1966 Leavens brothers Mariner Help

[kfa4303]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

yeah, f'glass can be made to look new again by the DIYer, whereas welding aluminum is definitely a fine art, but if looks aren't as important you can do plenty of ugly, but super strong fixes on aluminum boats. A lot of local welders can/will make small fixes in an aluminum boats for fair prices (under $50) too. How and where you boat may be a factor too. Most folks around here are constantly going back and forth between salt, fresh, and brackish water with all sorts of hazards in it like oyster bars, downed trees, beach sand, weeds, alligators, skarks etc....so I prefer the toughness of a tinny. Check the Starcraft threads here for all kinds of cool boats. Plus, if you're really OCD you can polish aluminum up to a mirror shine like an old airstream camper, which is a total chick magnet as we all know

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Dstroud, where are you in Ontario? I may have some parts you can use if your close by.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

I Wanted to get a fiberglass boat to start because i really wanted to learn how to work with fiberglass and it just seemed like fun..we'll see if i still feel that way after working with it lol. Ive been keeping my eye open for an old tin boat on local classified sites but i still have a lot to do on this one before i can start another project.

Jeep man, i actually live in burlington..not that far from cambridge.. what parts do you have?

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

So i decided the best thing to is replace the entire middle stringer (the other 2 are actually in great condition) I also decided it would be best to just replace the entire floor instead of the 5 foot section that i already cut out.. I just didnt like the way the floor flexed at the seem.. hopefully putting in a full 4x8 foot sheet of fiberglass will help make the floor stronger.

I'll have more pics up this weekend.. and im sure ill also have a new batch of newbie questions for you guys to help me answer.

Thanks for all your tips so far!
wish me luck!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Good decision on a full deck/sole replacement. A lot of work to possibly redo again soon.

The seam between 2 sheets is usually backed along it's entire length under both sides of the joint. The seam is also filled w/ the PB or PL used for bedding stringers &/or making your fillets. Once the deck/sole is fiberglassed, it will be virtually impossible to tell where the seam was originally, from a structural standpoint. Sanding & fairing the joint, think drywall taping & mudding joints, will then visually hide the seam.

Whether or not you remove the cap, getting a cut-down full sheet of 4X8 ply into the boat, onto the stringers w/ PB or PL along the top edge of them, not sliding the ply @ & losing some of your PB/PL coverage, confirming it's exactly where you wanted it, and getting into the boat to fasten it down without moving it or having even more PB/PL squeeze out, will probably be quite a challenge. May not be impossible, just a challenge.

Good looking runabout, you all will draw a crowd every time you launch it. Good luck getting her back in the water.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Yeah, im still trying to figure out exactly how to do it.. it will be difficult, but if i can get it done that way ill be a happy man.

I'm hoping once shes all done and polished up she'll be a real head turner. I really like the look of these older glass boats.

thanks for the advice jbcurt00.. always appreciated!

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

I Wanted to get a fiberglass boat to start because i really wanted to learn how to work with fiberglass and it just seemed like fun..we'll see if i still feel that way after working with it lol. Ive been keeping my eye open for an old tin boat on local classified sites but i still have a lot to do on this one before i can start another project.

Jeep man, i actually live in burlington..not that far from cambridge.. what parts do you have?

I'll PM you, so I don't break the rules and run afoul of the moderators, be burned at the stake, banished from the kindom, boiled in hot oil, or worse.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Your welcome, just add mine to what you've read & what you'll pickup along the way. There is lots of good stuff @ the resto forum, by many who've done it many times. They'll all be super helpful as you get this underway.....

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

ive been reading a lot about foaming a boat under the floor. Should i be doing this in my boat? There wasnt any foam in it when i ripped the floor up and im not even sure it its possible to do because there is only a few inches in between the floor and the bottom of the boat.

Is putting foam in usually done are bigger boats than what i have?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Pour in foam is used under the deck/sole between it & the hull yes. Many opt for easier (cheaper) foam: either the foam noodles from wally world, or the closed cell blue/pink insulation 4X8 sheets from HD/Lowes.

Your boat didn't have foam because when it was built, it was not required by the US Coast Guard. There are calculations on the net for cubic volume of flotation required for a given weight ('wet' weight of boat, fuel, gear, people, motor, & etc...). Different foam gives different buoyancy rates, 2lb, 4lb, 8lb are common pour in foam types.

Do a search from the main forum restoration page for Foam Flotation, or pour in foam. Many many threads dealing w/ it... Pros & cons for each type of foam, and for leaving it out if the boat didn't have it originally. Mine didn't, but it will get sheet or noodle foam under the deck, possibly on the underside of the bow, and up under & along the gunwales.

Too much work getting her seaworthy again for me to risk a trip to the bottom, I figure. I'll get as much as I can aboard. Lightweight, inexpensive & easy to work with.....

Be absolutely positive that you are using CLOSED CELL foam. 'Great stuff' in a can, any type of styrofoam, and several other common foams are OPEN cell & risk permeation when exposed to water. Then 1 freeze~thaw cycle & the cells of the foam are ruptured & become useless for flotation & degrade quickly. That's why 'most' boats w/ foam under the deck, and that are in need of a rehab, are such a wreck & hard to demo. Waterlogged foam becomes a smelly, god-awful mess when left to degrade & rot under the deck for a few years...

have a good weekend!

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

so i decided i would try and get that bad stringer out this weekend and get the new wood in place so i can glass it in next weekend. There was only a foot or 2 of rot so i toolk about 5 feet out to make sure all the rot was out of there. The stringer is only 1/2 inch plywood so i cut the peice from the same wood i am using for my floor.

that plywood strip is is held up a couple inches by these fibglass support things (i have a close up pic of one of them posted already if you want to see) and one of them is broken and im not sure how to go about fixing it yet.

Im thinking that ill just make new supports with wood and put one where the broken support is and another one where i connect the new stringer with the old one.

it just makes me wonder because im thinking that the boat is supposed to be like that because it would allow any water that gets in there to just flow underneath the wood and only come into contact with the fiberglass support things. do you guys think it would be ok to have wood supports instead? and just make sure they' covered in fiberglass? maybe im just worried over nothing? i just wnt to make sure i do this this the right way.

im not to sure if any of that made sence to you.. but if it did, and you can offer some advise or wisdom.. it will be appreciated as always.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

I'm just looking at some online ads for trolling motors, and i think i found one that im going to get. Its only a 36lb thrust motor so im a little worried about it not having enough power for my boat. When i looked it up elsewhere, it said that a 36lb hrust would probably be the minimum i should put on it. I was just hoping that someone on here that has actual experience with them could tell me what they think i should do. Do you think it I would be better off just waiting and buying a 55lb thrust motor? or will the 36lb be enough?

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1966 Leavens brothers Mariner Help

Just giving an update. I got the new stringer cut and in place this weekend, but i wasnt able to fiberglass it in yet because i think its still a little too cold where a live to get a good cure.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1966 Leavens brothers Mariner Help

because i wasnt able to do any fiberglass work this weekend, i decided it was time to charge up the battery and see if the old motor would fire up. We didnt have any luck getting it started last night so i waited until the morning and went and got some new spark plugs, and she eventually fired right up and seemed to run good. I am going to try and post a video of it so you guys can tell me if it all looks like it should.. beleive it or not, this is the first time ive seen a boat motor run up close lol.

It seemed to change gears without a problem.. but it seemed to give quite a big jerk when i put it in forward or reverse.. is that normal for these old motors?

anyways.. take a look and let me know what you guys think of her. she hadnt been started in at least 2 years so i thought it went quite well.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

So i decided that it was finally warm enough this weekend for me to start glassing in the stringer i repaired. I was pretty nervous about it because i have never done anything like this before. I was worried that the gap in between the new wood and the old fiberglass was going to cause a problem and not harden properly. (you can see what i mean in the picture) When i went out the next day to inspect how the cure went, everything seemed to be quite good. all the fiberglass is rock hard..even in the gaps where it was just fiberglass cloth and resin seem to be rock hard as well. I still have a bunch of sanding and washing to do before i add the last 2 layers this weekend and then i can finally get my new floor in place

Originally i was worried about the way i replaced the stringer ( I only cut the top fibglass out and left the sides there so i wouldnt have much to patch up). Does anyone know if doing it like this will make it weeker than the original design? or am i just over thinking it?

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

I have just one more quick question for you guys. When i took out the old floor, i left the drain area with the drain plug there because i didnt see a reason for cutting it out. I thought it was kind of wierd that the was a second hole drilled in the fiberglass next to the drain plug and im not too sure if i should patch it up when i fiberglass the top of my new floor. Is that hole there for a reason? I'm thinking that it might be fore when water gets underneath your floor it will have a place to drain out the back as well. anyways, let me know what you guys think... and here is a pic of what im talking about

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Anyone have any ideas if i should be fiberglassing over that second hole or not?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

That second hole is there to allow any water that can and will get under the deck to drain back into the bilge. You should keep it plugged at all times but when storing the boat you should always store it bow up with both plugs out.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

Re: 1965 Leavens brothers Mariner Restoration

So i finally got my new floor in! it was pretty hard to get that big 8 foot sheet of plywood inplace before the PB dried, but i managed Now lets hope i dont have to do replace the floor for another 45 years lol All i Have to do now is 1 more day of fiberglassing the top in, and then either sanding and painting or carpeting.. i havent decided yet. When i went to the marine store near my house the guy was recomending that i buy the vynal flooring for it but i didnt like any of the designs that they had. I really wanted to paint the whole inside.. and do the deck with some sort of grippy paint.. im just cant make up my mind though. Seeing as how I am far from an expert at working with fiberglass, im not too sure that paingint the inside will be as forgiving if i just bite the bullet and carpet it. If Anyone out there have any suggestions or tips on what i should do for the flooring, i would be glad to here them.. cant wait to get her out on the water for the first time I just wish i had more hours in the day to work on her lol

 

[Hicks8519]

Re: 1966 Leavens brothers Mariner Help

Nice looking boat you've got there dStroud! When it comes to painting the inside as long as your fiberglass is decent it should look good painted. I personally prefer painting it over putting in carpeting, plus it's less maintenace and much easier cleaning. I have a similar boat and thats what I ended up doing. I'm actually still redoing the inside, now i'm just working on how I should design the seating.

Any body else have any opinions or tips out there for this boat? Can't wait to see the finished product! Good Luck