14' Lone Star Transom Replacement

[pckeen]

I've been keeping an eye out for a light 12' or 14' to throw on top our our tent trailer. When I was out buying rivets for the 16' Naden I'm restoring, the dealer indicated he had bought a bunch of government sold boats at auction - he wanted one specifically....but the government department involved said if he wanted that one, he had to buy them all, so he ended up with about a dozen abandoned boats, all of which required work. I bought six (as you can imagine, the price was good).

Might have to visit a doctor for my MBS.



This 22' Holiday 220 was lurking in the weeds nearby. Still not the 25' Chief I've been looking for.

 

[pckeen]

Amongst that pile was the 14' Lone Star, which seems to fit the bill for what I've been looking for.



The transom came out in about 30 minutes, and disintegrated as it fell out. The transom I have is smaller than the length of the boat, and it fit in place by being thrust up from underneath.





I was really pleased to find the original capacity plate and Lone Star plates still attached.



Now the question. You can clearly see here the line where the transom used to be. Does this look right to you, or do I need to build the transom bigger? You can see on the side where there are factory support plates.

 

[jbcurt00]

If it worked originally, I don't see a NEED to put in a taller transom board. It appears that originally, the transom came down to about where the side of the hull started to curve back inward toward the chine. May be tougher to slide a taller plywood transom up into place if it sticks down below where that curve goes the other way.

If it brings piece of mind and you can get it to slide up into place, a larger inner transom board would spread the weight and load of the OB a little further then a short board would. Possible? Maybe. Necessary? Not IMO.

 

[64osby]

MBS on steroids.

The Lone Star looks like a nice project. The transom is much different than mine.

I put the wood back in as designed and added a some extra aluminum for form and function.

I also added some Starcraft corner caps.

Going bigger might create stress where the hull is not designed for it.

 

[pckeen]

Managed to identify this - it is a mid 1950s 14' Lone Star Commander

 

[Watermann]

Nice score on that pile o tin Peter :thumb:

I sure do like the nice curve the old gal has to her bum :heh:

 

[pckeen]

How would a 6 hp work on this (the boat has a 22 hp max, but I need a portable motor, and I'm thinking a 9.9-20hp will be too heavy for easy transport.

 

[jbcurt00]

My 12ft Sylvan goes upriver OK w a vintage 5.5hp, but Im not in a hurry.

Your 14ft may draft less then my 12ft, w the same load it should. Not a speed demon, but just ok, so if you've got access to 1, I'd use 10hp

 

[64osby]

Try to get a twin cylinder. An old 10hp would work great, but they do weigh about 90lbs

My '57 10hp Johnson pushes the boat to 18mph and it has a classic vintage look too.

 

[pckeen]

[QUOTENice score on that pile o tin Peter :thumb:

I sure do like the nice curve the old gal has to her bum :heh:][/QUOTE]

Thanks - I only agreed to buy six of them - fortunately, of the first four, I'm keeping one, and the other three have already found new owners.

My 12ft Sylvan goes upriver OK w a vintage 5.5hp, but Im not in a hurry.

Your 14ft may draft less then my 12ft, w the same load it should. Not a speed demon, but just ok, so if you've got access to 1, I'd use 10hp

That's good to hear. I have a 6hp Chrysler that I tested today - it has spark - not I just need to get a tank and fuel line for it - I'll post on the chrysler site for some advice on there.

Try to get a twin cylinder. An old 10hp would work great, but they do weigh about 90lbs

My '57 10hp Johnson pushes the boat to 18mph and it has a classic vintage look too.

That is a sweet looking 10 horse on a gorgeous Lonestar. I have a 15 hp long shaft Johnson, and an 18 hp long shaft Evinrude of the same vintage (but not looking anything like that nice). Trouble is, at 100 lbs plus, they are just too heavy for regular taking on and off. We will be putting the boat on and off a pop up camper, plus moving the motor in and out of a truck - so the extra weight will make a real difference. Fortuantely, for this boat, speed won't be a priority.

 

[pckeen]

And just to prove I can do more than type, I picked up hardware to replace all the old corroding machine bolts that were holding the transom and bow grip on, replaced the hardware in the bow grip, and cut and have glued up the transom. I'll cut it to shape tomorrow morning and seal it with spar varnish. Here's the transom, just waiting to be cut to final size. Following JBCurt and 64osby's advice, I'll cut it to the original size.




And here's the Chrysler 6hp, just waiting to have a gas tank hooked up to it.

 

[jbcurt00]

I really have no ides how much current there was on the river, but if you're boating on a lake the 6 should do ok.

 

[dozerII]

Great find on all the tin Peter, should help the MBS for a while

 

[64osby]

That's a nice looking 18 Johnson, behind that Chrysler. What year?

A '57 18 Rude pushes our LS to 23 mph with 2 on board.

 

[pckeen]

I haven't checked the plate yet, but it looks to be about a 56.

 

[pckeen]

Transom cut with the first coat of spar varnish. Two more to go.

 

[64osby]

I haven't checked the plate yet, but it looks to be about a 56.

That was going to be my guess.

Nice work on the new wood.:thumb:

 

[pckeen]

Several late nights at work put a dent in boat building time, so other than getting the last two coats on the transom, not much happened, but I had a spare (and busy) hour while it was still light out today, sooo....

Confirmed that both Chrysler's run, though it takes several pulls to get them started.
New transom is in, and about half the bolts are done, but i ran out of light before I could get all fasteners drilled and installed. Still, all in all, not a bad night's work.

 

[pckeen]

And done. Next photos will hopefully be the splash and a leak test.

 

[pckeen]

Successful.....mostly.....leak test. The hard water retreated just enough to drop it in the lake for a leak test. For about 10 minutes, I thought it was perfect, but after a while, there was a very very slow seep from one of the seams in the back. All in all, I'm pretty pleased. In about a week, I'll toss on the 6hp Chrysler, and give it a test run after removing and reinstalling the impeller.