My First Attempt at Wooden Boat Restoration

Welcome to my new adventure!!

My name is Geoff.  I am 43 years old, have a wonderful wife and son, and a blessed life.  I also have the tendency to always be trying something new.  From playing the bagpipes, to raising chickens, from wood carving, to mountain unicycling, I never lack for learning and experiencing new adventures. 

So, with years of construction experience and antique furniture restoration behind me, and a family that would like for us to have a boat to enjoy our weekends "on the lake,"  I decided I would try something new.  I spent months combing the Internet for possible boat projects.  Finally I stumbled across an affordable, mind you it is no Chris-Craft, antique mahogany wooden boat restoration project. 

It is a 1958 15' Smith Craft Runabout made in Geneva Alabama with the 30 HP Johnson original motor.  It has not seen water since 1974-(38 years).  It is complete and was purchased by an antique dealer from the original owners.  After replacing the dry-rotted tires on the rusty trailer, I proudly pulled my new baby home.

Let the Restoration begin!

The first step is to strip it down so I can flip it over and restore the bottom, so it is more likely to float once it gets the opportunity to meet water again.  Whether the attic is a typical place to store boat windshields and spare parts, I am not sure, but it is a much less likely place for damage to occur in the restoration meantime.   

Once the boat is stripped of all its trim, windshield, motor, etc., it is time to build a rack to hold it upside down while I restore the bottom.  this is accomplished with 2x6s and 2x8s and some profile cutting with a jig saw to match the contour of the top of the boat hull.  Carpet is stapled to the frame and friends are recruited to assist in the boat flipping.

The process of turning the boat over goes much smoother than I expected taking all of about 15 minutes and required only 6 people.  In hind sight, I definitely should have built the frame closer to the ground, but it really was too late to take it off, cut it apart and put it back together, so I will have to keep a 5 ft aluminum ladder close through out the process, in order to reach the top points.  The good side to the heigth, is that it makes a great hiding place and fort for the kids.

At this point, I took a break from the boat and had an opportunity to work on the trailer.  A friend of mine needed to do some sandblasting, so we agree to go in on a pallet of sand with the offer to use the sandblaster for free if we buy the sand.  Half a pallet later, I have a bare metal trailer.  I then prime it with a 2 part epoxy primer and choose to finish the trailer with truck bed liner, for strength and durability along with the fact that I then do not have to deal with the pitting caused by the years of rust and the insuing sandblasting.  Besides the heat the day we decide to sandblast  (wearing full protective gear including a complete helmet head cover, sanding went well.  The hose was about 4 inches in diameter and I could go through 2 50 lb bags of sand in about 3-5 minutes. 

 

BACK TO THE BOAT

Now to strip off the old and loose paint and repair the seam on the one side and the hole in the back.
Let the sanding and scraping begin.  Some sections had strong old paint that still has a good hold even with the spider cracking.  Other sections scrape easily through the multiple layers of painting.  While stripping it down, I discover that the original color was white and yellow and followed the curved line down the side-seen in the picture.  It also had a doulbe black pin stripe down the top edge and between the yellow/white color change. One side has paint that still has a good hold on the wood, whereas the other side I am able to take almost all of the paint off down to the wood.

Next I get my first experience with 2 part Epoxy and fiberglass sheeting.  I must admit, I was nervous and lost several months to work and honest apprehension as to how it would go.  Then I attempted the top section seen above.  I must tell you--that is amazing stuff.  Once applied, even with 6 mm fiberglass sheeting, you can see straight through it almost as if it wasn't there.  Then you add 2 or more coats to cover the texture of the matting and sand to your hearts delight to get a smooth paintable, very strong and waterproof finish.  I will admit, the horizontal section went much easier than the next vertical section, though since liquids always want to find gravity.  Overall it went pretty smoothly.  I did have one batch that set up way too quickly, and I think it is because I tried to make such a big batch and couldn't work it quick enough.  My recommendation is to take is slowly and in small sections.

Since it was trial and error, it offered many new lessons in how to use the new found chemicals.  For example, don't think that since you have a larger section to do, that you can double up on the mix to go further, thinking that if you use only the slow curing resin, you will have time to work it.  That would be a wrong assumption.  You start to realize this, when the plastic container you are holding gets really too hot to continue holding, and the spnge brush stops spreading the, what once was, liquid. 

All of the bad damage was found on one side of the boat.  It is where the paint had come loose the most and also where some water damage had rotted the wood.  It is also where someone had done a feable attempt at patchwork in the past.  I took off the old patchwork and scraped away all the rotted wood.  I was fortunate enough that the remaining wood still had enough points of contact for me to be able to epoxy repair with only small amounts of fiberglass matting for reenforcement and structure.                                                   Working with the addition of silica to help with the thickness and non-flowability of the epoxy was a new adventure that did not go as well as some other steps.  I was amazed at how much powder had to be added and I still never got a "sheetrock mud" level of consistancy.  So, I spent a great deal of time re-spreading the mixture upward as it continued to sag while curing.  One thing that did help (out of necessity from impending rain) was to cover the area with wax paper.  Not only did it help tohold the material in place, but it also peeled off easily once cured.  .......................................

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 Here is the damaged area with the new epoxy filler mixed with silica.

 

This is the finished product with the new trip and a coat of fiberglass already applied

This is the other water damaged area that I had to deal with, and like all things, it got bigger the more I dug into it.  I had to replace part of the corner support beam and a 1 ft by 2 ft section of plywood.  after this picture, I cut the right edge at a 45 degree angle in order to blend in the new piece where it was not alligned with a support beam.

 

I custom cut a piece of mahogany in order to lose the minimal amount of the original corner support and to allow a tight fit and maximum surface area for bonding

I did cheat a little and used a 1/4 inch piece of mahogany marine grade plywood since I did not have the 3/8 that was original and then just added 2 extra layers of fiberglass on the painted bottom side to fill in the thickness gap.  I will then complete the blending with epoxy and silica off to the corner.  As you can see, I also made the final trim piece to finish out the side to the end.  Then I added a layer of fiberglass to both sections of that side and the hull is now waterproof and no longer needs to be covered and uncovered everytime I go to work on it.  Moving the entire boat to in front of my shop also cut down prep time for tools and supplies and has made my progress more consistant.