Vendetta restore

[wolfsmurf]

i have been looking for a boat to restore for months. my list of requirements were as follows:

1. cheap
2. hull in good shape
3. have front and back live wells
4. be able to handle atleast a 120hp engine since that is what i have
5. cheap
did i mention im cheap?

i found an 85 venture vendetta boat meeting my criteria (got her for a hunerd buks!) but had no trailer, lucky for me i had a great trailer under a fish and ski i was gona strip and junk/give away so off i went and got her.
all the wood is rotten so i will have to do that. then i have plans to extend the front deck and enlarge the rod locker and paint her. hoping there will be some way to add a passenger side console. updated gauges and such can come later after i get it all done. i don't have a shop or garage so i will be doing all this work.......you guessed it under the shade tree with a come-a-long hooked to a tree limb! (insert proud redneck comment here)

i will be asking/begging for advice and comments on this as i go since this is my first boat restore and from reading all the really good threading in this forum there are a lot of people here who are great at this.

ok, time for pics. don't laugh at her, shes been through a lot since 1985....

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

Trying to get pics resized is a pain.

Here we shoved a wrecking bar almost all the way to the bottom of the transom before it hit something.

Love the rivets, read too many threads where the guy was crying about broken or stripped screws.
[

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

Started pulling up the rotten decking.

I don't see how the manufacturer could make this boat like this, the floatation boxes in the rear came out in 1 piece,they had no tops on they. Is this normal? I don't remember anyone else's resto showing this.

Started pulling out foam, it's all waterlogged. About 1/2 inch of water under it by the stringers.

There was worms and huge red ants in the transom!

See the little guy? Guess the previous owner kept his bait in the boat all the time.lol

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

After getting up the decking I noticed up at the front of the stringers where the foam ends they just wrapped the end with fiberglass rather than put some wood and have to seal it.

After getting some foam out I found what looks like a 1/2inch piece of plywood layed flat and glasses in? Could not be very strong.

It is completely rotten.

This looks like a piece of ply as we'll but it is solid all the way back.
Got all the foam out of one side before my back gave out. I won't get to do more until next weekend.



Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore


Got all the foam out yesterday and cleaned up bit.

Found this jewel. Yes a screw is In the bottom of the boat or should I say through the bottom of it.

so I was sampling the stringers, only about 3inches on 1 end is rotten and about 1 inch on the other end of the same stringer.was wondering should I go ahead and do the whole deal or jus the 1 that's bad.?

any thoughts from the great minds here?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Vendetta restore

There's nothing wrong with sistering in Stringers IF the majority of it is 100% ok. Just make sure to cut out ALL the rot.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Vendetta restore

My mind isn't that great, but if it were mine I'd redo everything. I wouldn't want 1 brand new stringer and 1 28 yr. old stringer in my boat.

You may be cheap, but this resto won't be cheap... if you do it right.

 

[a1964rn]

Re: Vendetta restore

I'm with jigngrub. If I went to the trouble of pulling the cap, I'd replace the stringers. Especially since there's rot in one.

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

Thanks guys. I found a place locally to buy my supply's from that's only slightly higher than us composites on the resin and its only 20 miles from here. I only have the 2 stringers in the bottom and the there's 2 places on the sides that had 1 inch thick pieces of boards,not plywood, that were like 1 1/2 in wide and a foot long just layed end 2 end and glassed over. This could not help much in making the hull stronger so I'm thinking of laminating 1/2 in ply to replace it since the worms ate it all.

 

[Trooper82]

Re: Vendetta restore

Hiya WolfSmurf....mind if I tag along?

I had 12"x12" 3/8"ply alog the sides of my hull..I replaced with 1/2" ply....I was surprised by the amount of stiffness that was added when I got them in place...I had the cap off and the deck was in...sides of hull were very flimsy till I put those in...

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

sure thing dood. the boards im talking about are sitting on what i think would be called the strake? its a small v shaped trough in the bottom of the hull that makes a raised v on the underside of the hull. seriously they just layed 1inch lumber pieces not even a foot long in this trough and glassed over it. i couldnt tell what was under there but found water coming up through a small hole in the back of the boat when i was taking up the decking back there, kept getting wet after i dried it. i was scratching my head wondering of there was a couple of giggling birds in the tree or something.LOL

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

Hiya WolfSmurf....mind if I tag along?

I had 12"x12" 3/8"ply alog the sides of my hull..I replaced with 1/2" ply....I was surprised by the amount of stiffness that was added when I got them in place...I had the cap off and the deck was in...sides of hull were very flimsy till I put those in...

on the sides? mine has nothing on the sides so i assumed there was supposed to be a little flex in there kinda like when your car frame flexes to better conform to the road for better traction.

also would it be a good idea to enlarge the floatation boxes in the back? i have lots of room to go forward and can go up a bit but just from my limited understanding of how that stuff works the forward would help more than the up unless it was sinking correct?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Vendetta restore

I looked thru the pix you've posted, but don't exactly see what you 're talking about w/ the ply pcs over the strakes. But if you are getting water out from under them, and the ply has been compromised by the water, they should be removed.

Flotation foam may have some structural importance being located in the stern corners, but is at the stern where it can 'support' (float) the weight of the motor if the boat gets swamped. If the volume of foam can be increased, either by adding volume to the top or the front of the 'box' it's enclosed in, that can only be a positive change to your flotation plan, but shouldn't be done to eliminate further forward areas of foam. That would impact the 'safe & level' float of the boat should it become swamped.

Usually, flotation foam is reduced or eliminated in many of the rebuilds. Which is not a wise decision, IMHO.....

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

the wood im speaking of is in post # 4, 3rd pic. its like 1inch lumber cut to 1 1/2 wide pieces only about 10 to 12 inches long. ive already removed it all. just wanted to know thoughts on using laminated plywood to replace it.

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

am i the only one who iboats at work when im supposed to be working?=)

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Vendetta restore

Are the board & strake similar to 1 of these:

Wrapped in CSM, plywood would be suitable to replace the lumber you removed... Might need to be doubled 3/4" to fully mimic the previous dimensional lumber. The boat's marine architect/engineer thought your hull needed the support that lumber provided, for any number of reasons, so yeah, I'd put them back.

If more like the lower version in my rendering, some have filled the strake w/ hairy PB, but I don't know if it's a good idea or not, owner's choice....

Some can't surf from work, many do. Guilty :grey:

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

looks like the first pic. i am going to replace it with laminated 1/2 inch ply.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Vendetta restore

looks like the first pic. i am going to replace it with laminated 1/2 inch ply.

That's why I didn't 'see' it in the pix, from your description, I thought it sounded more like the lower rendering.. But now that I know what I'm looking at, it does look like the upper rendering in the pix you referenced...

Using plywood sounds good. You'll likely have quite a bit of leftovers that you can rip the strips out of...

 

[wolfsmurf]

Re: Vendetta restore

thanks alot guy.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Vendetta restore

You do need to try and use pieces of ply that have the outer ply's woodgrain running the length of the ply, rather then across the grain. The ply is stronger w/ it running that way.... 5 to 7 layer 3/4" plywood doubled would be stronger then 3 layer 1/2" tripled...

Sorry, I really should have included that ^^^ in my earlier post, but got distracted.

Either way, you're welcome