1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

[Thompson255]

Greetings all, I just bought my first boat and it looks like I'll be needing a lot of iboats wisdom.. I will be taking delivery of it tomorrow and will get to see how much of a nightmare it's going to be. The PO took terrible care of the boat but I got what I think was an acceptable deal on it especially since the 454 Merc looks to be in good condition. I have a long list of plans, but first some "before" pics:

The deck is fully carpeted so that will be coming up and I will paint the deck with some non-skid Interlux. What scares me is that the PO claims he replaced the deck a year ago because of a "soft spot", and in the process he and his "carpenter buddy checked the stringers, cut out and epoxied some bad spots and glassed them, so you're good to go." Not looking forward to seeing his craftsmanship .. hopefully I don't have to dive into a stringer/transom/deck replacement project.. I'll be posting more pics and asking many questions soon.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Nice Boat!!! Hope for the best and expect the worst! Is that antifouling paint on the bottom? Will the boat be trailered or left in the water most of the time? Salt or Fresh water? If trailered you can remove the antifouling paint, it that's what it is, it's not needed. Nasty stuff to remove but can be done with time and effort.

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

I'm planning on keeping it in freshwater from April-October each season. I just planned on power sanding everything off below the waterline, filling in any dents/deep scratches I find, and repainting it in the spring. Based on my research that should be a two day project with a helper, right?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Bottom paint is VERY TOXIC! You MUST protect yourself and others if you are sanding. The dust CAN make you very ill. It will prolly take a lot longer than you think

 

[ormjgrouch]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

subscribing, been looking for a restore with a cabin.

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Started tearing it apart. Difficult to tell at times what work was done by previous owners vs the factory, but it's mostly shoddy. I mainly worked on taking apart the cabin and removing the carpet.

Where the sink thing used to be:

The ski locker.... The PO had carpeted the ski locker. Notice the drain hole isn't circular anymore - I pulled a chunk of wood out of the side of it with my finger...

Refinished the teak cover that had covered the sink (used 2 coats Minwax stain and 4 coats Minwax polyurethane), will construct a trash can storage space later and used this as a cover since I'm not reinstalling the sink:

By the end of this week hope to have the cabin and deck both fully de-carpeted so I can start tackling the deck and what lies beneath..

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Finished the cabin:

There is a step down to the cabin floor level and it felt rock solid, but I realized it was a plywood board sitting on the original flooring. After lifting it up, I discovered this:

Stepping on it, I discovered this:

I look down and see a piece of wood just resting on the hull, and wondering what it is, I look inside and find that it is the forward 4 feet of the port side stringer. It had completely broken off. Here is where it broke:

And here it is sitting on the hull under the cabin floor:

Not sure how this happened, but I have an idea.. When we towed the boat from Point Pleasant NJ to Elkton MD (3 hrs), I noticed for the first time a long patch on the hull (right where this stringer should have been on the inside), and the patch was dripping water. I think the PO hit something which snapped the stringer off on the inside and gashed the hull, and rather than fix everything properly, it was patched on the outside and that's that. Anyways, just an interesting new discovery.
Also got the engine winterized this weekend along with additional demo work, will post more pictures hopefully tomorrow.

 

[ormjgrouch]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Wow, wonder how long it's been like this

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Exactly. I may have saved the PO's life when I bought the boat lol this thing was gonna sink any day..

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

More progress.. cut out the rotted center section of the cabin level floor, removed the instrument panel and gauges, all wires, the VHF antenna, the faux vent panels, transom speakers and light, the two seats, and two forward sections of deck:

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

In the last photo above you can see some of the PO's "new" stringers, screwed into the original ones. It only looks like this on the port side, so I'm interested to see what the whole setup looks like once I have the entire deck off.
Removing the deck is a pain, need to remove the carpet first to locate the deck screws, I'm debating using a metal detector or a magnet to try to find them through the carpet and just cut the carpet out directly above them. Sound so crazy it just might work?
The first casualty:

Finally, here's that port side forward stringer I discussed earlier, removed from the boat:

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

I took apart the two seats that were bolted to the deck, did some research, and it turns out they're actually fairly decent Todd seats.
The cushions are shot - the foam is full of mold and some of the vinyl is cracking, so I tossed that, but I'd like to clean up the pedestal units and the plastic seats themselves.... HOW DO YOU DO THIS?? The pedestals appear to be aluminum, but they're covered in splotches, I'm assuming some kind of oxidation, what products do you recommend to remove this? Also the plastic seats have dark stains on them from where the rotting vinyl was sitting, can't get them out with all purpose cleaner, any plastic cleaners you guys would recommend? Any help is appreciated.
Finally, some shots on blocks. Much more work to go but she's getting there:

 

[ben2go]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

These things are a gift from the tool gods.A few places like harbor freight and northern tool sell cheaper knock offs that work the same,just cheaper.Get the warranty on HF tool tho.

Don't force them.Just a little pressure and they cut easily.
SuperCut Construction - C. & E. FEIN GmbH

MultiMaster - C. & E. FEIN GmbH

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

I have been using a Dremel MultiMax tool. Looks similar to the links you sent me.

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Got the rest of the carpet off, removed some more of the deck, and removed the rub rail. I see that the sealing between the hull and the cap is coming off in a lot of places, and while removing the rail there were even some small gaps between the rail and the seam, which could be another location water (spray) was getting in the boat.
Once the fuel tank is clean up and pulled out I'll be able to see if it's salvagable.

The PO's stringer repairs finally come to light:

As expected, he screwed 2x4s to either side of the existing stringers as braces. Nothing was sealed in any way, which is a good thing because it makes my job of removing it a little bit easier.
My goal is to have all of the deck out by the end of the month. This is the most time-consuming part of the project thus far.
Once it's out I can start measuring, cutting and installing stringer replacements, one section at a time (to avoid hull flex). I'm working bow to aft, because the motor isn't coming out until March. The boat was shrink wrapped with a frame built in the deck area and a zipper door on the swim platform, allowing me to work inside. My own body heat gets the temperature inside up to the low 70s within 20 minutes, which means I can start glassing as soon as I'm ready, despite the fact that its in the 40s outside. I know things will dry much more slowly, but since I can only work on weekends, I'm not too concerned.

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Not too much new progress to report, almost finished the the deck:

Accidentally cut through the center of a deck screw:

My shrink wrap setup:

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

The fuel tank is 60 gallons, which seems pretty huge. I'm kind of hoping it needs to be replaced so that I can justify getting a smaller one, because it takes up so much space. I think 30ish should be plenty for the kind of boating I plan on doing. The current ski locker is tiny, because there's hardly any space left below the primary deck in front of the tank. Any thoughts on this? I'm assuming the rule of thumb is you can (almost) never have too big of a tank? Also, recommended brands? Mueller I think is the brand that keeps popping up when I Google boat fuel tanks.

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Finished getting the deck out and all but two of the PO's stringer bracers. Vacuumed out most of the boat. Lifted the fuel tank up on an angle as shown in the picture, it appears to be in rough shape on the underside, so it will be replaced.

Two more bracers and a few square feet of carpet to come out, then a good cleaning and it's on to phase two... Rebuilding.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

LMAO at the POs stringer repair... yup, you're good to go!

Glad to see you tackling this boat the right way, too many folks just take it for granted that everything is ok when buying a used f'glass boat.

Scotch-brite surface conditioning pads will clean and shine up your pedestal bases:

The brown is coarse, the maroon is medium, and the blue is fine. The blue pad should do what you need done, the maroon pad is pretty heavy for aluminum and requires a light touch if used on it. The brown pad is very heavy and I don't recommend it at all for aluminum, but it will instantly vaporize heavy rust on steel if you have any of that.

 

[Thompson255]

Re: 1991 Thompson 255 Carrera - project thread

Thanks that sounds like exactly what I need. Do you have a part number for the blue pad? I'm having a hard time finding it. Looks like it's only available online, and I want to be sure I order the right one.