| Author | Post |
|---|
Conrad
Member
| Joined: | Sun Sep 28th, 2008 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 25 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |    |
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28th, 2008 03:49 pm |
|
Spent the last year restoring this old girl.
Modified the hull as it was filled between the deck and hull with injection foam, and had no bulkheads for support. Also no bilge drain either. The old thruhull draincock like dad had in his '55 Cruise Master must be a thing of the past. I did find a similar type from Crestliner boats out of Minnesota, so at least I can get the boat planed off, and open it to drain any water out of the bilge. The reason I did this is the foam below the deck was water logged 2/3rds forward from the transom. The transom was mostly rotted too. I am suprised the engine didn't fall off!
So I also built a new transom from 5 ply birch plywood, 1/2 inch sheets, laminated together with good old contact cement. It is 4 layers thick and just under 2 inches total thickness. To protect the wood as much as possible, I coated the entire in a layer of epoxy resin. And any holes drilled in the transom for mounting things like the engine, pickup for the speedo, and fish finder, all were sealed with epoxy to preserve the wood.
I also redesigned the interior, to have more legroom up front while driving, and still have a small cuddy under the foredeck for storage. I also made a 4 inch tall windshield ledge as the top frame was right at eye level when one would sit in the driver's seat, and I followed the contour of the windshield as it sweps back at 35 degrees, and has a rake of 25 degrees. This ledge was built from sheet aluminum, and riveted together, and then riveted to the foredeck.
I had a lot of things to do to this old girl, but those are the main highlights, other than the usual, new inner walls with vinyl covering, and lounge seats that fold out, and to top it off, I got a tip from one of the guys in the old boat club, to use Glidden Porch and Floor Oil Based paint for it. It was a whole lot cheaper than the stuff at the boat shop for and old aluminum boat, and I did the old tip and roll paint method which looks real nice.
To top it all off, I treated myself to a brand new Evinrude E-Tec 40 to power the old girl, and it's the best outboard I've ever owned.
Included is a pic from the night before her first trip out all spiffed up. The paintjob is a duplicate of dad's old cruiser, all I need to do is add the white waterline and paint the bottom American Bronze. But I had no idea of what her draught was going to be after lightening her up by aroung 800lbs., so I had to set her in the water to find out. And to my amazement, instead of displacing a waterline of almost 18 inched fron the keel, she only displaces 7 inches from the keel.
Attachment: DSCN0554.JPG (Downloaded 29 times)
|
Conrad
Member
| Joined: | Sun Sep 28th, 2008 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 25 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Oct 9th, 2008 03:53 pm |
|
| Here's a pic although not to good of the boat cruisin' Attachment: DSCN0589.JPG (Downloaded 24 times)
|
Current time is 07:32 pm | |
|
|
|