89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Well,i ordered the nida bond today. Shipping is outrageous!!! 147$ a pail for product and 40$ to ship, plus 25$ for hazardous chemical shipping that ups charges!!!! +++ tax... so it cost roughly 225$ Its worth it, to know that that my stringers are going to be made of something non rottable.
So far ive ordered 5gallons of 435 resins, 5yards of csm, 1 quart of gelcoat, 5 gallons of nida bond, and 3 sheets of marine plywood. Looking at roughly 675$ worth of product and shipping costs for those of you interested.
Ordered csm, gel coat, and resin from uscomposites. Nida bond from apdmro.com. and plywood locally.........
Heres a couple more pics of post sanding

Closer each day!!

Matt

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I decided to go with my original plan, and shave a quarter inch off the bottom of the transom plate inside the boat. Everything looked pretty good, but i was glad i did this, because it appears that they didn't gel coat this area underneath. Anyone have any idea why they wouldn't gel coat the bottom of this exposed wood?????
Here's the cut off area with the cut samples, so you can see the quality of the wood.

I got a pretty clean cut on the straight area. The drain plug area will need a little clean up. Here are the pics of the cuts. The wood on these cuts looks better than the pics.

I'll just re fiber glass and gel coat all this newly exposed area.

Matt

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Anyone out there? Gel coat underneath question?

 

[rickryder]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

They were lazy or didn't care..... It's all about pushing units out the door to sell not quality and craftmanship.....

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Well, I've been working on the boat a little at a time. I've just been busy, and unable to post. I made cardboard molds for the nida bond. I left a tiny hole to pour the nida bond through a funnel or cardboard gutter. VERY IMPORTANT. This so called "pourable" transom compound is not so pourable. I would lean closer to calling it gloppable. I had to pull about 1/3 of the upper cardboard mold back to get the nida bond in. Here is the mold, and post mold fill, with a Dowell rod to support the mold.

I'll post pictures of the cardboard sanded off tomorrow.

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I'm not even sure anyone is reading this, because there haven't been any comments, but I'll continue to post my progress. Here is a picture of the cardboard mold sanded off. It turned out pretty decent considering it isn't exactly "pourable". In the picture, you can see one small area still cardboarded. This was an area that had not become completely filled due to it leaking out the bottom a small bit. I basically just made a little more, filled the hole, and put a cardboard patch over it.

Here is a pic of the other side. It's a little more difficult to see, but you get the idea.

 

[xanthras]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Hey man, I am watching your progress. I am no expert, and they may disagree, but if you ask me you caught it in the nick of time for the transom. If it got much farther you might have been in trouble. I think you did a nice job so far. I personally would avoid pulling the motor myself because it seems a bit out of my skill set. Keep going. As you already know check out frisco and Oops for guidance.

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I've been busy but here are some updated pictures of my progress. With the transom filled and ready for fiber glass,i decided to start working on rebuilding the motor mounts. In order to do this,i had to support the engine before i could rip out one motor mount. So,i made a cardboard fitting under the engine that fit snugly against the mounts as well as the hull of the boat, and then i copied this to half inch plywood. It fit very snugly, and supported the engine easily.

I then was able to cut out the outer portion of one motor mount and feel comfortable that it was supported.

I could now begin my molding project for the nida bond motor mounts. This was a major feat of the project for me.

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I added a fresh layer of csm to the back exposed fiber glass of the old motor mount, and then i began cutting out pieces of cardboard that matched the contour of the boat hull to make my mould. Once i got the pieces shaped correctly,i covered them in wax paper and stapled it to the cardboard. I then just used this green frog painters tape to hold it in place to the hull.

Then i poured my nida bond in the gap. I used a piece of 2x4 to help support the inside, but it didn't really need it.

It pulled off pretty easily after it was completely dried, and it turned out pretty awesome.

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

After i peeled this cardboard waxed paper off,i ground down the nida bond a little. I wiped the whole thing down with acetone. I then proceeded with a layer of csm, let it dry, then woven layer of fiber glass, then ground down the rough spots, then added a final layer of csm to smooth the whole thing down.

It's so ridiculously strong now. I didn't picture the part where i drilled the holes, and placed the bolts, but you get the idea.

 

[Struc]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Looks great. I'd love to see some pictures of the finished product with the bolts, etc. when you have a chance.

 

[SENECAII]

89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I'm watching,i have a 1990 Freedom 170 and had someone else do the stringers and floor but watching your progress.

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I'm glad to hear that people are reading and enjoying my thread. I've been unable to work on the project here recently, but soon will be on it again. Here is a picture of the engine mounts with the bolts through it.

My next area of work will be the stringers. Cardboard and wax paper Wish me luck.

 

[sheph]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

I'm reading along, and checking out your pictures. Thanks for posting! I've actually got my own '89 Freedom 160 thread going. I haven't had time to work on it much. It was so hot in the summer months that I couldn't stand to be all suited up for very long. Now that it's cooling down I'm hoping to get some more done on it.

 

[mbible]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

How is project coming? Watching your progress. Thanks

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Well, the last couple weekends have consumed me. I've either been out of town, or the weather has been horrible. I had worked on the transom a little bit. I did some fiber glass coating. I basically started off with the csm and alternated with the woven. I am doing a couple layers of each with a final csm layer to give it a smooth surface. Also.... I cleaned between each layer with acetone. have some pictures, but i don't have them on the device im posting off of. I'll be sure and post those this coming weekend. It's taking a little longer than expected, but there are always snags in plans.I'll keep y'all updated. Give me a nudge if you don't hear from me!!

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Well, the weather was nice for a few weekends, and I managed to get some work done on the old boat. I finally finished up glassing the transom area where I had made some cuts underneath to assess the wood quality. I wanted to get all this done before I poured the mould for the stringer section to the transom, as it would have made it difficult to access. Here's a pic of the transom looking under the engine with the freshly glassed area.

I'll just cover it all with some white gel/coat resin to make it pretty.
I made a mould like the others, out of cardboard and parchment paper to go from the engine mount to the transom. I ended up pouring these a little shorter than needed, and ended up having to glass a little heavier on the tops. Overall though, it turned out rather nice looking. Here is a pic of the pour of nida bond from engine mount blocks to transom, they're pretty much the same.

And here are those two small sections all glassed in.

In retrospect, I'm wondering if I could have used nida bond honeycomb paneling for all this stringer area. I think it was definitely a good idea to have the nida bond for the engine mount base because it's more of a solid product, and I really only had the option of buying a five gallon pail of nida bond, so, the way I figure it,I might as well use something I paid for.
And.....I think I remember reading something somewhere that said it is better to have a one piece stringer, or tongue and groove it for continual one piece strength. Im not really sure how I would have done that with honeycomb. Probably achievable, but who cares. The 1/2" to 3/4"paneling ranges anywhere from 60-100$ for h8pp full sheet. I know,I just purchased some from apdmro.com for my pontoon re-deck. It was 75$ for the 20mm( 3/4"roughly -4'x8' most sites only carry the 4x7). The nice thing is that you can get free shipping on purchases over 350$.
I've also started pouring sections of the stringers in the front of the engine mount. I'll post more after lunch.

Matt

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Matt: pix didn't post

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Arrrggg...ill see if I can fix it

 

[mbasonic]

Re: 89 Four Winns Freedom 170 Floor / Stringer Rebuild PICS

Ok, so the next part was done this past weekend. I have poured three sections of nida bond for the stringers in the front so far. I really thought I had my mould perfected this time. I cut many half inch blocks of wood and drilled holes through each one. I then placed these in the center of the mould evenly spaced and used zip ties to hold the cardboard perfectly tight. I poured the first section on the left hand side looking toward the front of the boat. It was kind of cold that night, so the next morning I awoke and it was still pliable. Fortunately I needed it slightly moveable as it had leaned towards the center of the boat slightly. I simply taped to the side of it and pulled it towards the edge of the boat. Unfortunately my mould wasn't perfect, and it was slightly like cathedral windows that are thick at the bottom and thin at the top. Although it still had its half inch thickness at the top. I only wasted some nida bond by having the bottom cardboard pieces separate a little at the bottom.

I then attached another section of cardboard/parchment moulding to the end, to extend it further. You can actually see it in all of these pictures. However, my mould became fantastic!! I added a strip of would on the lower end of the mould(the section towards the center of the boat) This time it turned out perfect. It stopped the lower cardboard from sliding outward.

So,I started the other side while this was still wet, and I used the same technique there. Once again, it turned out great.

I'm at about a tenth of a bucket left of nida bond. I had to order some more. I should have enough to do another small section. My initial calculations would have had one pail being enough, but my engine mounts were a little larger. I lost some in moulds expanding, and lost about an inch and a half of the top of the bucket each time I revisited my project. The first layer just hardens being exposed to air. I've found the best way to prevent this is pushing a Wal-Mart bag all the way down touching the nida bond, evenly covering it, then another bag over the top, then lid. It also didn't help that the pails are never fully filled with five gallons. Oh well....

Matt