The boat as we found it

It looks pretty rough!

I'm thinking it will need new seats.

Check out that bow light, cool, huh?!

It sat outside in the NY weather for years, unprotected.

It came with a 1956 Evinrude 30HP Lark

The motor had squatters, had to kick them out.

big old crack in the stern

We built a motor stand on casters for mobility in the crowded barn. Works great.

stripped the bolts that hold the motor on. There was no getting around it, we ended up cutting one.Damn, new bolts cost $37.50 each, didnt see that coming.

The motor is finally off. (Jose should not be working in his nice white Columbia coat)!!

cleaning out the acorns and leaves

needs a major tune up but it did turn over. Gotta love the old motors.

a little Simple Green and the cover cleaned right up.

took the top off

topless, floor mostly out

topless, most of the rotten wood removed

that transom looks pretty nasty.

WHOA, more squatters, its full of termites! and rotten as all get out. OH, and that crack in the stern goes nearly all the way accross. We are going to learn alot about fiberglass.

Heres the transom in 2 pieces, and look what we got today, snow. Its supposed to rain and snow for the rest of the week so we will have to wait...damn.

OK, I know this looks really rigged but it worked really well. The ratchet strap is attached to the ladder then to the drain hole. It pulled the back right up where it needed to be in order to put that crack together. It got better, the ladder started to tip toward the boat so we put a 2x4 through the steps with a big rock on one end to keep the ladder sitting square.I didnt get a picture.

This was our lame attempt at trying not to let the epoxy ooze all over the ground. It actually worked. I will need to sand down the outside a bit but thats ok. That part needs work anyway.

This being our first time fiberglassing, we wanted to make sure everything was ready to go.

Hey, that wasnt so hard. It even looks pretty good. We did 3 more layers after that too. 2 layers heavy mat and 1 woven roving. That thing isnt going anywhere now. We just need to make the outside prettier.

We still had the old nasty transom to use as a template. Marc had poured gas on it to kill all the critters and it sat around all summer. We cut the new transom out of 3/4" AC plywood and laminated 2 pieces together. used eopxy resin and fiberglass cloth.

We clamped it together and put a gazillion screws in it. we will just fill those holes later. We are getting pretty comfortable with the fiberglass now.

It was a REALLY tight squeeze but it is in the barn. We need to move the motorcycles, the 4-wheeler and the lawn tractor every time we want to work on the boat or climb over everything. I thought we built a big enough barn...guess not.

Marc was here.

Dry fitting the transom

Drilling holes, using the place where other hardware belongs, we will use it for bolts for our clamping system.

Mixing the resin with additive to make it thicker. I was a little nervous, I have never worked with fiberglass like this before.

Mixed it thick and spread it on just like setting tile or flooring. It was a little tricky just because its kinda snotty stuff and the more you mess with it the more you are taking OFF. I finally got it where i liked it and stopped messing with it.

Here is our clamping system. It seemed to pull everything in pretty tight.

Here it is from the back. That vertical board did alot to pull in the middle. Worked great!

I was so happy when i saw stuff oozing out the sides...

that I took 2 pictures of it. Even if I do have to grind it off and clean it up, I was happy to see it. At this point I was still a little nervous about this all working but what was done was done and I had to stop messing with it.

IT WORKED!!! We glassed it in today with one layer of cloth. I will probably reinforce the sides a little more with some heavier cloth but that transom is not going anywhere. It is strong strong strong.

YAY!!! The top is back on. It dropped right into place no problem. Looks like a boat again.

Riveting the top back on

We cleaned it up a little. It looks alot better without all that grime.

Now we can see how bad the gel coat really is. There are quite a few areas like this that will take some sanding.

Our next step is to get some bunk boards on the trailer. We cannot get in there to work till the boat has a little support. I ordered brackets today. I guess we will have to spend our time stacking firewood untill they get here.

We figured out where we wanted the boards , measured and drilled holes for the carraige bolts. expensive sawhorse.

We drilled so we could countersink the bolts then carpet right over them.

Here are the bolts in the 2x4

Smearing carpet adhesive

Once the carpet was in place we wrapped it with tape every few inches to hold it till the carpet adhesive dried.

The bunk boards are on. Now I can get in there and measure for stringers. The boat still needs to be adjusted a bit on there but its alot better than it was.

We laid a 2x4 accross where the floor will go and I took a tape measure in the boat and measured every couple of inches and told Marc the measurements.

Marc drew out the measurements on the piece of plywood we are using for the stringer. We feel so smart, this is going great!

WHAT!!!... Our tape measures are off by an eighth of an inch! Not feeling so smart anymore. We will remeasure and try again...dammit.

We have a little firewood to stack and then we will get back to the boat. This is 9 cords.

We removed the old "wiring harness" that somebody made out of extension cords. we will need to replace that

The way this bow stop is set up there is no way to run the winch strap through there properly. we'll need to make some adjustments.

We cut the old bow stop off with a grinder

Marc cleaned up the winch with a wire wheel and it seems fine.

We got the winch post back today. We had a bracket welded on so that we could use a bow stop roller. Now we need a safety chain and a winch strap.