug but allows for some expansion. I tried bending it back and forth a ton of times and doesn't seem to weaken. Ran, hung and clamped the hoses (Lowes has made in the US stainless clamps). The new tank didn't come with a new check valve so I swapped the one from the old tank. I cleaned it up and it seems fine. An access cover will be installed in the deck in the area of the fuel level sender. A couple square feet of neoprene was left from the tank pad so I used some to sheath the hoses where they pass through the stringers and bulkheads. After boring the holes I wet the wood and coated it with peanut butter. After I took this pic I extended the fuel level sender wires (soldered and heat shrinked).

I think tomorrow, for real, I can start measuring and cutting the deck!

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Looking good. Is that how the tank was secured prior? Just wondering about the plumbing strapping holding up over the long haul.

 

[F14CRAZY]

The old aluminum tank had like L brackets welded to it, which were screwed to a bulkhead and some other piece of wood between the stringers. I won't say that a residential or commercial plumbing environment is the same as a marine environment, and holding up pipe isn't the same as holding a fuel tank in place, but based on my experience in my former family's plumbing business it should work fine. It holds up heavy azz 4'' cast iron and meets code for that

 

[F14CRAZY]

From last week and weekend (sorry I've been slacking off on posting, again)

Measured the width of the hull every 6 inches, transferred this to the center of the plywood. Except for the bow piece I didn't have to do any trimming at all.

Had to remove the port side panel to get the plywood in and out.

Trimmed and rounded off the deck along the engine compartment. I peanut buttered this joint later.

With it being in the 70s and sunny my best man Brian and I wet out and applied a layer of CSM on the underside of the deck. Made sure to wet it soak into the endgrain though some of it came off when I ground off the CSM hanging off the side. We added the reinforcements which also helped to level the deck at the edges. We later added a transverse reinforcing strip of 3/4'' ply to the center of the 2nd sheet for good measure. 3/4'' marine ply doesn't flex much, and 1.5'' really doesn't flex. My '87 BMW K75C is in the background (with its '90s paint fade) and Brian's Mini.

Lugged the plywood back into the boat, drilled all the pilot holes through them and into the stringers and countersunk the pilot holes in the deck.

Deck is permanently screwed down. Brian brought some West System resin syringes which we used to fill the pilot holes with resin. We made two passes since it soaked in a bit. Wet out the top of the stringers and bottom side of the deck where it comes in contact with the stringers and bulkheads. Spread peanut butter on the bulkheads and over the pilot holes. Laid the deck down. Squirted resin onto the countersunk holes for good measure. And finally, ran the screws down. We finished up around 1 am Sunday.

Brian picked up some new 6'' deck plates for access to the fuel tank connections. I jigsawed those holes and sealed the endgrain with resin after the CSM cured on the bottom side.

I'll be back at it this weekend. I have to experiment with deck glassing and gelcoating. Still shooting to lay CSM, roving and CSM, sanding then a couple coats of gelcoat with the traction grit some US-C. Also need to fill over the screws and the gap between the deck and hull sides. I have about 7 gallons of resin left.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...-repair/297494-if-i-wanted-to-gelcoat-my-deck


8 years ago I posted here about it and it seems that the CSM can be sanded smooth before gelcoating. I'm gonna try doing that with some scrap and seeing how it comes out. The gelcoated deck is a big part of this project so I wanna make it look good.

 

[Woodonglass]

Yup you can sand the resin prior to gelcoating. If you want a smooth deck surface the KEY is to Butt NOT overlap your CSM Joints. Also when you lay the 6oz glass make sure it overlaps the CSM Joints. this ensure's it's all sealed well. Also do a Good job rolling it out with the bubble buster.

 

[ezmobee]

Really really top notch work.