1963 Elgin Restoration

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Only had a bit of time one night - took some detailed pix of the spider cracking in the aft on the exterior hull.

About 5 mins of orbital sanding with 80 grit.

Looks like crazing to me - I'm thinking that the best fix for this (when I get to that point) will be to over-glass the hull to seal everything back up. That said, I amit I have no idea what I'm talking about. Does this make sense to anyone else? Can yoiu glass over gelcoat? Gelcoat is a resin, so... no?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

If the trailer 'fits' the boat, I'd suggest you pull the rims off, remove the axle assembly & winch post. Then you've got a fairly flat trailer frame you can lean against the side wall of the garage. Looks like you've got plenty of room to do that beyond the hull.

Question though: If you can't leave an empty trailer outside w/ or w/out the boat (even out back?) where are you going to leave the cap once you remove it? Some support it & store it on the now empty trailer, but sounds like that's a no go w/ your HOA.


It looks like the bow support ribs pulled free of the hull, up under the covered bow, may have been too much weight (a guy standing on the bow comes to mind) or something else. But for sure you want to make sure the bow 'deck' of the cap is well supported. Might occasionally need to stand out there too...............

Stored boats collect all manner of debris. That styro probably made a FABULOUS mouse house

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Okay - so this is the area behind the rear seat. Note the bulkhead/seat base combo. Back there, what you see as the floor is actually the inner side of the hull skin. There is no deck - the stingers are basically above the floor. Am I being clear?

Closer...

aaaaaaand closer...

and...

The oddity about this is that there is no real bilge to speak of -- there's no real low spot where you can put a bilge pump. Unless I contiued the floor over the stingers and added an engineered low spot. Am I making any sense?

Thoughts anyone?

Also, s it odd that there's what amounts to a stringer across the transom? Has anyoe seen that before?

And... Anyone know how to get this steering wheel off? It's currently stuck!

Thx
Lee

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

jbcurt00: Actually, the cap is going into my walk-out basement, and since posting about the trailer, I figured out that if i remove the jack and the winch, I can get it rhough the basement slider too on it's side -- so problem solved.

Yep - I'll be reinforcing the hell out of everything before re-assembly!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Back in the day, bracing on the transom was common place. The No Deck construction is unique but the BENCH seats make it possible since they provide the Beam Stability for the boat. The Open Bilge is just like an Aluminum boat or Wood Boats. Nothing wrong with that. You'll know if the hull is leaking that's for sure. Wheel remover will prolly require propane torch, penetrating oil, lots of tugging and pulling and some BAD WORDS. Put the nut back on and after heating it up have a friend tap on it while you are pulling HARD. You might be able to get a Jawed Gear PUller on it. You WILL do a better job of glassing the bow supports back in place when the time comes. This should give you some ideas on how to reinforce the bow.
http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...ki-boat-complete-restore-splashed-364284.html

Post #18 is where you should start.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Thanks for the reference link wood - very creative solve for a flimsy deck! I'm inspired!!

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Floor Removal...

Bought myself the cheapest angle grinder I could find -- cheap keeps the boss happy! Then fooled with various vaccum tips to see if i could suck up the dust as I cut the fiberglass. It actually worked like a charm. There was hardly any dust in the air or on surfaces.

Got the fiberglass portion of the floor out very quickly in just 2 pieces 'cuz it was completely de-lammed from the wet plywood.

First chunk removed. (nothing says amateur like Black and Decker power tools, eh?!)

More...

It's like a swamp under there.

Not much fiberglass around those stringers. Just a 4-5 inch wrap-over here and there, and some reinforcement where the long and lat stringers met. Not a lot of strength or ptotection of the wood.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

One more floor removed shot.

The top is still on by the way because my strapping 18-year old son who can help me with it has been down with the flu.

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Oh Boy ! Your fully committed now ,no turning back ! LOL!
Now you have to get your son well cuss he,s got a date with a new Skil angle grinder !:joyous:

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Your shop vac will clog very quickly so keep an Eye on the filter.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

You were spot on with that recommend wood -- I clogged pretty quickly. I could hear the pitch of the vac changing over time! I'll clean the filter any day over de-dusting the the whole garage though!!!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

You could make a filter box for the vac and avoid this problem. Use a box beig enough to cover the vac. Cut out 3 sides and tape furnace filters over the cut outs. Cut a hole for the hose and tape it in place after placing the box over the vac. Remove the vac filter. Makes a mess inside the box but, as you say, it's an isolated mess than can be more readily dealt with.

 

[Propeller Driven]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Larcher....Skip here. Impressive project and chronicling. I will just be a stalker on this thread as I have nothing constructive to offer (other than encouragement and perhaps the bottle of christening champagne). Nice work buddy!

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Hey - thinking about stringers... has anyone ever tried using some sort of compisite material rather than wood? Like some sort of composite decking material? The benefits ae obvious, but some of it is more flexible that wood though, so maybe it wouldn't be rigid enough for this purpose?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Structural composite materials for marine applications are very expensive.

The composite "lumber" for house decks won't work with fiberglassing.

Regular ol' wood is your cheapest and best bet, just keep your boat covered or garaged when not in use after you finish restoring it and it'll last many decades.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

And the best wood for sringers would be... (drum roll please). I can't tell what mine were cuz they're too rotted. There IS a reinforcing lateral stringer across the inside of the tansom - looks like white oak, based on the small part that I've pulled the fiberglass off of.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

And the best wood for sringers would be...

Good ol' plywood.

If your stringers are 1-1/2" wide laminate two pieces of 3/4" together for the correct width.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Exterior grade ply, many builders used standard dimensional lumber, the wood quality was better, tighter grain (slower growth). But exterior ply prepped & sealed will last a long long time, be structurally stronger for any given size then dimensional lumber, and be much easier to work w/: straighter and less prone to being warpped & twisted from the beginning............

Aurauco
MDO (medium density overlay NOT mdf)
ACX exterior ply
marine ply
exterior fir ply

EDIT: or what jig said much more concisely

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

Avoid and ignore the "pretty" hardwood laminate cabinet grade plywoods, these are for indoor use only, and aren't made with waterproof glue.

 

[larcher]

Re: 1963 Elgin Restoration

More destruction...

Drying things out:

Much better - now I can see what's going on.

She's officially topless!!!

This the front bulkhead. With the floor intact, it would have been watertight, so I guess it served as flotation? The small amount of foam shown in the earlier post wouldn't have been enough to keep her up me thinks. And there was no foam under the deck.Any thoughts?

Diggin onto the rear bulkhead. It was too late at night to fire up the grinder, so a claw hammer did the trick.

Whatever structure was in there originally to hold up the bulkhead/seat base is mulch now!