1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

I wish epoxy ratio's were a bit more fine tunable like poly resin.. 1% in the heat up to 2% in the 60's......

Fast may be too fast. Futzing w/ it trying to spread it well/thin/thick/even etc it started to gel in the mixing cups. I suspect that the shop got too cool last night & the reaction was slowed. Once slowed it may take a good kick start to begin to cure again. Rats, that may doom this layer to being scrapped/sanded off & redone.

We'll see in the am. Hope for the best, plan for the worst........................................

Just like my normal day in, day out routine @work :facepalm: Just hopefully no more IMMEDIATE need road trips this month.

I got boat building I need to accomplish.

 

[59 Fatty]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Yep, at LEAST 225lbs......


I have a few motors that need to be moved around, what I really need is an engine hoist that I can roll in & out of my make shift shop.....


What we really need to work on these beasts is the forklift in that ^^^ pix

BTW: Have you noticed the Johnson bronze & white Fat50 on flea-bay lately? It's in Fl somewhere............

couldn't find the motor on ebay. Can u post it? TGIF ready to get my fatty off the transom.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

$399 no bids
$299 no bids
$249 no bids

Ended 11/11. Not yet relisted. No other items for sale from seller.

I think it 'was' a short shaft, the only peeling paint is on the extension leg. Never seen a Fat50 in Holiday Bronze & White. Don't know if it's a re-paint of a gold & white or just an option I've never seen..........

Listed as non-op/parts motor. And it's missing the exhaust trim rings. Else I know nothing about it.....

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

No good news to report on the epoxy drying/curing situation.... :grumpy: :rain: :rant::mad2:


Not what I wanted to see this am, not at all. Looks like there will be some work in my future to get this mess cleaned up. Still giving it all the additional heat I can today while I'm desk bound & not able to do anything about it.

Later........... TGIF!

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

That Fatty 50 got repainted if you ask me, looks like it sorta matches that glasser it's saddled with.

Epoxy that will never cure? I've never used it before, opting for the other route of sealing transom plywood.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

IDK, but maybe a PO did paint it. Gold & white w/ all the chrome isn't everyone's favorite. What leads me to believe it isn't a re-spray is the chrome that would have been sprayed too. It just doesn't look like sprayed chrome to me..... ESP the front panel:

The elipse in the front is supposed to have chrome w/ vertical lines in it I'm pretty sure, so they filled the lines before they sprayed it? IDK... Maybe..... But I don't think so... I could be wrong, apparently I was dead wrong on going the epoxy route. I doubt it's me, but it might have been user error. Can't think what I might have done wrong.........

 

[m casey stock]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Life is to unpredictable & I owe my Admiral significantly more of my time & attention. 21yrs together yesterday. Slipped right by me :facepalm: Of course I remembered our wedding anniversary, was off all day & spent it w/ her, so I did get some leeway for our 1st date 'anniversary'......... 1 of the 'made up' Hallmark occasions...

Thanks again for the offer, if it was significantly less then 2+ states away, I'd be right over

Congrats on the anniversary! I've been married for 23 years now, just not to the same Admiral LOL :facepalm: trying to go for a personal record with this one, three more years and I'll tie my first one (who said 13 isn't a lucky number!) We both have agreed that we are now getting too old to be swapping up so we had better just be good to each other. Don't feel bad, I couldn't even tell you the exact date of our first date (she can't either) but getting married on JAN 1st makes that date easy to remember. Everyone around us are so nice, they count down the last seconds until our big day and drink champagne some even shoot off fireworks in our honor. There have been rumors that they MIGHT be celebrating something else, but I can't imagine what would be more important :biggrin1:

 

[59 Fatty]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

IDK, but maybe a PO did paint it. Gold & white w/ all the chrome isn't everyone's favorite. What leads me to believe it isn't a re-spray is the chrome that would have been sprayed too. It just doesn't look like sprayed chrome to me..... ESP the front panel:

The elipse in the front is supposed to have chrome w/ vertical lines in it I'm pretty sure, so they filled the lines before they sprayed it? IDK... Maybe..... But I don't think so... I could be wrong, apparently I was dead wrong on going the epoxy route. I doubt it's me, but it might have been user error. Can't think what I might have done wrong.........

Sorry to hear about that epoxy. That kinda worries me about starting my glass-o-matic. That 50 does look like original paint, if it wasn't, you could see the original color where the red is chipped..??... Looks like a flat day on the gulf, going out this afternoon.

 

[lokonn]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

This past spring I was dealing with long cure times also. Was indoors prolly around 60 degrees. I ended up setting a halogen light on the cement floor and put both resin and catalyst bottles a few feet away from light to warm them up. Next coat cured in much better fashion, more in line with what US Composites said. I think it was JNG who suggested warming them up.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

That medium 3:1 aint gonna do anything in less than 65* temps, and even at 65-70 it's still gonna be slower than smoke offa dog poo.

The fast 4:1 will work down to 45*F, but in the 60's it isn't going to be so fast you can't work with it.

You should just send me all of your 3:1 and I'll take care of it for you.

 

[badbarracuda]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

I really like this project. I never really looked at Tinnies before. Very cool lines to these boats. I will be watching this one come together.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Thanks, is the Bad Barracuda a car? Bear_69Cuda (he posted up there ^^^ somewhere) had/has 1.

Thanks for the generous offer Jig, depending on what I find in 30min I may or may not take you up on that.....:cold:

I got the pleasure of driving to & from Martinsburg unexpectedly again yesterday. I love my paycheck (yeah maybe not but it's better then the alternative).......... The hours my suck, but at least the pay is lousy.....

So my plan to futz w/ the transom ply was put on hold, but I put my hands on it right before I left. It 'seemed' to have more areas that had dried & were no longer sticky, and that the sticky areas weren't as sticky as I remembered from Fri afternoon.

Yesterday was a perfect working outside boat building day, dag nad it, and I wasn't going to let a 7-8hr drive mess that up completely. Above 60 most of the day, hardly a cloud in the sky......

Right before I left, I parked my black Escape in full sun, set the interior on BAKE, and left the transom in it while I was gone......

We'll see. I have some pix of the front bench top removal from Thurs & to expose the horror hidden below. It did not disappoint.......

Swing back later on today for some pix

 

[tgp***]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Very cool boat JB.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Right before I left, I parked my black Escape in full sun, set the interior on BAKE, and left the transom in it while I was gone......

JB - I had no idea Ford had a Toaster Oven option for Escapes. They really do have a Better Idea! Actually a good way to get "free" cure heat. How did it work?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

JB - I had no idea Ford had a Toaster Oven option for Escapes*. They really do have a Better Idea! Actually a good way to get "free" cure heat. How did it work?

Measure/Mix guy (yours truly) must have not got it right :mad-new: out::yell: :frusty:

'Should' have been plenty hot enough in my Escape to kick any that was going to kick.....

More has dried, I think, and what's sticky is slightly less, so I'm not quite here yet, but close::boom:


I am taking tomorrow off to resolve the epoxy cure dilemma, heat gun, halogen lamps, sanding, or wiping w/ acetone, it will be resolved Mon.

At the office swapping company truck for the Escape, but no boat work today. I will get those pix uploaded this afternoon.....

* Officially, a black Escape, w/ black interior NEEDS fairly decent UV blocking, dark tint, or it would be very oven like in warm, sunny locations. It struggled a little at start up to cool the cab very fast at the beach this summer. And it wasn't particularly & sunny while we were there........

 

[Trooper82]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Bummer on the epoxy not kickin proper...you'll get it figured out I'm sure...

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me I will not let the epoxy best me :cold:

Ok, I feel better now. Thanks for the compliment tgp***, I dig this heavy tin tub More on the hull strength of this old Duracraft in a minute....

As promised, here's the front bench seat top removal, w/ pix :watermelon:

So on Thurs I drilled out the front bench seat rivets & prepped the front seat backs for having their lower support at the bench removed. Let's see what lurks in this bench seat......

Thru punched the drilled rivets, and lifting the seat backs:

Same carp HARDENED 'flotation' foam as the rear bench, w/ fairly random chunks of foam:

So all that went in the garbage, as did most of what laid below..............

{continued in next post}

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Then can a bit of a surprise:

Yep, that there ^^^ is the result of an ice dam forming under that pan, and R-I-P , it opened a really nice fissure in the top of that panel, and it created a huge upward bulge. Fortunately, it occurred directly over the keel, and there was NO damage to the hull below that tear. I'll put that in the WIN column. :whoo:

Lifting that pan, exposed exactly what I expected it to:

Yuck.... out w/ another huge root mat....

After wiping the inside of the cavity down, I buttoned it back up w/ some temp rivets:

That's all I got for wrapping up Thurs & Fri's work.

No further work was accomplished, but tomorrow the epoxy dilemma will be resolved & I'll be moving forward on THAT front....

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the iboats dry dock

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Looks like someone was trying to grow mushrooms in there or something .. uke:
Great that the damage was not to the hull !

 

[Trooper82]

Re: 1957 Duracraft Duraflite Custom

Maybe that pan was meant to give before the hull ?