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Diary of a Preditor Restoration

that looks good - i'm a long way away from that though! i was air chiseling out the transom last night - all in all it's going well, and the transom was soaking, soaking wet and rotten. amazing, i put my fat ass on that setback plate and it didn't move an inch - wild.

i was very careful removing the transom - was able to save enough to get the transom pattern for one side. working on the other - i'm not 100% convinced that it will be a mirror image.
 
Just what you needed huh Chris E . Your right first things first.

Working on these things would have my head spinning every night while trying to get to sleep.
That half the fun of it .It'll keep your mind occupied that's for sure.

Roll on :thumb:
 
sawcat said:
Just what you needed huh Chris E . Your right first things first.

Working on these things would have my head spinning every night while trying to get to sleep.
That half the fun of it .It'll keep your mind occupied that's for sure.

Roll on :thumb:
Click to expand...

you have no idea!!! - already woke myself up a couple of times in the night trying to figure things out:brickwall:
 
WOW

Best of luck on the resto!! i just brought a 1956 ford "Major project" pick up to pull my checkmate! i never had the guts to attempt a boat resto!
 
see, the car thing is a bit intimidating for me, just cuz i haven't worked on them that much - boats don't bother me any - i spent 15 years in the business.
 
I like Mark's Idea of attaching the knees to the stringers. Might as well make it bulletproof while you have it apart. Good job so far!:thumb:
 
Boston Predictor said:
I like Mark's Idea of attaching the knees to the stringers. Might as well make it bulletproof while you have it apart. Good job so far!:thumb:
Click to expand...

Boston: how much room is back there with the fuel tank in it? i'm bumping the transom up to 2.25 inches from 1.5 - the guy gave me a fuel tank but i haven't looked to see if it will fit or not - i'm sure it won't - i'm a big believer in Murphy's Law - especillay this one "if anything can go wrong - it will!"
 
Its definitely tight back there. I had a 16 gal aluminum tank, and still had enough room for a bildge pump. If you have the same tank I have you should be all good
 
so, i was down at the fiberglass place yesterday to check it out. anyone have any experiance with MAS epoxies, the guy was telling me that it'll go 2-3 times farther than resin which makes it price comparable. he figured i could do stringers and transom with a gallon of epoxy and have a stronger boat - which i like.

i can also get gelcoat from them at 35 a gallon - which is a great deal. i have no experiance spraying gel - Coop any thoughts? since the boat will be spending a lot of time in the water, then i would rather go that way. been to busy to work on the boat this week - hopefully next week will be better.
 
Ship Shape TV Clips

Mas is a sponcer of Ship Shape TV, You know that boat maintenance TV show. I have never used it but it looks like really nice stuff to work with. You can find short vids of MAS products in use if you go on You Tube and do a search. I think you will enjoy the clips if you find them. Sorry I don't have the link.
Fred
 
I'de be surprised if you can do stringers and transom with 1 gallon. They do make a good product though. Remember between strigers transom and floor there is approx 2 1/2 sheets of plywood that need to be coated on all sides plus tha glass needed to install everything. Even not counting the floor it's close to a sheet and a half.
 
tell me about it, that's what i was figuring, however, if i use boat cloth, it will use a lot less epoxy because it is a thinner material. i don't know, the guy told me to call the factory with questions, maybe i will.
 
Chris E said:
so, i was down at the fiberglass place yesterday to check it out. anyone have any experiance with MAS epoxies, the guy was telling me that it'll go 2-3 times farther than resin which makes it price comparable. he figured i could do stringers and transom with a gallon of epoxy and have a stronger boat - which i like.

i can also get gelcoat from them at 35 a gallon - which is a great deal. i have no experiance spraying gel - Coop any thoughts? since the boat will be spending a lot of time in the water, then i would rather go that way. been to busy to work on the boat this week - hopefully next week will be better.
Click to expand...
From what I've seen MAS is very good stuff. But I don't use epoxy, partly because once you do that is what you always have to use for that boat. And partly because, I might be alergic to epoxy, go figure. So I stick with my polyester. If I buy some real good protective clothing and a mask, I might try epoxy again. But I figure if I can cover myself in fiberglass grinding dust and not itch, I'm ahead of the game.

For the gelcoat $35 a gallon is a GOOD price. You can add some additives to it to make it spray very smooth and need a lot less sanding that you might think.
 
I looked into epoxy when I got started on my project. From what I was told/learned epoxy and polyester don't play nice together. The boat was built with polyester resin and lasted a good long time. The other part to this, the cloth is where the strength is. I have, I believe, around 35 gal. of resin in my project. That's transom, knee's, boxes, floor, stringer, pad, bottom work, and side panels. Now keep in mind that there are maybe still 12 gallons in the boat. If I was a god like coop, then maybe I would have got it right the fist time. But I am not, so there was a large learning curve. Do to the lack of experience in this are when I started, everything is way over built.
I would stick with the polyester. Easy of use and priced right.
 
And like i've said plenty of other times no matter what manufacturers say about epoxy unless you can post cure it you are not getting all the benefits of using it.
 
i finally got a couple of hours in today, and finished getting the transom out today, which all in all didn't go to bad. no wood left. a couple of questions came to mind though:

should i smooth, level the transom i noticed some divits and potential voids. i think that it would be a good idea. anyone else run into this?

second thought, when the transom does go in, should i screw from the outside to pull the transom tight to the glass? or is their another solution that would work better?
 
Yes, fill any low spots. And if your going to paint anyway, then definately secure the transom with screws from the outside, just run them through a peice of wood first then into the glass and into your transom.

1. Have several wood blocks ready with screws already in place, then you can just hold them up to the transom and hit them with the screw gun.

2. Make sure you predrill the fiberglass so that the screws go right into the transom. Your going to fill these holes anyway. The idea is your squeezing the fiberglass layer between the wood.

This method is way cheaper than investing in hundreds of dollars worth of c clamps in various sizes. That you may only use on this boat.
 
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