$160 Bayliner capri 1500

[smokerx]

Bought this 1988 fully expecting a rotten deck, Broke engine and blown out transom. Comes with a force 50.
So far I've ripped out the faux grass carpet, removed the pool noodles glued to the side. Greased all the grease points, including the trailer axles. Picked the lock to the glove box and found the engine safety switch. bent the engine stop bracket back into place, ordered the parts missing for the trailer lock and reverse lock and replaced the bow light that must have flown of when towing.

Didn't bother inspecting the boat on pick up. Just worried about having my paper work ducks in a row. Upon tearing the carpet up the back section of the boat cut out and redone in old fence planks. No glass open seems. Steering and remote shifter seems in working order and engine not seized. Cleaned the carb and waiting on a primer bulb to see if she`ll fire. Noticed the Ribs in the battery bank are cut out and rotted from being opened with cutting. Luckily the ribs butt up against the stringers and the rot ends there. I`m thinking I can get away with replacing just the middle of these ribs and glassing them back in to the stringers for support. Also screwing the floor up into the seat wells cross braces for better floor support. As of now, with neither, the cut floor is floating here and feels unsupported around battery well.

Noticed the plastic drain tubes for the motors splash well are rotted, poked a finger in, one came up mush but the other feels fine. The garboard drain has no tube but wood feels fine. Temporarily shoved modified 1/2 -3/4 pvc reducers connected with a 1/2" pipe into the top drains and a length of pvc behind the brass drain on the garboard until I figure out what I plan on doing about the transom. The PVC drain tubes are getting glued in permanently. They look bretty good for $2.20 a piece and much more rigid and rot resistant. Probably going to glass in the garboard and redrill to keep that wood protected.

Not sure about what to do about the partial rot on the transom. She seems pretty solid. probed the hole down with a wire and got pretty deep into rot. Definitely next step is to pull the engine and examine the bolt through holes and possibly start core sampling. Saw a product discussing cutting in from the top and coring only the rotten portion and gluing in a ply wood patch. Also considering a full transom replacement.

 

[jbcurt00]

Didn't bother inspecting the boat on pick up. Just worried about having my paper work ducks in a row. Upon tearing the carpet up the back section of the boat cut out and redone in old fence planks

old fence boards probably werent a good choice.

lots of good info in the resto forum, dig in and good luck w your project

 

[poconojoe]

Wow! It's amazing what people will do to "fix" something! Just slap together any old crap laying around the yard!

 

[Old Ironmaker]

150 bucks. Less than a cart full of groceries with no meat around here. Sounds like you are the guy to get this done, right. I hope those fence boards were pressure treated. I found basically the same thing but was the place we are living now. Extension cords and that old UHF flat brown TV wire used for wiring to plugs and light switches, with scorch marks on the 2x3 support walls.

 

[Woodonglass]

Uhmm if you want the boat to be safe for the water, you probably need to do a more thorough search here on the forum to understand and learn how to restore the boat properly. OLD FENCE boards will NOT get the job done safely!!!:faint2:

 

[Scott Danforth]

here are some links to start reading https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boa...r/295740-how-to-s-and-other-great-information

 

[smokerx]

Keep forgetting to take pics when I`m out there but it's on the list to do. Ripped out the old carpet and fence planks. The Auroco ply was just too unavailable so settled with BC from the local outlet store. Doesn't seem that horrible. Only had 1 visible internal void on a cross member support I cut out so far. Was told the Auroco was available so spent a sunday driving the 80 miles round trip to find out it wasn't available and have a small manager give me a tough guy routine. I didnt have the slightest of attitudes about it,this guys attitude was solely based on this guys obvious disregard and lack of caring.

Installed and fiber glassed in a single cross member and got replacement deck cut out and glassed the bottom. Trolled the iboats forum into thinking I goofed and forgot styrene dissolved paraffin to see what the forum thought and have been using a combination of hairspray and wax paper to fully cure the polyester resin with fair results. Cheapest I`m seeing a gallon of polyester is $41 shipped and $50 shipped for the gallon of Epoxy. Decided to hold off any more glassing until I get a proper fiberglass roller. Found out the hard way on the deck bottom this tool is a MUST. Feeling down about the quality of glass work on that bottom but It should be all right. Feel like if water contacts there it should just splash on and fall off. Also switching over from a brush to a foam roller for the rest of the glass work.

When removing the old floor support cross members, it was hard to tell, but I swear that rots strand orientation revealed OSB from OEM.

Also got a quote from China for 53 gallons of Epoxy resin at $32 a gallon Delivered and insured to port. I'd have to pay the import fees or any hidden port costs. Between that,gas to drive to my port city and the Minimum being 53 gallons. I`m thinking $50 to my door per gallon is worth it.

 

[Woodonglass]

Bayliner is NOT recognized as a Quality boat builder but...I must say I've never heard of them using OSB. But here's the thing to remember, even OSB will work IF it is properly prepped, glassed, and maintained. No wood will rot if it's encapsulated and sealed properly and then has no breaches in that encapsulation.

 

[smokerx]

The "ribs" appear to me to be mainly for deck support and maybe some flexing of the hull. Could be I`m mistaking the orientation of the strands between veneers of plywood for OSB but can't find a plywood manufacturing process that would create this. Hard to tell digging it out with the consistency of a quality compost.

 

[smokerx]

Here's how I tackle the front seats. I got the foam for free from an old outdoor couch.
The thread is generic upholstery thread from the big box store.
The vinyl is marine grade.
The method of upholstering I haven't seen a tutorial on. It's basically the no sew method with a little sewing
I sewed it on a standard home singer (low power not industrial) with an 18 gauge sewing needle using straight stitch through 2 layers of vinyl. Tension settings where what the machines manual suggests aka default tension.

I painted the boards with outdoor deck paint and rounded out the edges.
When I began uphosltering the vinyl I began with the corners and pinched the excess into the corner making a triangle shape of excess and cut this off leaving about 1/2" of excess to create the stitch with. I then peeled these layers back and drew a line with a marker into the corner. Onto the excess. This is where the stitch will go. (picture 1)

letting go of the fabric. and touching the lines up into the "corner" of the stitch it should look like thispicture 2)
I spent a day figuring out how to make a sewing machine work without jamming it and another day practicing this stitch on a piece of scrap to gain confidence.

 

[smokerx]

To sew this up. folding it the opposite way should bring the edges of the vinyl together. Since they where cut out with the same cut from the step of cutting the triangle of excess out. This should line up both sharpie marks. I only used one sharpie mark as a guide on where to place the stitch. I placed the stitch on the inside of the sharpie mark to get a tighter stitched corner. If the stitch was started late. By placing the foot too far down into the stitch. I could add another stitch after test fitting and finding a gap in the stitch at the very top corner. The stitch was a simple straight stitch ending with a back stitch and followed by trimming off excess vinyl and tying up the loose ends.

 

[smokerx]

Once the stitch is turned right side out it looks like this. Here's a pic of the corner once mounted. The hard part is how to tackle the corners in the "no sew method " My answer was learning how to use the sewing machine and sewing in the corners. Once I learned how to shoot a straight stitch I suddenly became confident in fully boxing. adding piping and maybe even french stitches since these are all variations of a straight stitch. But based on my 1 day of experience with a sewing machine I decided to KISS and feel this way has less seams as potential failure points. I also wasn't terribly unhappy with the way examples of the no stitch method on seats turned out but know i would knit pick my work and my mind would be focused on the folded corners. I feel this is an improved version and not at all difficult to tackle as someone with no sewing experience.

 

[smokerx]

Heres a pic of the final results and a pic of an example of how they could look by learning and utilizing all of the sewing skills.

https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boa...990-bayliner-capri-some-photos-and-a-question

And a link to that thread with additional pics of how a no sew method turned out.

Still lots of work to do on my project boat.

 

[smokerx]

Since my boat came with no seats I found these pics helpful on how they where originally constructed.

Updates from where I've been is the back deck portion is now fully complete with carpet. I finished cutting the carpet for the rest of the boat and removed all of the pool noodles astroturf and remnants of corresponding construction adhesive and caulking. Carpeting and redecking where pretty standard and uneventful. I've decided not to glue any carpet down since the front deck was almost soft and I expected to have to pull this new carpet up. Since the first post its deteriorated more and I've decided on a way to tackle it.

My plan was to skin the top glass to the deck wood between the bench seats. Remove the wood and recore it leaving the old bottom glass in place. Pour thickened resin into the seems where new core meet old core to bond them together and reskin the top glass using the old glass section and new glass.

Unfortunately once I got in there there was no bottom glass. And a coated deck screw. The core beyond the top glass is not resin soaked and unprotected from the bottom side. This is where water flows from if it jumps over the bow and exits through the transoms bilge area. The coated deck screw indicates to me this is an aftermarket modification. There's also a exposed 2x4 put in to provide something for the new deck core to attache to. hence the deck screw. Without the bottom portion of glass this should get fun now.

My ideas are to add another glassed in support rib up here to replace the 2X4 and glass the bottom of the deck patch outside of the boat. Perhaps enough thickened resin with filler puttied into the cracks could sit without falling out to bond the old deck to new.

Another idea: completely unconventional. paper board. glassing the top surface up could create the rigidity to replace the missing bottom glass section for the patch and weather proof the bottom side of the core patch. I`m assuming the paper board would soak up enough resin to protect the underside of the paper board but the paper board only needs to last until the bottom glass hardens. This is introducing potential rotten material into whatever hull section this is called... Wash? And also would create a gap between the new deck core patch and new glassed deck support rib. Putting cardboard into this joint. Not saying this is a great idea just speculating along the lines of the engineer that developed cardboard stringers.

 

[smokerx]

After taking the front section of the deck apart. In the bow cockpit..where the bench seats go..all the way to the driver and passenger area. Not sure what is stock on this bayliner since it's obvious someone has been in here before me so mileage may vary. I believe this portion of deck tucks under the bench seat boxes about 3 inches. With a rib where this portion of deck meets the driver passenger deck area running port to starboard and "beams" running bow to stern under where this deck portion meets the bench seat boxes. Hesitant to call these "beams" stringers since they are not and look to only serve deck purposes. Again perhaps these are an aftermarket mod. unique to this project. These supports look to be what secures this portion of deck.

Still just about impossible in my mind to install this deck portion as a single piece without taking out the front bench seat boxes. The closest I can think is cutting this deck portion in half down the middle bow to stern and adding an additional "beam" crippled off of the rib ive mentioned down the middle to catch the bisecting of this deck portion and allow the ability to bond the now 2 deck portions back with filler and resin.

The other option I see is chopping the deck portion in 3. for the center piece to catch half of the rib. Half of each "beam" and the other 2 pieces to be tucked under the bench seats. Again catching half the "beams" and half the rib on either side of the center main portion of deck being replaced.

I got sloppy. Since the left portion of deck under this seat box was not rotten. I did not take this small section of deck out that would have allowed access to this "beam" the right side was tackled as I've described in the latter option. Since the "beams" do not seem to run all the way to the front(bow) section of the deck and there is no fiberglass or resin on the underside of this deck to leave in place to catch the "filler" of thickened resin and epoxy fillers when I attempt to bond the deck sections together I figure this is a moot point since I would be running into the same problem of not having a backing to catch the filler in places. In this manner I just included the entire right side to this complication by not removing the small portion of good deck here.

First. Someone did attempt to poorly cripple a central deck support out of a 2X4 but left it unprotected as far as fiberglass. SO I started by wetting this 2x4 the "beams" and the back "rib" out with resin. This 2X4 can stay since it can bare the load of the this deck patch. the only thing I did to it is drop some additional screws in to secure it properly.

Second, I wetted out all the edges of old deck I had exposed and wetted out and fiberglassed the bottoms of my 2 pieces of deck. Dropped them in similar to what I describe in the 3 piece option excluding the left piece. and used a thickened resin with saw dust as filler material and just filled without a support at the bottom of this channel in about half my gaps. The other half had the beams and ribs. The filler did slump down where there was nothing to catch it. But not all the way out. I mixed this hot(2%?) and thick with saw dust. Then once it gelled and cured up it created the catch I needed to catch the additional filler to complete bonding in the spots where the gaps started as just an open hole for resin to drop through.

After this bonding process I wetted out the new deck portion along with the old fiber glass top skins and rebonded them using weights and wax paper to press them down while the curing process kicked off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBXxt024bbE

basically forced to modify this technique without the bottom skin.

Then I sanded and band aided all of my seams with fiberglass and resin. In the tip of the bow there is a portion of decking that breaks off into an angle in 2 triangles. This front portion looks to be where wood core meets a portion with no wood core and is just pure fiberglass bonding to the decks top skin. I really laid on the band aids thick but especially here to rebond this section.

I was planning on placing an additional layer of fiberglass cloth over all of this, but after it dried it feels to be as strong as the now complete back portion of decking and i'm assured all of the wood is properly sealed. so an additional layer of cloth may be nice I'm not concerned with it as necessary. How many layers would be nice? ALL OF THEM put enough layers and you wont notice when the wood deck core rots out beside wooden bits in your bilge pump is my take on this.

Now about bonding using filler. I used polyester resin. In wood work a wood glue joint is considered stronger than the wood. Now is the filled joint stronger than wood? messing with resin it seems to be a bit harder than wood. Considering it can be used as a hull material and deck material solely, given the proper thickness, I`m not concerned with bonding deck section this way as a potential weak spot in the deck although I feel the need to keep it to a minimum as far as how many times the deck gets bonded to other deck portions.

Someone also recommended to me resorcinal "resin" or "glue" as a potential for marine grade bonding agent for this application. That assuredly seems wrong here unless pertaining to a unique application. Although appears to be the stuff to make marine grade ply wood. 1. The joint must be absolutely perfect without gap. The joint must be placed under pressure with clamps and curing humidity must be kept to a minimum. Also I can find no data that it is better at bonding or how it plays into repairs as far as wet/dry polyester or epoxy being present in the work areas.

 

[Redtruck12]

Having a hard time following everything you are talking about
do you have any pictures..... ones that don’t show upholstery maybe?

 

[steve_h7]

Now about bonding using filler. I used polyester resin. In wood work a wood glue joint is considered stronger than the wood. Now is the filled joint stronger than wood? messing with resin it seems to be a bit harder than wood. Considering it can be used as a hull material and deck material solely, given the proper thickness, I`m not concerned with bonding deck section this way as a potential weak spot in the deck although I feel the need to keep it to a minimum as far as how many times the deck gets bonded to other deck portions.

Someone also recommended to me resorcinal "resin" or "glue" as a potential for marine grade bonding agent for this application. That assuredly seems wrong here unless pertaining to a unique application. Although appears to be the stuff to make marine grade ply wood. 1. The joint must be absolutely perfect without gap. The joint must be placed under pressure with clamps and curing humidity must be kept to a minimum. Also I can find no data that it is better at bonding or how it plays into repairs as far as wet/dry polyester or epoxy being present in the work areas.

It sounds like you're describing "peanut butter"? Made by mixing resin, cabosil, and 1/4" chopped strand fibers which create a very thick paste that can be used as a filler or glue. The chop strand seems to make it very strong.

 

[Woodonglass]

Resorcinol is use mainly in WOOD boats.
I too, am a bit confused by your questions. this link might be informative for you...

Fabricating Decks, Stringers, and Transoms