Love, Necessity and Pride

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GT1000000

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Hey,

I recently joined Iboats.com and have been amazed at the incredible amount of information and fantastically helpful nature of all involved.

I would like to make a shout out to everyone that has helped me out so far and thank you all.

Now, on to my latest and greatest project...

The "Bassassin"....

Some of you may be familiar with my recently acquired boat, but most are not.

A quick recap, bought it in July'11, 800 bucks for B,M&T, worked on it for 'bout a month, got it in the water, fished and had fun for about 2-1/2 months, blew the engine, out of the water, and here I am...

Due to my crappy economic situation, I have not been able to get the money together to have my engine rebuilt...

So, being that I have removed the engine, and there are quite a few issues I knew I had to take care of on this old bass boat, I decided that now was as good a time as any to tear into a fairly complete restoration.

This is strictly a labor of love and I have no delusions about the amount of time and work involved, along with the cost. However, I have the skill sets, experience, and the knowledgable folks here on Iboats.com, to help me through.

I have already begun the mission by lifting the cap. This weekend, I hope to have the cap set on horses and the trailer with the hull moved to the backyard.
Just a note: No Live Horses will be Harmed, these are the wooden kind, used as project supports...:rolleyes:

I am somewhat pleasantly surprised to find that the hull seems to be in fairly good condition and that most of my initial concerns are concentrated on the cap.

The biggest repair is going to be a transom replacement. The previous repair by the previous owner? was done by cutting the top of the cap, where it wraps over the transom, and pouring in gobs and gobs of some kind of epoxy. While it was a adequate repair, it was by no means proper, professional or permanent.

Some of the other issues are the decking, the dash, the hatches, and a variety of both cosmetic and functional repairs, upgrades, and modifications that I would like to include in the finished product.

The other major, in my mind, issue has been that whoever decided to paint this boat BLACK, with crappy paint to boot, musta been high! Or thinking they were in some Super Secret Black-Ops Group???

This is a Florida boat...it gets hotter than a Habanero pepper on steriods down here... A Black Boat???:facepalm::confused:

So, part of this resto is a change to a new and improved color selection. I have not decided yet, but it will probably be a paint type finish, as opposed to a gel-coat.
On the cap, that is.

As far as refinishing the hull, I have not figured out what direction I will heading. It mostly needs the transom and some scrapes/scratches repaired, then a refinish.
I will be taking direction from my fellow Iboaters, as to what to do in this regard.

The thinking behind my current insanity is, most of the stuff I have to do to restore this boat are; A- My labor is free, B- the cost of materials are relatively low, C- it will be the way I want it, D- I have Iboats.com to help me out.

Hopefully, in the next few months, years, decades... I will have a nice new toy to play with.

I will post pics of the progress as I go along, and hopefully learn something in the process.;)
Heck, I might even have a tip or 2 for fellow Iboaters to use on their projects:redface:.

Thanks in Advance for all of the great help, feedback, ideas, hints, tips, inspiration, jokes at my expense, etc., etc...

GT1M
 

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GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

First of many questions to come...

Pressure treated plywood or marine plywood?

3/4 X 4 X 8 Marine ply= approximately $90.00 per sheet.
23/32 X 4 X 8 PT Ply= approximately $34.00 per sheet.

I will need approximately 3-5 sheets for the entire project.

Cost is a factor, but if the difference is minimal, which is better for decking and transom replacement.

I know that if I were to use PT Ply, I would have to let it sit and dry out for a period of time.

Is there a concern with the marine ply, as far as having to let it dry out, or can it be used immediately?
 

JDA1975

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

Exterior ply is fine, not pressure treated, since it will be encapsulated in glass, 1/2" would be cheaper and is probably what is in there now. sit down and actually lay out your sheets, on paper, because 3-5 sheets is a big difference. I originally figured 4 sheets for mine but after doing the math and drawing it out, I only need 2 sheets for my 15 footer.
 

boatnut74

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

You can get Auruco ply from Menards or Home Depot for about $40 a sheet. It is good quality, has water proof glue and very few voids.
 

GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

BTW Judge, I just finished reading through your Skeeter redo, and I must say...Very Nice Job! Congrats!
For future reference, if you want really clean sharp lines between your colors, you can use a wallpaper roller, as mentioned in one of the posts, to help seal the edges of the tape, OR...,
you can use a little trick I came up with several years ago, when I worked at Building scenery for TV commercials and Music Videos...
I call it back-painting...
using your boat as an example...
After you applied the white and masked off the areas you were going to paint green,
You can use the same white, and paint it over the masking tape, so as to seal the edge of the tape, let dry and then apply the green. You only need to apply enough paint to effectively seal the edge of the masking tape.
This method works really well on surfaces that are less than perfectly smooth. The white paint fills any voids along the edge of the tape and if any bleeds under, it is the same color that is masked off. When you are done, and you pull the tape off, it looks like it was cut with a razor knife.

I am going with 3/4 ply, or there about, because the original flooring was 3/4 and the transom is 2" thick with two layers of 3/4 ply and 1/2 inch of glass, 1/4 inch on the cap side and 1/4 inch on the hull side...
Plus it keeps me from having to laminate three pieces of ply together, for the transom, instead of just two.
 

JDA1975

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

If it originally had 3/4, stick to it, I just mentioned it for weight, no reason to go bigger if it was half to start...I like that idea of back painting, makes a lot of sense, I thought it was sealed pretty tight but there are a few spots it didnt and that would have solved it for sure. I will try it on my next part, the design in my mind on the cap will have a couple pin stripes as well
 

Woodonglass

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

I'm afraid that taping technique will not work with the Rustoleum and Hardener combination. I'm alsmost certain that it will lift the paint but I could be wrong. Never tried it so not sure, but I know with other painting I have done when the paint dried over the paint and created a seal, when I lifted the tape the paint which has now developed an almost plastic like texture, came off with the paint. But again, I'm just an OLD DUMB OKIE. You might not want to listen to me!!!!:p:eek::D
 

JDA1975

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

good point wood, I did take my tape lines off before it was cured so not sure if it would stay sharp....I might try it on a test place, for now, I think my lines came out fairly well...a little touch up but for most part were sharp...Will definitely give this a little test run though seems like a good idea, but will try on something that wont matter as much.
 

GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

Cap is off, Hull and Trailer moved to the back yard, Saturday, I stock up on Yuengling Beer and start planning and doing.

One big problem is now I am looking at what has become a Blank Canvas... The cap is just begging to be almost completely re-done...Not because of any major structural problems, but because of new design ideas that keep bouncing around in my head...:facepalm:.

I will probably tackle the transom and hull refinish first, since that is the "smallest" job...:D

Completing that part of the project, should help guide my decisions regarding the cap. Whether or not to just repair it and be done with it, or go whole hog and make the modifications I want to it... I'll see...

BTW, Judge, let me know how the test panels work out, because I too have never done this method with your specific paint application. I have used it with variious types of paint finishes , including Latex, Urethane, Lacquer, and Enamels... Woodonglass may be 100% correct about it lifting the paint... maybe a light scuff with a Scotchbrite pad might prevent that from happening???...

GT1M
 

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Woodonglass

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

Here's some pics of the way I recommend rebuilding Decks, Stringers and Transoms. Hope you find them Helpful. befor you cut out the deck I strongly recommend you make and record the measurements of the width of your deck a the transom and midship and at the dash. Also the with at the joint of the top cap. Then After the Top cap is removed use nylon straps to hold the hull's shape while you are removing and installing the new Transom, Stringers and Deck. NOTHING sucks worse than doing all this work only to find that the top cap will not fit back on the boat because the hull has flexed out of shape during the rebuild. Make sure and note the thickness of the transom and make the new one the same so the cap will slip down over if this is how it is installed.

Click the Pics to Enlarge

Decks.jpg
34 Stringers.JPG
TransomBuild.jpg
 

GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

Been looking through some of the restoration threads, and would like to know what is a good material for the backing used to attach the rub rail screws...
I have seen cedar mentioned...?

Got an early start, took some measurements, made some notes, reinforced the hull shape, and started some teardown...

The Transom looks perfect... for a complete replacement, that is...ROT? What ROT?:eek:

Anyhow, at first glance, the stringers seem to be OK???

After I finish tearing out the rest of the transom and do a good cleanup, I will investigate further...

Time for some lunch, then back at it...
 

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oops!

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

you have to be very very careful about your wood selection......

you have metal in a glass boat.......make sure there is a glass barrier between any wood metal contact point or you will be doing this again in 5 years.
 

GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

you have to be very very careful about your wood selection......

you have metal in a glass boat.......make sure there is a glass barrier between any wood metal contact point or you will be doing this again in 5 years.

Hello oops, First of all, let me say that I have looked through every page of your amazing hull stretch. What an incredible accomplishment.:eek:

While I have not read every single post, I have bookmarked several of the pages for reference, while tackling my current first ever restoration on a boat...

Thank you for the inspiration and wealth of knowledge you have supplied to all of us on Iboats...

I too, am awaiting the final chapters on this fantastic journey of yours.

Best of luck and Godspeed.

Now, to my question...
You mentioned metal to glass contact...are you referring to the aluminum angle and straps in one of the pics, or the contact between the aluminum rub rail and the cap?
The aluminum angle and straps were installed by myself when I first got the boat, to help support the fuel tank and strap it down. The reason being that the floor where the fuel tank was sitting, was very soft and in need of the current work I am now doing.

I am aware that if metal and wood are in direct contact with each other, this moisture that collects in between the two will eventually cause one or both to fail, however, in the case of a boat, my uneducated understanding is that there is always supposed to be a layer, or layers, of fiberglass between any wood and metal...even the fasteners, which are all stainless steel are pre-drilled into their locations and should be installed with something like a 5200 sealant on the threads before permanently installing that fastener.

I am also curious as to why the type of wood, if properly prepared, by sealing with resin and glass, and as mentioned above, would have anything to do with this?
I have read in several of the restoration forums, on the internet, and a couple of local marine techs, that if you use PT Plywood, thoroughly dried before use, or even exterior grade ply, prepped as mentioned, they should work just fine...
As a matter of fact, isn't the use of most substrates like wood or foam, basically just a form for the fiberglass to become a structural member, and that most if not all of the strength in a fiberglass boat comes from that structurally formed fiberglass... or am I completely off track??? Please, clarify.

If I am missing something, Please, let me know...
Thanks,
GT1M

PS- just a little further along in the tear out...
 

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GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

New question comes to mind...

All of that foam that I have to remove in order to replace the transom, is it absolutely necessary? If not, can I remove it from the rest of the hull?
I feel that it is just a haven for possible water absorption, but if it is absolutely necessary, what type of expanding foam is that and what weight should it be?
 

Woodonglass

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

You can use the Blue or Pink Slab foam sold at Lowe's or HD. It will NEVER absorb water and is easy to cut to shape.
 

oops!

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

gotta run....ill answer when i get back....you are bang on with a lot of stuff......but you cant use pt ply with alum....it causes a galvanic response....eats the alum...

however....the glass enclosure will slow it down....but it will still leach.

see ya when i get back
 

Woodonglass

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

Uhhh, OOPS, this IS a Glass boat, sooooo while Treated Ply is not my first choice, it should be ok to use, as long as it is dry.
 

GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

You can use the Blue or Pink Slab foam sold at Lowe's or HD. It will NEVER absorb water and is easy to cut to shape.

Thanks WoG,

That's a good idea, BUT, the real question is...

Do I really need to put this in?
This stuff seems like it was put in there for sound absorption, doesn't really look structural, I may be wrong...wouldn't be the first time:redface:
Plus I am never really going to be blasting along at full throttle for more than few minutes, so the noise really doesn't bother me...And...

If I do, should it be glued down with some kind of adhesive?

Thanks, GT1M
 

GT1000000

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

Just a quick update, Most of the ROT is removed from the transom area and now begins the fun part...Grinding, Yeah Baby!

Some ideas have already begun to pop into my skull...
1- I am going to seal all of the holes in the bilge drain area and after the new transom is in place, I am going to re-drill them in a lower position to aid water drainage.
2- All of the extra holes in the transom will be sealed, except for the engine bolt holes.
3- The splash drain will also be sealed and re-drilled after the transom replacement, only because it is off center by about an inch and that bothers me...
4- I can already see in several places throughout the hull, that I either have to remove all of this foam, or cut drainage channels, because there are a lot of places where water collects, this also bothers me...
5-I have not drilled into the stringers, yet...but everything still seems pretty solid. Tomorrow will tell...
6- Both of the live wells have overflow drains that come out through the hull, quite close to the water line...This too, bothers me, I don't like the idea of extra holes in the hull, so, I am going to seal them up and re-route the over flow drains to the main live well drain, which exits under water right next to the bilge drain.
7- Instead of using rubber hoses for all of the plumbing, I am going to replace them with PVC tubing and short pieces of rubber hose connecting the various live well fill and drain lines.

Anyhow, since I am just getting started, I don't have all the details set up. I do not have an indoor workspace so everything happens at Mother Nature's whim...but I will be setting up lighting to work at night, and a portable shelter, to work under the rain.

More updates soon...

GT1M
 

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Woodonglass

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Re: Love, Necessity and Pride

I'm pretty sure if you took core samples of your foam you would discover that there is water in the lower portions of all of it. If she were mine, I'd remove it ALL!!! From the looks of it, I'd say that your foam is not a structural part of your hull and therefore does not need to be replaced with pour in foam. It's up to you whether or not you want to replace it but if she were mine I would. If you do the deck properly you should be able to minimize the amount of water getting below deck in the future but it always seems to occur no matter how hard we try to keep it out. I would highly recommend core sampling the stringers. You might get lucky and have them be solid but better safe than sorry. I think your overall thinking and plan is sound.
 
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