1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

[goatnad]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

back with a few more pics.I received a few things in the mail today.this is a new medallion I bought.

The paint was chipped on mine so I just went ahead and got a new one. I actually got a gift for buying it. He sent me a golden jubilee emblem(sucks its chipping also). If anyone needs it let me know. you can just have it as your going to have to repaint it.

Here are the pulleys,springs, claps.

The pulley's are a little bigger then the others and connect slightly different. They will work right? How do i go about putting them in without just hanging them on the loop part connected to the boat?

I also got a can of gluvit in so tomorrow will be sealing day. After I seal it I think I will try to tackle the transom board. Anyone have luck on how is easiest to get it in and out? Im gonna take the screws and middle plate out then just look and try to figure it out. My can of white paint came in and my blue and black cans should arrive in a few days. Monday i will be ordering my windshield from UDP plastics. They make one for a 1959 malibu and as far as the measurements they sent me it looks like it will work just fine on the 1958. 550 for the windshield and they are going to do the aluminum top frame on it. I will have to find the bottom mount for the windshield. I talked with a local atv/jetski repair place and he said he will take a look at the motor. Lets hope he can make that baby purr again.
Last are my plates for the boat. Need to clean these up. Wish the guy that took them off hadn't messed that one up but oh well, I can work with it.

 

[oldboat1]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

don't know how much of the restoration you are doing yourself, but the transom wood should be removed in one piece if you can for use as a template. That is, unscrew the transom cap, etc. and try to save it. I had that hull with a '57 Big Twin, and it is very fast -- but need to be sure the transom is sound. Good project.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Shiny! The slightly larger pulleys should be fine. Just take care getting the old ones out. Try not to damage the hull too much. You should be able to snip/cut the old pulley out of place while leaving the stock mounting loop intact.

 

[K-2]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Great project. I love the fins!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Once I hung mine I used electricians tape to close the loop to ensure they could not come off. Worked Great!!

 

[goatnad]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

I will give that a shot kfa. I had thought about pulling the pulley and loops off and replacing them with the new loops but i do want to keep it all original. Even these few rivets. Ill also do the tape thing woodonglass. I'm working on the transom now. I have all the screws out but cant figure out how to get board out. Only ways i see is to somehow move the fins above to slide it out the top or (the more sensable thing to do) remove the triangle plates on the side and the middle support bar, but that will remove a lot of old rivets that are in good shape.oldboat did you have to replace your transom? if so how did you go about it?


I also found something of concern. Here is hairline crack in the V's where it mounts to the top of the transom. They are on both sides and are very small. maybe a 1/4" to 1/2" crack. Should i get this fixed or is it not that major of an issue? Sorry for the bad picture.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Hey goat. Yeah, it looks like you're going to have to drill out quite a few of the stock rivets to remove the various braces. I don't think they ever though these boats would still be on the water in 50 years so they didn't make rebuilding them very easy. Hopefully, you'll should be able to slide the transom out of the the bottom without having to cut into the fins. I think the crack will be ok too. You can fill it in with a bit of jb weld if you're worried.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

I'm NOT a Tinner' but...Hope to be one in the future so I been studyin!!!!! I think the best method I see is the angle bracket removal and then removing the cross braces. It makes sense to try that first. Rivets are NOT that hard to replace. It's the nature of the beast on Tin Can Boats!!!!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

If I were having to remove this transom wood, I'd carefully cut a 12" section out of the middle & remove all 3 pieces. Your transom wood doesn't look like it's anything but a simple rectangle, so recreating it w/ out a template should be no problem.

It looks like you can lift it out of the lower 'trough' enough to cut completely thru it. Once you pull the center 12" piece out, you should have room to slide either end toward the middle & lift them out too.

Your boat was probably built around the original transom, having it out of the way, may indicate how best to get a new one installed.

In the pix I reposted, the transom has slide down 2"+/-, there's a gap at the top of the plywood that wasn't there before:

Just a guess, but if you pull the 2 rivets & bolt on each side along the exterior transom skin on the ends of the fins and the rivets/eyelets thru the end brackets:

There may be just enough flex in the tin fins to lift them an 1"+/- and allow you to slip a new plywood transom up & over the angled corner brackets & transom 'trough'. Tip the top in first & then push the bottom in.

Once in place, re-rivet the end brackets & fins back in place. Having the fins loose for the transom replacement you can probably drill the end of those small cracks and apply a small patch on the backside so as to be nearly invisible.

Does that ^^^ make sense??

 

[kfa4303]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

couldn't resist Meow!

 

[goatnad]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Lol kfa. Nice one. Well I decided to take out the long brace with the triangles attached and one of the back braces for the board. Sorry no pictures this time. Tomorrow I cut my new board and put thompson weather seal on it. While i let the thompsons cure I will gluvit the boat. Tomorrow night i will be working on rewiring my wiring harness. I managed to salvage the large connector from mine but I had to cut the wires down until I hit good wire. There is minimal rust on the outside but the inside is perfect. There is only a foot of wire left for each strand coming out though so I don't have alot to work with. Lets hope that works out. If not it looks like I'm going to wait awhile to find one or shell out $250.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

As difficult as it seems to remove the transom plywood, I'd suggest a more aggressive sealer then Thompson's water seal. Like many things, once applied, Thompson's could interfere w/ the application of a different product later.

I'd recommend epoxy for sealing the transom ply. It will protect the plywood significantly better then the Thompson's, and for a substantially longer period of time. So much better as to seem as though you left the plywood raw rather then sealing it w/ Thompson's. A thin slow cure epoxy (like US Composites 435, iboats may now carry a similar thin epoxy product) will allow the epoxy to penetrate deep into the wood grain, particularly along the endgrain cut edges. Iboats recently added quite a bit of resto products to their product lines, but I don't know them all, yet

If not epoxy, I'd use spar urethane/varnish before the Thompson's as well. Lots of the Starcraft builds use spar rather then epoxy.

What type of plywood are you using for the transom? And how thick does it need to be?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Yeah, I agree with this ^^^. Thompsons is really NOT good stuff!!! A good Old Fashioned sealer would be to mix up 2 cups of Boiled Linseed oil, 4 cups of Mineral spirits and 2 cups of Spar varnish. The BLO has a Lot of solids in it and will fill the pores of the wood once cured. The MS thins is and allows is the penetrate deep into the wood and to flash off and dry/cure much faster and the varnish seals the exterior surface of the wood. Allow this to dry for 48 hours and then follow with 2-3 coats of full strength Marine Varnish. For added durability you could put on 2-3 coats of Oil Based Paint. If you did this and then always predrilled your holes and coated the holes and hardware with 3M 4200 that Transom would last for Decades. But as JBC says $50 bucks worth of Epoxy will work Great too!!!!

 

[kfa4303]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

+2. You definitely need something better than Thompson's. I wouldn't even put that on my deck at home, to be honest. I'd suggest some Spar Urethane. You can get it any Lowes/HD for cheap. You can even use spreadable, 2-part epoxy, but it's a bit pricey and you usually have to order it, but it will also outlive your grand kids. You'll then want to mount the new transom to the hull with Stainless Steel hardware dipped in a bit of 3M 5200 marine calk, which is also available at Lowes. One tube should be plenty. With the exception of the epoxy you can get virtually everything you need for the rebuild, including aluminum angle, at Lowes/HD. Gotta love those tinnies!

 

[goatnad]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

I was going to use some left over 3/4" plywood I had left over from building a shed but the more I'm reading I need to find something else. I'm not sure what kind of wood it is. The thickness for the transom needs to be 1 5/16" which is kind of an odd thickness. Also if did that i would have to glue 2 pieces together and then that would put me at 1 1/2" board. I would then have to cut it down a little to make it fit. I'm not sure what kind of wood it is. I will try to find a more marine plywood tomorrow. So far HD, lowes and a local lumber yard hasn't had that thickness. Any recommendations out what to look for? what kind of wood? I would assume something like oak would work? Thanks everyone for the heads up on not using thompsons. That's what I get for listening to the idiots at our lowe's.

I really haven't gotten anything done today on the boat. 30 degrees outside so stayed inside. I did work on my wiring harness and its coming along very nicely. Once I looked at the system I realized its not really that complicated. I have completed my main cable to the engine and about half way done with the cables for the choke and key area. Once that is done then all I have to do is connect the wires where they go in the junction box. I think tomorrow if its cold and bad weather again then I will continue to work on it and should have it finished before work.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

I'd use 3/4 and 1/2" ext. Grade Aruaco Plywood from Lowes or HD. That would Yield a 1 1/4" Transom. That's Close enuf IMHO. If you treat it with Spar Varnish or the formula I mentioned, it'll last for a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG Time. Especially if you maintain it properly.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Yep ^^^, 1.25" is what I needed for the Duracraft & I used 3/4" ext ply & 1/2" MDO. I find MDO to be closer to the actual nominal dimension then 'normal' plywood, so I used it. And ended up at about 1 3/16" once laminated together. Besides I need some 3/4" & 1/2" plywood for other stuff, and I wanted the MDO 1/2" for it anyway.

You can use epoxy, Gorilla Glue (what I used) or TiteBond 3 to laminate the 2 sheets together using lots of 1.25" screws (removed after curing) and clamps.

 

[goatnad]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Finally the cold and rain have stopped here so I got to do more work on the boat. Yesterday I put in the new transom board. I'm no carpenter but i must say it looks great. I would like your opinions on whether I should leave it wood grained or paint it white with the boat. I like the wood look but i think it will just be out of place with the rest of the boat.


I spent the rainy days working on my wiring harness. I happened to find a local boat dealer that had this harness just laying around. He sold it to me for $25. I will be combining it with what i can use from my harness. I have been rewiring my engine connector for it also. Today I will gluvit the boat then I will get to soldering the wires and heat shrinking the connector.

The last thing I have for today are the holes on the back of the boat. Someone said i could put a bilge pump here but ive never used a bilge pump before. Or form of water displacement here is a plastic cup Do i even need a bilge and if so could you guys help me with info on how to set it up? If not should I get them welded(or jb weld them) or would putting rivets in be ok? I know the rivets wont looks as good but that is under the water line so who cares.

 

[lakelover]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Nice work on the transom. If it were me, I'd paint it white. As far as the holes, if you fill them, solid head rivets will be fine, just be sure to coat them with 3M 5200 before you put them in. I did that for a number of below-the-waterline holes in mine, and no leaks at all. A bilge pump is handy, but not really necessary in a boat this size unless you leave it in the water unattended. I put one in mine just for the convenience, since it's on a lift when not in use.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1958 lone star malibu boat restoration help

Did you mean closed end blind rivets LL? You can use them & install them w/ a typical hand held riveter.

Or you could buck new solid rivets, which from the exterior would look factory. But is somewhat more labor intensive & could require more then 2 hands, and an air riveter. On the transom, you could buck them solo, but it might be easier to have some extra hands.