16' Ski Boat Restoration

[Milhouse]

So here is the "Other Woman" that I have been seeing on the side. I have been neglecting my 17' Overnighter Sloop Build for a faster gal. My wife is enabling my decision as she digs speed over the serenity of sailing.

Is it allowed to post non-Glen-L boat restoration progress here?

She is a 16' Ski Boat with a 1962 327 (from a Biscayne ~250HP) and a Velvet Drive. She was built in ~1963 has a custom - beefy- fiberglass hull and a wooden deck which needs a lot of love. I bought it originally for the "drive train" to build a 19' BarrelBack Runabout but I figured I would try and restore her first as a learning exercise.

I started the restoration about 1 year ago and have been working on and off as time and $ permit. The fiberglass and gel coat are in good condition. I have pretty much pulled her all apart otherwise. I have rebuilt the motor (have not fired it up yet) which is sitting patiently until I finish the updates to the topside and new gas tanks (the originals were custom formed fiberglass onto the hull, since I read that Ethanol eats fiberglass tanks I cut them out yesterday and I'm glad I did cause they had some NASTY stuff in them...).

I have stripped off all the ugly painted fiberglass covering a 3mm veneer which was totally delamintated due to water getting in at the edges. The substrate 3/8" ply and the bones were in pretty good shape. After some love the deck is almost ready to be re-veneered with 1/8" marine mahogany ply. I plan to try my hand at single sided vacuum bagging details will be in a following post.

If its not cool to talk of my other woman here let me know and we won't talk of her again

[Roberta]

You are fine with posting how you did repairs and ask advice on repairs or techniques. What is discouraged is posting ads or websites that sell items that Glen L typically sells.

Roberta

[Bill Edmundson]

Certainly welcome to post here. We all have, or will, face these issues. Any help we can give or insight we can gain is good for all.

Bill

[Milhouse]

Here are some shots while removing the old fiberglass and veneer from the deck. It came off reasonably easy using a sharp putty knife. I then used the Festool Rotex to take on the spots down where the glue held better.

[Milhouse]

Here is some rot on the stern which was chiseled out and then repaired with West System Epoxy 105/205 + 405 sanded down with the Rotex.

[Milhouse]

The boat had ~10 gal integral fiberglass gas tanks (one on each side). I read that ethanol will eat the old fiberglass resin therefore I decided to cut them out and replace them with stainless steel tanks.

I made some templates of the hull at each end of the tank out of 1/4" scrap ply that I had laying around. I used a compass in the typical scribing technique to transfer the shape of the hull to the new pattern and them cut them out with a bandsaw. I made some final tweaks with a file to get the fit better.

To cut them out I used the Harbor fright oscillating cutter. I never had a use for one of these seemingly useless tools before but it seemed like the best way to cut out the tanks close to the hull and not make a mistake that would really suck. It got hot as a pistol while using it for an extended period of time and it vibrates like crazy but it was a good $19.99 investment. It went thru a few of the cheep blades so I bought some Dremel brand carbide tipped blades $20, sheesh, and still went thru one for each tank. For being such a "useless tool" I have used it 3 more times since on other strange "one time" cuts.

I'm glad that I did decide to cut out the tanks because they were filled with all sorts of crud including what looked like tar.

I am getting some new custom stainless tanks fabricated by American Tanks which is local here in San Diego and I'll post some pics once I get them.

[mrintense]

This looks good so far. I love watching these old boats get restored like this. I seriously considered going this route prior to choosing to build my Vera Cruise. So many cool boats out there. Good luck and looking forward to seeing the progress as it happens.

[Milhouse]

I have been working on replacing the old rail where the throttle is mounted. This also serves to hold up a portion of the deck. I scored a deal on some nice block figured Makore veneer so I decided to use it for the cockpit.

Since I was veneering it I didn't want to use a solid wood substrate due to wood movement so I tried to use as much 3/4" Baltic Birch as I could but in order for the edges to be rounded over they needed to be solid. Therefore created a sandwich of Sapeli (which matches the Makore well) and the Baltic Birch in the center.

I then used the Joe Woodworker Veneer Press to press the veneer (works so awesome!). I used better bond glue and I'm curious how it will hold up in a marine environment so I also made a test piece with TightBond 3 on one side and Better Bond on the other. I plan to do some experiments on it to see how it holds up (posts to follow).

I created a template out of 1/4" MDF and then used a fluh trim template router bit to cut it out.

I wanted to have some fasteners and not just epoxy to hold it in since it is structural but I could not access the end of one side of the piece to use SB Screws so I used these "screw mount nuts" from McMaster. They were epoxied in place and seem to be holding well.

[Milhouse]

Here is a shot of it with a fresh coat of epoxy. I'm getting some air bubbles from the West Systems 800 roller. I never got them before but they will sand out...Just sorta annoying.

Since it is veneer I am doing a "book match" on the other rail of the boat so they will be mirror images of each other.

The dash will be of the same veneer

[Richie M]

I find that if you go over the fresh coat of epoxy with a heat gun the air bubbles will expand and burst leaving a little less work after.

[Milhouse]

I think I was putting the epoxy on too light and rolling too fast (it sounded like a crackling fire when I was rolling). The roller was adding air into the epoxy as the surface tension was broken. I just rolled on a coat that was much heavier and there are almost no bubbles (and no sound) and it is able to self level now.

[Milhouse]

I finally got up the nerve to remove the crusty shaft coupling and shaft seal. It surprisingly came out nice and easy with a pair of 2 jaw pullers from HF.

I thought about replacing it with a PSS Shaft Seal from PYI Inc. but there is not enough clearance between the shaft log and the coupler to fit the seal. Looks like it needs about 6" and I have about 5.5". I would need to cut the shaft log mount back a bit if I can't compress it enough; seems like a scary thought to cut it back.

Looks like Tahoe 23 used this same seal.

After stewing over this for much longer I'm now worried that the PSS seal will indeed be too long...I would hate to get the engine in and have to pull it back out cause it won't fit. I found some other possible solutions:

1. d21 Prop Seal This looks like a better choice out of the two, more modern anyway.

2. Buck Algonquin Complete Assembly Packing Boxes

3. Apparent original replacement

Anyone have any experience with them or have any other suggestions?

[Milhouse]

I decided to go with the D21 prop seal.

[Milhouse]

Layed down an encapsulation coat on the subdeck and painted the motor mounts.

I was thinking of painting the mini bilge to clean it up after seeing Carl's shiny bilge. Any suggestions on paint to use?

I see Interlux Bilgekote is recommended here:

Also finally moved the exhaust, I have been living with those snakes for too long... literally took 30 seconds to remove...Lesson learned rip everything out!

[Milhouse]

Wholly mackerel! - Looks like she is almost a ski king except for the fiberglass hull. Should I do a traditional mahogany deck? Opinions? I was going to veneer on some 4mm mahogany plywood and paint a racing stripe perhaps...but the stripes, oh the stripes I envy you.

I do have the marine grade 4mm mahogany ply already...