Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

[FBPirate95]

I've posted threads with various questions and stages of my project, but I figured now it's time to make a real restoration thread.

I acquired this boat for free after I began looking for a replacement for my 1985 Sport Craft Fish 'n Ski. My old boat had a bad transom that the previous owner botched. I really didn't feel like tearing into that one especially after someone really messed it up. Also, I wanted something a little bigger and sleeker in design. I posted a wanted add on Craigslist and I guy responded with "I have a deal for you". He had purchased the Marquis just to get the outboard off it. Now he just had a boat he didn't want. He made me the off of, if you want it, I could have it for free. I went and took a look at it and for free I figured what the heck.

Here's the condition it was in when I first saw it.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Got her home, got the trash out, and took a closer look.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

First order of business was to get the trailer restored. It had some bad angle iron, missing plates, bad lights, rusted condition, bad winch, etc. I pulled the boat off the trailer by tying it off to a tree and blocking up underneath as the trailer was pulled out.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

My father and I worked together on the trailer. I haven't had a whole lot of welding experience, so he was the teacher for the project. I cut off the bad angle iron, welded on new iron, cut and welded on new plate, added steel fenders, replaced coupler, and painted it with 3 coats of rust kill high gloss.

Finished by adding new bunk boards, Lowe's marine grade outdoor carpeting, Slide-onz bunk friction reducers, pvc pipe, Seasense Load Mate Guide Post Lights (change color when trailer is in at proper depth), Optronics Submersible lights, Rod Saver transom tie downs, new keel rollers, new bow roller, new Attwood 2000lb winch, all 316 Stainless screws, bolts, bunk bolster backings etc.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Got the boat back on the trailer and with the help of my kids, we stripped the boat.

As you can see in the pic, I also when ahead and installed a new steering helm. I am currently working on a step by step thread that that will be published in the next couple of weeks. It will show how to install a new rotary steering system on an outboard powered boat.

I also decided to investigate the transom more closely. Remember I got this boat originally to keep out of the transom replacement business. Well come to find out, this transom was completely rotted.

Today I finished cleaning the rot out and will begin fabricating a replacement tomorrow.

I was also able to lay a sealant layer of resin on the deck to prepare for glassing it completely in.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

While this work has been going on, I've been working on a few smaller side projects for the boat.

Reusing my chairs by painting them:

Refinishing the dash and replacing the gauges.

The glove box.

And my bilge skid.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Epic fail today. Went to glass in the mat, and ran out of resin. I had a gallon of resin which stated "will wet in 40 sq ft of mat or cloth". My deck sq footage is right at 40sq ft. Well I started laying the Walmart bought Bondo 3M strand mat and only was able to wet in about 24 sq ft. I used a squeegee and roller which seemed to help distribute it quite well. But I wasn't able to get the whole job done. I also notice what appears to be air bubbles under the glass, but no matter what I did...add resin...squeegee...etc, it didn't seem to help. Don't know what I did wrong. I'm going to buy a couple more gallons of resin and finish the mat, then go back and lay down some cloth.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Some good news today was that I finally had a dry bilge. I was a little worried that water has been weeping out from under the deck. But what appears to have been going on was the transom was so saturated, it was draining into the bilge. Once I got it all cleaned out, the bilge was dry today.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

I'm looking for ideas on the bilge drain. The one in it was the brass type. I think all of the water intrusion into the transom was coming from the bilge drain and the splash well drain. I've seen different ideas on here about plastic versus brass drains, as well as the different types of garboard plugs.

Any one have any advice or good pictures of their system and installation?

 

[bucket235]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

great project. i have the EXACT same boat! color and all. i bought it from the original owner and he had ordered it with an evinrude 235 .

my transom needs some work too.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

After being out of town for a week, I finally have been able to get back to the "real" work.

Today I finished the CSM layer on the deck.

Next I need to sand this layer, then add a layer of woven mat.

So far I've used about 2.5 gallons of resin. It was about 0.5 gallons on the sealing layer, then about 2 gallons for wetting in the CSM. I'm guessing the woven mat is going to take another gallon to finish it off.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

This evening I was able to make the template for the contour of the new transom plywood.

First I glued two foam board pieces together and held them in place in the bilge area.

Next I used a cheap compass to trace the contour of the bottom of the boat. To do this I let the pivot point trace the bottom, while the pencil transferred the trace to the board. The key is to make sure the compass keeps the same amount of "openness" and to keep the pencil and pivot point perpendicular to the bottom of the hull.

Then I trimmed the foam board and checked the fit.

Finally I transferred this rough pattern to new pieces of board for the final template.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Layer of CSM has been sanded. Right now I'm debating on adding small plywood squares to where the pedestal seats will be mounted. When I removed the seats, the mounting screws were 1.5 inches screwed into 3/4 plywood. Not full utilization of the screw holding power. I'm thinking if I take a sheet of 3/4 and cut a square size just larger than the pedestal base, glue and screw it to the deck, and then screw the pedestals in with the 1.5 inch nails will give me a real good hold on the seats.

After I do all that I'm putting a final layer of woven mat to the deck and make prep for the non skid coating.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Got some Duraback samples in the mail today. I will say I'm pretty impressed with the material and the short time it took them to get the samples to me. I requested 3 colors, battleship grey, cream, and sand. My wife and I both agree we should probably go with the cream color.

I also got an iboats package today. Just a small order, bow chocks, bilge drain plug, and splashwell drain tube. My plans are to do a lot of work on the boat this weekend, even though I have weekend duty at my job. On the list to do are:

-Cutout seat pedestal mounting bases
-install the mounting bases
-glass in the final layer on the deck
-cut out the transom plywood
-treat the plywood with CEPS
-Finally get the 90Hp off my old boat
-Show the old boat/trailer to a couple of prospects (just asking enough for the boat and trailer to cover the cost of the Duraback)
-Give the project boat a good scrub down and begin removing paint oxidation

Pretty aggressive plan I know, I hope I can pull it off.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Got the outboard off the older boat today. Boy was that a pain in the rear. The previous owner had jerry rigged the mounting on the transom to compensate for his poor transom reinforcement. Between the silicon, scrap metal, and locked up bolts it took me about 3.5 hours to get off. At least that part is out of the way, and now I can get busy putting the transom in on my project boat, and repainting the outboard itself.

Here's the homemade davit used and the outboard covered with a tarp. A storm was starting just as I got the last bolt out.

Anyone got any advice on painting the outboard? Do I need to strip it to metal, prime and paint it? Or could I just paint over what's there?

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

I just thought about the fact I never posted pics of the boat I'm replacing. Here she is:


http://s913.photobucket.com/albums/...Boat Tracking/1985 SportCraft 17ft Bowrider/


Some show her in her stripped condition.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Didn't get as much done as I wanted. Work and weather hasn't cooperated. I did get the outboard and wiring off the Sport Craft, cut out the pedestals for the seat, and gave the Marquis a good scrubbing. She went from being dingy grey to a nice off white.

I'm hoping the weather stays clear this week so I can get the transom and floor done. I'm chomping at the bit to start putting her together!

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Its been a while since I've been able to get back to working on the boat. Work, training, and family life has kind of zapped my free time in the afternoon. But Today I was able to get some time to get the plywood I need for the transom. While I was at HD, I decided to go ahead and get some supplies to make a motor stand. I used the design on the following thread as the basis for the design.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=266008

Since the outboard in the the thread was a 55 hp and mine is a 90 Johnson, I decided to widen the stance some, and add a little more strength to the feet. Instead of a width of 24 inches, I went with 32, and instead of a length of 36 inches for the feet, I went with 48 inches. I also used PL to glue the wood together as well as using decking screws to join it all.

I did have some great assistance. My 3yo was a much willing volunteer.....although I'm not sure how he calculates "pounds" from a level.... LOL

All in all, its a nice design. The directions were clear to follow, and it took me less than an hour to build.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Longtime with no update, but here it goes. I've cut out the plywood for the transom and plan to fit it and then seal it this weekend.

I also sold the old Sportcraft today for and I'm going to use the money to place my order for Durabak. Not sure if anyone even reads the thread, but if you do and you have Durabak experience, please give me some pointers.

Thanks. Good day to everyone!

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Poor Man Restoration - 1979 Marquis Catalina

Finally had time some free time to do some work. I was able to put the finaly layer of woven fiberglass onto the deck. I placed the order for the Durabak a few days ago, and it is supposed to be here by next weekend. Between now and then, I'll do one final sanding of the deck to prep it for the Durabak.

I was also able to fit the new transom cutouts. My first pass was pretty close. It only took a little bit of adjusting due to irregularities in the fiberglass of the bottom of the hull. Once I got the fit I wanted, I prepped them for sealing with CPES.

I used CPES I ordered from Rot Doctor.com that I had in my garage from another project. The stuff mixed easily and was a breeze to apply. It will take a few days for it to dry, then I'm going to cover it with a layer of woven mat and epoxy resin.

Here's the stuff I used: