Restoration 1983 16.5 FT Canadian Thundercraft

[bktheking]

Here is a pre destruction pic of one of my pride and joys (now it is at least)

I've been a member for a while but haven't posted about my restore yet.
I bought this boat last year from my boss for $2500 , $500 less than what he was asking, guess it was a "I know you price". I had a 16ft Bass Tracker the year before but having 3 kids in the household plus an occational dog in the boat the bass tracker was a little uncomfortable to say the least so I sold it and bought the bowrider. Last year I had the boat out quite a bit, mechanically it is tip top, the v4 runs like a sewing machine (42mph) plus it has trim/tilt which the tracker didn't. It was a cadillac compared to the tracker. I was told that the previous owner (the one before my boss) rarely used it and as far as he knew it had less that 300 hrs on it. When I bought it I checked it over, seemed like in was in really good shape. So I Winterize it, pull it out in the spring and go to put the battery in it. Tip the rear bench forward and the right side screws rip out of the floor. Oh oh, better get maaco. I'm not the type to just ignore something like that so I start poking around, find a soft spot. Get out the jigsaw and start cutting and cutting some more.

As you can see I guess the boat I bought wasn't so mint after all and yes that can of gas would have come handy to set the pile of rotting wood on fire. However my parents didn't raise a criminal or an arsonist and i'm not rich by any means to be able to buy a new boat so the only alternative is a little money, piles of time and a good friend next door to me who just happens to be a master at the saw and fibreglassing. A word about doing this, if you think you will finish this in a weekend you are wrong. If you think that float foam doesn't hold water you are wrong. If you think you won't itch like a crazy person after you start cutting for 10 minutes, you are wrong.

This project by far is the most labour intensive thing I have ever done and I've done quite a bit.

My plan was to try and remove all the rotten wood and just replace the deck. Wrong. When you get to the stringers take a screw driver and poke around, mine went right through the stringer like it was styrofoam. Nice, what have I gotten myself into?

So I start looking at the forums trying to figure out what I need and how to do it. I'm going to outline what I did, post some pics of the destruction and get feedback on what I did right or wrong.

The deck was removed using a combination of jigsaw, sawzall and air die grinder. I cut the edges of the deck using the die grinder with the intention of leaving a lip for the new wood to sit under. The bow of the boat was relatively in tact, had good wood compared to the rest of the boat so the idea was to remove everything up to the console. The boat had a ski storage area at the front which drove me nuts because it was a source for water intake and had this annoying drop in wood hatch that would move around everytime it was walked on so it had to go. I don't have a big fancy garage or hoist to do this the way it should have been done, seperating the top from the boat so I had no choice but to try and blend the new deck into the old bow deck.

The stringers were removed front to back on the right side. The fibreglass on the right side stringer was missing in some spots inidicative of what I'd consider to be poor construction. The wood between the 2 stringers holding the tank in had rusted staples and broke apart like peanut brittle. Once the stringer was removed water was sitting in the bottom track where the stringer was, the base of the stringer was black indicating mold. I cut the stringers and glass with the sawzall up until a foot from the stern/transom. I removed that last 1 ft of wood to keep for templating the new stringer.


The floatation foam was also soaked. My first attempt to remove it with the sawzall just made a mess so I tried using a shovel which removed it in much larger pieces. By this point I had 3 garbage bag's full and climbing.

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[bktheking]

Re: Restoration 1983 16.5 FT Canadian Thundercraft

As you can see the left side stringer wasn't in that great a shape either. I was debating on leaving it in and splicing pieces in where the rotten stuff was but my gutt told me to replace the entire stringer, I may as well do it right or what would be the point. The other puzzler was gas tank straps. Why drill straps into the stringer instead of raising it by using foam? Water can get into the screw holes and rot the stringer, has anyone else used foam for the tank to rest on?

This pic is pre construction. The stringers and deck are removed, everything that needs to be sanded is sanded , the interior has been vacuumed and pressure washed.

On the inside chine of the boat they used 2 x 2 wood which was also rotten and had to be removed, the fibreglass was cut and the wood removed as seen on the right and left sides of the deck (or lack thereof) I left the fibreglass in place, the plan was to use construction adhesive (the good PL stuff) to glue the new 2x2 down to the hull and then epoxy over them.

Fence post at the front the bow was cut , pl premium adhesived in place , screwnailed into the deck and then coated with epoxy. I used 1 x 7 pine for the stringers (it was the only wood the was tall enough at the builder supply) which was cut it 1 piece and contoured to the hull using a planer and belt sander, this was a long process, 3 or so hrs per stringer to get it perfect. The height and contour was attained by using a string tacked to the transom and the wood at the console. Measurements were taken every 4 inches and drawn on the wood. We realized they weren't going to go in in one piece so the stringer was cut in the center of the boat in order to be installed, front first then the back. We used PL Adhesive to glue the stringers down to the hull and used the adhesive where the 2 joints met in the middle.

2 x 4 was cut , bonded to the stringer using gorilla glue and then fastened to the stringer using 2 1/2" deck screws. The rear of the gastank brace was 2 x 6 pressure treated wood, installed with 3" deck screws and then drilled out for tank lines and hoses. At this point the stringers could be jumped on without shift and it hasn't been glassed yet, the pl adhesive is some strong stuff.

 

[bktheking]

Re: Restoration 1983 16.5 FT Canadian Thundercraft

Front bracing is installed for the gas tank using the same pressure treated wood. It was felt that the bracing on the old deck and the elimination of the ski storage area needed reinforcing so we installed additional bracing. We didn't fibreglass the braces, they were coated with epoxy which should be enough to keep water out. The stringers and rear brace are glassed in using 10 oz glass and West System epoxy. I researched glassing beforehand and read the recommendation from this site that West System is the best choice for doing the work.

Picture of the rear glasswork and the holes cut for the fuel tank lines and wiring.

Rear deck installed. The original access at the rear of the boat was too small by my standards and the boat didn't have a bilge pump. The wood for the rear was cut in two pieces down the center and additional bracing was installed (not pictured). The deck was building grade 1/2 ply from Home Depot. The bottom of the deck was epoxied before installation to waterproof it. PL Adhesive was used on the bracing and stringers and then the deck was screwnailed in using 1.5" deck screws. The center seam was also epoxied after installation.


I will continue posting tomorrow