My Restoration Process

[muddywater]

My restore on my 1972 20 Superfisherman has been progressing glacially for 6 years now so I thought I should post something before I forget all the details.

I have never done fiberglass work before so I decided to learn on the console. All the hardware was so far gone it had to be cut off with a cutting wheel. I cut 10 inches out of the center of the console and glassed it back together from both sides.

Having worked with WillyC on his gel-coat job, I decided to Gel-coat my console using gel-coat and Duratec (over epoxy for those of you who think it cannot be done). The Duratec makes it flow easily and you don't have to mess with PVA or wax. I think it flowed a little too well for the Gel-coat gun so I switched over to the $20 Harbor Freight gun which sprayed it ok but slowly. It tends to run pretty badly as you can see in the pic. Runs are hard to sand out without cutting completely through. After spraying it was sanded with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, sanding discs and then wet polished with Aquabuff 2000. The results are at least as good as factory if you spend the time. The only flaws I can see to the Duratec/Gel coat are all the sanding and the fact that the Duratec replaces some of the gel-coat (and therefore the pigment) so you have to have a pretty good build up or you can see through it. I think that was the reason WillyC decided to only use it on the bottom of his boat.

I guess I should note that although the company I got my epoxy from (Raka) sells a non-blushing epoxy, I used the normal low-blushing epoxy and made certain to wash any blush off with detergent and water. I guess using non-blushing epoxy would be the safer route.

[muddywater]

So I spent years trying to repair every hole and crack in the gunnels. Apparently one of the previous owners thought that the way you stop a boat is to run it into the dock.

The boat had not been used in 15 years and there were about 15 gallons of something that looked like kerosene in the tank. The old tank was still in good condition so I sold it. The old 1980 Mariner "Tower of Power" (built by Mercury) actually started when I took it to the dock (after sitting 15 years!) but the dry rotted gas lines immediately split and started shooting gas out of every orifice (and the engine STILL ran). I touched one of the wires and it disintegrated. After replacing all of that stuff I sold the engine. I never went for a run though as the boat would have sunk since the drains were corroded through and the transom was gone since no sealant was used on the bolts for the swim ladder.

[muddywater]

I still am not sure how you guys do it. It is WAY more fun to go spend time in one of my other boats than to suck fiberglass dust for days on end.

After a few years of fiberglass dust my Shop Vac, Skil grinder, and Black & Decker sander bit the dust. I replaced the grinder with a Bosch grinder which I got an optional dust shroud for. The dust shroud tends to get in the way so I do not use it all the time. I have mostly been using 60-grit flap wheels for cutting stuff fast, but it occurred to me at some point that I could put 60 grit fiber backed sanding discs on my Harbor Freight sander-polisher and that seems to give me more control for the initial knock down on repairs plus it seems like it puts out coarser dust that does not fly around as much. The 6" Ridgid sander I have had since the beginning has been holding up pretty well (probably because I think Metabo made it for Ridgid). The Shop Vac had been getting on my nerves because it would clog after about 10 minutes. After it died I replaced it with a mid-sized Fein which has been really nice. The hose is so long the vac does not even have to be in the boat and the auto on/off with tool use is nice as well.

Anyway... too many distractions to spend all my time on the Seacraft. I had a welder build me a 13 foot smooth bottom mud hull which I put a 12 HP mud motor on for hunting. FUN... Click on the pic to see us running across a mud flat. The second is a video link running through grass on a hunting trip. Both videos are with the 12 HP. I later upgraded to an 18 Copperhead and after some mods the little sucker runs 27 mph with 2 people and hunting gear. This year it will probably get heads polished and carburetor mods (or a 30mm carb from a 35 as some of the Ultralight glider owners have done).

[muddywater]

The old engine did not have a lifting ring, so we rigged up some straps to unmount the old engine. I later found out you can buy a Mercury lifting ring off of ebay for less than $20 that threads onto the flywheel shaft and makes engine removal cake. I got one and used it to remount the engine on my other boat which gave me an additional 6 miles an hour top end just from raising the engine 1-bolt hole! Given, it was mounted too low by the dealer originally, but still...

I cut the inner liner as I intended to do my transom from the inside. I used a piece of flat steel bar to separate the liner from the transom. The problem was the live well which was attached to the hull by the invincible potter putty. I separated everything else from the transom and hull and when all else failed, rigged it up so I could use the hoist to pull on the live-well. I picked the ENTIRE boat off the trailer just by the live-well and it would not let go!!!!!!!! When that failed, I just cut the live-well in half with a Sawzall at which time the liner came out easily allowing me access to the bottom of the live-well with a couple crowbars and a sledge hammer.

[muddywater]

Years passed... and I worked on filling more holes in the Seacraft by the thousands.

I still did not get anywhere fast. Too many distractions. Caught 5 of these a week and a half ago (could have caught them all day but there is a limit). I need somebody to teach me how to catch the smaller tastier ones though.

[muddywater]

I have seen many on this board complain of how much of a pain it was to remove their core with everything used from chainsaws to air chisels. Mine was so rotten, I literally just vacuumed it out and hit it with a flap wheel on the angle grinder.

In case anyone was wondering, I included
1) rotten transom core
2) a cross section of the (rotten) balsa cored deck attached by the invincible Potter putty
3) a cross section of the foam cored stringer and wood 2x4 cored fiberglass keelson
4) the battery box and the strange rectangular shaped soft portion in the top of the starboard stringer which did not seem to have much or any glass over it (I had dug it out a little to check to see if the foam was wet. The foam did not seem wet but at the bottom of the stringer next to the glass there was some water. The keelson on the other hand was dry and in good condition.