A complete restoration sounds like a good idea.

Hi guys,
I just bought a complete basket case of a boat. I guess that I am a glutton for punishment. I knew full well what I was buying and that is what got me excited about the boat. I am not the type of person that will go out and buy a brand new boat if I could buy something old and make it better. That's where your years of knowledge and experience comes into play. What I am looking for is the pros and cons of the coosa board vs the 3M version vs cell core vs balsa and marine ply. What I'm am leaning to is the cell core for the core and the 3M 20 for the transom. The price difference between the coosa 26 and the 3M 20 is substantial from what I can find in the Internet. The power for the boat is going to be a 150 merc tower of power. I live on a HP restricted lake and the 150 with different stickers will fit the bill perfectly. If you guys have any pro tips or tricks I'm all ears. I have quite a bit if experience with woodworking and moderate experience with epoxy. I have built quite a few wooden waterskies for people on our ski team and that's where I have used most of my epoxy. I use the system three gel magic for the skies and I was wondering if that would work for the core and the transom? Also, if you guys have a recommendation for where to source material for this project I would appreciate that as well.
Thanks in advance,
Nick

 

Welcome to the forum!

You should probably ask our administrator (Bryan) to move this thread to restorations so people can find it.

I think the most important aspect of core replacement is to build a pretty stout fixture to hold the hull perfectly straight in the planing surface area. The factory would put it back in the mold. If the hull is not straight, you will have wasted your time and money. It will be pretty wimpy with the core removed. Leaving the deck on until the core is done helps.

I will leave the composite discussion to the guys that are versed in that.

jim

 

Hydrostream boats are notorious for bad balsa cores. Their forum has a lot of discussion about the various types of restoration:

http://www.hydrostreamforums.com/

jim

 

I went the coosa route in my ongoing project which can be found in the restoration section - "1972 Keel Up Restoration"

Welcome to the forum.

 

Here is another discussion:

http://www.screamandfly.com/forumdisplay.php?37-Fiberglass-and-Composites-Discussion

jim

 

I am not familiar with the 3M product. I used Coosa Bluewater 26 and it cost me about $200 per 4' x 8' x 1/2" sheet. It weighs about 30% less than plywood and will not absorb water or rot. When glassed in it makes excellent floors and structure. The one thing it won't do is hold screws so wherever screws are going I glassed in some plywood. As far as the core goes I used Divinycell H-30 with a scrim backing and cut into 1" squares and 3/4" thick. It is more expensive than balsa but after digging all the rotted wood out of the hull I wanted to go all composit. The important thing about the core is that you totally seal it from water intrusion or else your boat will gain weight. Whatever route you go you will use a substantial amount of glass cloth and resin. I will finish my project using about 26 gallons of resin, 15 yards of 50" 17oz biax cloth, and 100' of 6" wide 2oz tabbing cloth, and 2 qts of MEK. I did alot of web research to find the lowest prices - let me know if you are interested in where I got my stuff.

 

Are you sure the whole core is bad?

jim

 

Unfortunately yes. When I bought the boat I took a holesaw and drilled A couple of 2 inch holes under the dash. It was all rotten that far forward in the boat. I think it's an old enough boat that it has the balsa planks, not the end grain balsa

 

Tj30, if you could let me know where you got you material from that would be great. I know you can run into fees for hazardous shipping on some of the catalyst so thanks for the quantities.

 

To anyone smarter than me,
I was think about building a cart to put the boat on to support the hull. I know a lot of guys replace the core which the boat on the trailer but mine is not built for a dyne, it's been converted from a different hull and it needs some work anyhow. Looking at it last night it looks like one of the bunks is putting a bow in the hull. My thought was to build a rectangular box out of 2x6 with wheels on it then but some 2x4s on edge