Wood replacement questions

[John Nelson]

Looks good, Now make yourself some test pieces you can destructive test to make sure this stuff sticks together as well as you planed.

[Helmar]

Thanks Kelly.
I'm making some more progress. I have one complete side of the original cabin wall so I was able to make the new cabin wall 1 piece width wise, both sides of the boat are actually pretty close in shape (more then I can say for many production cars of the era). I put the main cabin wall directly on top of the lower piece that follows the bottom of the boat with two backing boards. I did this because the top of the boat need to be raised roughly 3/8-1/2" so the hull would be back to the same shape as the original cabin wall, it seemed easer to put together this way rather then how I did the back bulkhead. I sealed the wood with a couple coats of Daly's ship n shore sealer. The wood instantly turned dark and beautiful, Aquateck mahogany, no stain, all it needs now is some varnish. I'm thinking satin varnish over gloss. Does anyone have experience with one or the other being less maintenance or holding up better?
I have most of the bottom pieces filled and radius to the bottom of the boat, I will remove the bulkheads and glass the lower pieces in, then epoxy the bulkheads to the lower section and fill, radius and glass them in.

Looken pretty darn good

Beware of glass resin making contact with epoxy resin. I did some tests and that was a very weak point. I could break them apart.

Also I have used the Dalys sealer and not too impressed with the drying time and how well it soaks in. Having to sand it before paint? Didn't like that as it was exposing the wood your trying to seal....Am I missing something with that ???

I was forced to use it after MarXite was no longer made so going back to the two part epoxy sealers.
That I know I can use epoxy resin and fiberglass resin and with testing, the wood will come apart first.

Just too bad about that MarXite no longer being manufactured, that was some Killer sealer !!!

Helmar

[sclapsaddle]

Ya, I'm not convinced about wood and adhesion with anything except epoxy, but I'm also not convinced about it in certain situations. The daly' s wood sealer soaked in for me well but does seam to feel moist even after a week of drying, been raining also. No other experience with wood sealers. I am only using the epoxy to bond plywood together, being carefully to not polyester over it, the filleting I did was with polyester for the radius to the hull.
I practiced with thinned polyester over the sealed wood after a light sanding with 120g wipe with acetone with 2 coats, seamed to soak in well,then layed up mat and let cured, did the same with epoxy. Epoxy did stick better until I heated up little over 100 degrees, looses all its strength pulled off the wood with relative ease., I am fairly confident in the adhesion with the polyester after the tests, took wood fibers with it after tearing off.

[John Nelson]

Its really good you are willing to test. Usually I hear nope this is what Im doing. Now compare wood without sealer and polyester to the wood with sealer and polyester, maybe try abrading sealed wood. You can also try drying a sample of treated plywood till it checks then put two layers of mat on it. Consider using that for the deck. sealed=two layers of mat over the entire exposed surface including the inside of the drain tubes. The least you can do is the transom and the floor of the splash well.

[Kelly]

Looking over your pictures I was wondering how you plan on allowing water drainage to take place from the cabin area? I don't see any holes in your bulkhead. Did I miss a post or you just haven't tackled that part yet?

See my hardtop thread when/if you're ready to make a rubrail/window rubber order.

[sclapsaddle]

I am planning to put pvc pipes in after I'm done with the bulkhead and cabin wall and before the floor goes in. I'll take a look at your window moldings when I get further along.

[Kelly]

Ah gotcha, glad to hear that. Can't wait to see some more progress pics!

[John Nelson]

Again try fiberglass on some pvc pipe to see if you get expected results,before doing installation.

[Helmar]

I am planning to put pvc pipes in after I'm done with the bulkhead and cabin wall and before the floor goes in. I'll take a look at your window moldings when I get further along.

I fill any voids with the fiberfiller when needed.
Once the floor goes down, then the holes drilled, boat jacked up in the bow and the foaming process happens.
I use the Fiberlay Adhisve close cell floatation foam.
It will have a small door or plate just inside the cabin as so if any water get in, will make its way to the lid/door/plate, whatever you want to call it and then down the PVC to the bilge area and get pumped out.

I can submit more pictures as I progress if you like.

Yours is looking pretty sharp !!

Helmar

[bruceb]

Helmar- great info on the process so far.
The pvc layout is similar to other posts I'd seen and someone in the past had drilled the top of the tubing in a few places (maybe 5) from fore to aft so that if there's a buildup of water in the foam it could collect that, and by not drilling the sides or bottom still allows water to travel aft without re-introduction back into the foam.
Are there athwart ships holes through the stringers to direct water to the center channel ? Don't remember if anyones mentioned that. The deck surface has two holes near the aft to take water off and direct it to the bilge, but they're forward of the aft bulkhead. In your de-construction, did you find holes just forward of the aft transom bulkhead sideways through the stringers ?
All in all, the work on the hull and tubing looks sharp. Always love seeing those beefy fiberglass stringers that the Skagit factory made. They were forerunners in fiberglass technology.
Thanks for the pics and info !

[Helmar]

Helmar- great info on the process so far.
The pvc layout is similar to other posts I'd seen and someone in the past had drilled the top of the tubing in a few places (maybe 5) from fore to aft so that if there's a buildup of water in the foam it could collect that, and by not drilling the sides or bottom still allows water to travel aft without re-introduction back into the foam.
Are there athwart ships holes through the stringers to direct water to the center channel ? Don't remember if anyones mentioned that. The deck surface has two holes near the aft to take water off and direct it to the bilge, but they're forward of the aft bulkhead. In your de-construction, did you find holes just forward of the aft transom bulkhead sideways through the stringers ?
All in all, the work on the hull and tubing looks sharp. Always love seeing those beefy fiberglass stringers that the Skagit factory made. They were forerunners in fiberglass technology.
Thanks for the pics and info !

Hi Bruce
We had a foam job blow the floor up and had to do the tare down and that is a job I Never Never want to do again. Not enough expansion holes were drilled in the floor.
We found that 2" holes every 16 to 18 inches apart seem to work best as if you pored in too much it would blow though the hole.
Not sure if I have pictures of some of the, Too much foam in the hole, jobs but it would come up out of the holes quite fast and make a big mess.
After doing several, you kind of get a knack for it. Poor a little less then you think and wait for it to stop expanding. Takes longer but with the bow up in the air as much as possible you are pretty much rest assured that you will have no voids to collect moisture.

The floor we blew up and had to take back out like I said, was a nightmare. We used the Fiberlay closed cell Adhesive flotation foam and because the hull was cleaned of any oil's and dirt, it was stuck to Everything. We had to cut the floor in 1 to two inch strips to get it to let go of the foam. We started to dig it out but found it was almost impossible. We just used the sanders and I had setup the laser to bring the foam back down to a new floor could go back on. We only had a few chunks missing that had to be filled but I we knocked the foam down enough to cause a void between the floor and old foam so we did the process again filling the voids and making sure it was stuck to the floor again.

I did play with that Fiberlay stuff and have a pot here that I had 8oz, Eight Ounces! that I had left in the pot.
I also had some blow's that I had floating around in the shops rain barrel for about 3 years and soaked up, No moisture. So, I am sold on there product.

Next to the hull between the frames, I will make a box out of 1/2 inch plywood that is adjustable or a adjustable mold. Then use to pour any excess into it for floating on the sides of the hulls. You can also just board up between the frames and pour in up to whatever level you want. Of course having foam on the sides will help not let the boat do what I hear is called Turtling or rolling over if for some reason to get a big one over the sides of the boat.

I did see the slots on the bottoms of the fiberglass stringers to allow any water to works it way to the keel stringer on all that I have been into. It must of been a common practice for them.

[John Nelson]

Yes thanks, I don't want to reinvent the wheel here just do what works and use others advise. Pictures this afternoon.

Are you going to the La Conner show?

[sclapsaddle]

John, yes we are planning to attend the show in La Conner.
Helmar, Bruce's boat is looking good and thanks for the info.

I've been making some slow progress, a little work here and there and its starting to look like a boat again. I tabbed the rear bulkhead in, made the splash well epoxied the wood blocks to the transom and the bulkhead with screws, then epoxied the plywood to the blocks with screws. its a bit more structure then what I cut apart but I was trying to tie it all together as securely as possible. I then layed up two layers of 1708 and one layer of cloth in the splash well and to the sides of the boat. I had some left over industrial polyurethane enamel from work that is a close grey color that seemed to be used originally. This stuff is super durable I use it for all chassis and suspension components at work.
Then I installed the cabin wall, epoxied and screwed the backing board to the lower section and the cabin wall. I ended up tabbing the upper cabin wall in exclusively with epoxy resin due to the amount of stress I feel that wall undergoes during rough water. The lower section I used polyester resin and the rear bulk head was epoxy on the front side and polyester resin on the splash well side. Floor is next!

[sclapsaddle]

Its been a year since I posted anything on here!! Summer time is slow to not existent work on the boat, 2-3 months of decent weather is not being spent working on the boat, usually. I managed to get quite a lot accomplished over the winter. It just keeps going and going.

The cabin is a similar layout to how it was, except I made storage compartments with latching lids. I painted it with Petit's cabin coat odd white. Where the toilet used to be I made lifting lid so I can put a small cassette toilet in there if I decide to. The front bow compartment is a built-in insulated cooler that will fit 2 wine bottles for my wife.

On the inside of the roof I ended up filling in the depressions between the structural ribs with 1" foam and then glued Hull-liner material to that. I made the door and door frame from Mahogany deck boards I found at crosscut hard woods here in Seattle. I made a small mock portal window out of 1/8" brass sheet and tinted acrylic.

Gas tanks were an issue, I didn't want to go through the expense of aluminum tanks, so ended up with Moeller plastic tanks. Trying to incorporate them in to the boat with out them being visible this is what I came up with. The front section under the front seat pedestals are storage compartments with latching doors same as in the cabin except on the side of the compartments. Above the boxes there are 2 small compartments that will have fold down doors on each side. After ready the coast guard regs on gas tanks, I decided I needed easy access to the fuel fittings/connectors for inspection and maintenance. The tops of the boxes will be able to be taken off and gas tanks removed in the future if required. After all this the regs require venting of the boxes due to the permeability of the tanks, so that will be one of the next things to do. Luckily only passive venting and not power. I am going to continue the plywood down the side to the rear bulkhead with a few more storage compartments, eventually build and install a rear bench seat.

I ended up making the windows out of 1/8" tinted Acrylic formed with a heat gun. Its not perfect but satisfactory for me for now. Making molds and having them made is more then I want to deal with at this point.

Moving forward slowly. I hope all is well out there! Stephen

[Helmar]

Looking good for sure !!!. I like the tank covers, throw down some life throw cushions and extra place to set someone down too The inside of the cabin sure looks nice too.
Things I have learned is the Epoxy resin does not stick worth a darn to the fiberglass or resins so that is why the fiber filler for voids, but didn't see any in your pictures.
When it comes to making patterns, I can sure go though the Popsicle sticks and glue. Little tricky when you have to conform to the bow curves, but you nailed that too.

Its always wise to Wow the coast guard guys as they get a wild hair and will dig deep. I have even heard them wining about the wiring code colors but most tend to skip over that.
I think I still have the current coast guard code if you don't already have it. When your running a Outboard most of that is wired factory so not much they can say about those.

Windows, yes, a pain for sure. John Nelson and I were able to make up some out of I think 3/16ths using a couple of propane shop heaters. Held them over the plastic and watched it lay down but the all looks good until things start cooling down. We totally failed with 1/4" as trying to get it a even temp was just not working, but again, the 3/16ths turned out totally acceptable, maybe not show quality but darn close. We even tried the propane heaters on both sides of the 1/4 inch plex but the cooling off part killed us. Some cooled faster than other parts and it just buckled up and well, was not acceptable for the boat I am working on.
One thing I was hoping for is if we ever did come up with a fiberglass mold for the cabin and helms, the club would own them and we just passed them around to whatever shop that was willing to take on the window jobs.
The Lexan stuff is just too weak and if you were to take one over the bow like I did coming out and around Whidbey island heading back up Port Townsend, it would have punched them in and that would have been the end of things. As it was, it almost knocked out my helm glass window.

I think most of the Skagit molds would take either the rubber or aluminum frames were as this bigger boat (21 Bell Boy) I had to do a bunch of dremel and router work so fiberglass was Everywhere. That dust even got into my bunny suit and plugged my full face mask filters way to fast.. So, yeah, not fond of the window part at all and glad you got yours in and acceptable.

I didn't go back though the thread to see what power you were going to use. Pretty much anything over 115 is a waste of money. That hull was not designed to go much faster than around 30 or she will start bouncing all over the place.
Mine has that B-18 Volvo in it with dual weber carbs and with all that Oak they used it it for the cabinets making her heavy to start with, loaded and two of us in it she would do 28mph at 3K rpms.

Anyway, blab blab blab, she is looking Great !!!!