Hiatus Over!

Well, let's see what happened since June of 2015?

We bought a new house & car, had two wonderful kids, and changed jobs. So really not too much, right?! This spring, with a little encouragement from my wife and dad - it was time to get the boat done.

The boat has been stored in 3 different locations (and still interested in a better one) since we last made any tangible progress. A lesson I learned early is that a project like this can be insurmountable without help. That help came in the form of parents and friends over several weekends in 2015. I am very appreciate of this but realized it may be time to work with a pro this time around to get it done.

Enter, Lee Schroeder, of 5 Sixty 3 Sound Solutions. Lee is an old friend of mine from our days of working at Best Buy over 12 years ago.  He installs just about anything with a wire and has a gift of doing custom fabrication work for vehicles, boats, and more. You will see in the future posts, he does outstanding work!

We got started over the week of June 18-22. My ambition was to take the week off work and focus on getting this boat done. As you learn with any project, it was significantly more involved and has taken much more time than just one week of hard work. I guess you could say that we have lived two motto's during this summer:


"If its worth doing, its worth doing right" 

"Overkill is the only thing considered as a job well done"


That has been our theme and have made outstanding progress.Five weeks later, we are closing in on the home stretch.

I didn't take the time to update a blog after each work session so rather than posting random photos and descriptions, I decided that I will create a post for each area of the boat we transformed. Hopefully, I will have enough pictures of  "before, during, and after" to showcase the great work.

Pictures and much more info will be coming soon!

- Tim

Cutting and sealing the floor

We are back at it! This project has gone in spurts for much of this spring and summer with hopes that our progress will begin to show in the boat. Until then, we will hope for a few more rainy weekends where I can get into the boat and continue the work.

A little update since it's been a while...

I spent Father's Day (also my birthday) with my dad and Tom cutting out the floor and sealing it. I have learned to set my expectations a bit lower, not in the quality of work, but in how much we can accomplish in a day. That way, we all feel better about what we have done... I'll use that line in my memoir someday! :) 

First thing we did was pull up the old carpet off the original boards to use them as a template to cut the new wood. That was a much harder job than anticipated as I think there was about 4 hours worth of carpet removal invested.  

                              

Fun fact: This was the piece of floor that inspired it all. As you can see much of the wood is old and frail but this piece was about to crumble. 

I think the Dad's earned a nice break from working. Instead of Father's Day cards, I bought them a 6 pack of beer, each. Much more heartfelt to drink a card made by Guinness than to read a card (that costs about the same) from Hallmark!

After the floor was cut, we went to work on sealing it with Epoxy. We used a 3:1 epoxy sold by USComposites.com. That stuff is not cheap but, sure gets the job done! Tom said its basically the same stuff they use on bowling lanes.

I let the epoxy cure for about 72 hours then flipped them over and coated the other side. One thing we learned was the epoxy has a very quick working time. Its not like paint where you can pour a quart at a time into a bucket and work for an hour. You really only have 15 minutes to get the stuff on the wood or risk having a bucket that's as hard as concrete.

Now that we have a floor cut and sealed, I wanted to move on to cut the live and minnow wells, along with other pieces that are considered "above floor". My buddy, Adam, came up from Davenport to spend the day doing more carpet removal and cutting.

We were strategic in getting the most out of each sheet of plywood. I'm using ACX Premium Marine Grade plywood. At $70 a piece for a 4'x8' sheet, you don't want to waste much of it!

You can see the templates we traced below...

I will try to get these pieces sealed with epoxy this week so we can finish cutting a majority of the wood next week. After that, we will move forward with attaching the carpet to each piece. By the way, I suppose I will have to finally settle on which carpet we will use.... decisions, decisions. 

Hopefully, I will have more updates - more often - with more progress! The baby is due on October 9th, thus my project will end (either finished, or unfinished) when the kid is ready to greet the world..I better keep moving! 

Pipe and Foam

The project has been stalled for a few weeks and finally was able to get back to it on Sunday. My buddy, Adam, came up to help me - and it was very much needed and appreciated.

Part of the overall planning of rebuilding this floor is to add the ability for power and sound to be run from the front the boat. To do this, we needed to snake cables to the front "cleanly". Tom had a good suggestion of running 3/4" of PVC pipe through the stingers and up to the front where we could bring the cabling up through the floor and have it all concealed.

To cut the holes in the aluminum stringers, we had to use a 1 inch drill bit. Granted, a 1 inch hole doesn't seem large until you have to buy a $30 drill bit to punch the hole. Take a look below: 

 

 Punching a hole in each stringer was more challenging than we had antisipated. As the bit would get itself stuck halfway through and we would have to use a metal file to finish opening each hole that was created. Next time, we will use a 1 inch hole saw - lesson learned! Below you can see how we cut and mounted the pipe. 

Finally, after 3 trips to Lowe's, a quick lunch, and 4 hours later. We had the pipe in place. It's always the tasks that seem the easiest that end up becoming the hardest.

Next, we moved on to the foam. This has been a MUCH debated subject in the world of boat restoration. We could use sheets of foam and cut them to fit or use a chemical based foam to "pour".  I bounced back and forth for about a month as to which was the right answer. Finally, a colleague of mine mentioned the idea of using "spray foam". Thus, you apply it no different than spray painting, or more accurately, like spreading Cheese Whiz out of a can.

 Using this type of material worked out the best because we didn't have to cut foam and then figure out how to adhere it to the floor and keep it from making that wrenching squeaking sound every time the foam would shift in the boat. It also saved us from having to mount the floor first in the case of chemical foam.

I was still a little apprehensive of using the foam so I decided to buy one can to see how far it would go. It filled 9 Solo Cups and took one large piece of cured foam and soaked it in a bucket for a few days to see how it reacted to the water. Happy to report that it still floated as well as the first day I placed it in the water and I was sold!

Rather than do the math of how many cubic feet per ounce I would need - I just grabbed a case of 24 cans and figured we can take back what we don't use and buy more if we need to.

As you can  see from the picture below, the first 24 cans made a large dent in the amount needed.

We went back and bought another 24 cans (for those wondering, it's $2.98/can so about $80 a case) and used about 8 more cans to finish the floor. I will need more foam for the "above ground" panels near the transom in a few weeks so I will keep the extra for now. Overall $160 isn't a bad price for foam after calculating how much sheet foam we might have used or containers of chemical foam. It came out close to the same.

This week, I will fill in the nooks and crannies and then use a saw to cut out the pieces that are above the floor line. Happy to say there will be much more foam in it now than there ever was installed at the factory. 

That's it for now. Next big step will be buying and the wood for the floor and epoxy sealing the wood. Not sure when I will get to that, but you can be sure more pictures will be up once that process begins. 

Sealing the hull

 I had a few hours on Sunday afternoon to get the sealant down on the hull before replacing the foam begins. The hull is dry but I figured it wouldn't hurt to seal the rivets and seams anyway. As time goes on, they may not stay as tight and I may be thankful for doing this step years from now. 

The stuff I found though the iBoats forum suggested that I use the stuff pictured below called Gluvit. It's about $50 for a quart so I figured it had better be good stuff. It's not exactly available at your local home improvement store and had to buy it online.

 The guys on the iBoats forum recommened to use the "roll and tip" method. Basically rolling it on with a small foam paint roller and then using a foam brush to work the sealant into the cracks.

They said it will be dry within 24 hours and fully cured within a week. It may take longer with the weather being erratic - but a dry garage will be the most help for it to cure. 

Once this is fully cured, the inevitable debate on using "2 in 1 expanding foam" or just buying foam and cutting it to fit. I've been debating it for weeks and can be convinced one over the other is best one day and completely change my mind the next.

That's it for now!

Clean Hull and Running Engines

It's been a few weeks since I have been able to make any tangible progress on the boat. With the good weather on Saturday, I was able to get the boat out of the garage and pressure wash the inside of the hull (thanks to my buddy Jeremy for lending me his pressure washer!). While the foam is out, there were tons and tons of particles still left behind. Thankfully, they are all gone now.

 I washed the port (left) side first to show the difference that pressure washing can make. The purpose is to clean the surface to look for any leaky spots in the hull along with applying a sealant to ensure water doesn't begin to enter into the boat as it continue to age. 

I couldn't get the yellow foam stains up from hull. A stronger pressure washer might have been able to take it up, but I would also have run the risk of  taking up the paint as well. I have no interest in having to paint an area that I will (hopefully) never have to see again.

I convinced Hillary to go with me and take the boat to the river to see if  there were any leaks. Of course, we get the boat in the water and I forgot there was still a drainage pipe that goes from the live & minnow wells to the outside of the boat below the water line. Needless to say, the back of the boat started to fill with some water until I was able to move the hose. So much for checking a dry boat.

 I've decided instead to go ahead and seal all of the seams and rivets and give it another test in a few weeks. 

 

Last week, I called "Ski"(nickname) at Mid-town Maria to see when we could get our other boat in to have it serviced and ready for spring. I was told to wait a few weeks until we are sure to be out of freezing temperatures. He said in the meantime they have been working on outboard motors until the weather gets warmer. I told him about my project and that I would need to get my outboard motors in at some point this summer to be serviced. He said "bring them in now!". 

I have to give Mid-town a huge endorsement for their customer service.  Even in their busiest time of year, they are always able to get to either boat within a day or two. I dropped it off  last Wednesday night after work, and received a phone call at 8:15am the next morning with a diagnosis and an estimate. It doesn't get any better than that! 

The two engines: Johnson  9.9HP and Johnson 30HP

The last time I had run these engines was the summer of 2013. My buddy, Adam, and I spent the day fishing and were halfway back to the dock when the 30HP died. Again, thanks to my grandpa for always believing in having "2 of everything" on a boat. We were able to fire up the 9.9 engine and make our way back to the dock easily. At the time, I suspected a fuel issue because it ran well all day and then all of a sudden stopped running.

When I talked to Ski at Mid-town, that next morning, he said that inside of the engine cover had "soundproofing foam" that was adhered to the inside of the cover. As time goes on, that foam begins to disintegrate and the little particles will get sucked up into the carburetor.  They were able to take the carburator apart to clean it out and remove the foam from the cover. They also replaced the spark plugs and changed the lower unit oil. It runs great now!

Inside of the engine cover now without the soundproofing foam

The starter on the 30HP had been wearing out and I asked them to go ahead and recondition it before it becomes a problem.  

Front picture of the carburetor (center) and reconditioned starter (right)

If I can get another day or two of 65-70 degrees, the next step will be to apply the Gluvit sealant inside of the boat, let it cure, and check for any leaks. If we are good to go after that, installing new foam will be next!

Scrapping Forever

 We are now down to bare aluminum!

If I had to guess, this is the step (in the project) that took the least amount of thinking and the most amount of labor. The foam that was originally there, was poured in as a liquid state and then changed into a foam that stuck to the surface of the aluminum. Thus, we had to dig into it with a floor scrapper and a shovel to pull out the large chunks. After the large chunks were removed, we used metal scrappers to get down to the aluminum by hand.

I have to take a quick moment to vent about the difference between going to a big box store like Lowes verses a small hardware store like ACE.  On Saturday, I needed to get supplies to start the job and walked into Ace Hardware to find three employees waiting at the front of the store to help me. They got me out the door in less than 10 minutes with an even better product than what I came in looking for. On Sunday, I walked into Lowes and walked all over the store to find someone, who had  to find another person to finally tell me they don't even have what I was looking for. Lowes is great for "big stuff" but for simple items or if you need any kind of help - Ace is the place.

I started the project around 11am on Saturday and was finished with one side by 7pm. Talk about a slow going and labor intensive job. The thought did cross my mind to just "leave it as is" but I felt that if the project is going to be done - its going to be done right from the very bottom to the top. Even if it took 15 hours of misery over the weekend.

Thankfully, my dad offered to come up on Sunday to help.

I did some research to see what type of foam I should replace the "old stuff" with. What I learned is that "poured" foam (also known as 2 in 1 foam) is great for custom fitting areas in order to fill in every nook that also provides the best in sound absorption.What it also does well is absorb water over a long period of time and has a tendency to become "water logged".

 There are sheets of foam that you can buy from Lowes or Mendards that can be cut to fit the floor and is easy to take up along with a less porous surface to resist water. Not to mention it's about half the price. The only downfall I could find is that it doesn't absorb sound as well as the 2 in 1 poured foam. Fortunately, I still have a few weeks before I have to decide what I want to use to replace the old stuff.

As you can see, we are now down to bare aluminum. Then next step will be to pressure wash the inside and drop it in the water to see if we have any leaks in the hull - most likely from loose rivets. With Mother Nature throwing curve balls at us with 65 degrees one day and snow the next, we will have to see when the boat can get into the water. I suppose that will give me some more time for "planning".

Getting Started

Here we go....

I have kept this boat in my garage each of the past 5 summers and have told my self each year that I would take on this project. Each year, I would find other things to do and would never get it started. This is the year and the day after we brought it back from storage, I dived in!

Here are the  "before" pictures:

I started off with the front and worked my way to the back to get the rod storage bench and live well & minnow well benches off. I will plan to keep all of the old pieces to use as a template for building the new floor and sides.

As you can see, the electrical system is not exactly the "safest". It will need some care as we begin to rebuild it.

As I started to pull up sections of the floor, I was curious to see if I would find anything interesting. In the back section, an old Quaker State oil bottle was found. It could have been there anywhere form 10-25 years.

Thankfully, each piece came up relatively easy with the exception of a few stripped screws that I had to drill out. I was really happy to see the "stringers" or steel frame that holds the floor was in good shape and I can simply reattach the new floor to it once we are able to replace the foam and seal the hull.

In addition to an oil bottle, I did find an adjustable wrench. Not sure how it could have slipped under, but it did. Again, it could have been there up to 25 years or so.

Well, here it is... all stripped apart. 

As you can see, the foam is waterlogged and worn and will have to come out - but not today.

As I was taking the boat apart, I saved all of the screws and labeled them for each section they were removed from. Most are in good shape and if you have ever purchased stainless steel screws, you know these are valuable.

I was wondering if I would find anything of my Grandpa's during this project. I did find this!

Well, that's it for now. Next, I'm going to take the foam out, pressure wash the aluminum, and drop it in the water to see if the hull is completely dry.