12foot project. The NX-1236

[airshot]

Good thing you didnt post pics of a man in a poncho with a hose outside in a couple feet of snow as you might have gotten some visitors....people in while coats from a mental institution !!!!!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Good thing you didnt post pics of a man in a poncho with a hose outside in a couple feet of snow as you might have gotten some visitors....people in while coats from a mental institution !!!!!

Between that, dragging sleds and sandbags down the road for workout, and our annual backyard highland games competition, I'm sure some of my neighbors agree with you!

 

[LightMetal]

Apologies for not reading the entire thread, but if no one has mentioned it, West Marine has a two part epoxy called G-Flex that supposedly can handle a small amount of flexing without fracturing. I used it inside on all rivets below the waterline on my antique riveted tinny. So far very good. There were no leaks to begin with (1958 boat!), but good insurance. Good job so far partner.

 

[LightMetal]

And PoohBah, no class today? Call me when you don't have any class (george burns)

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Apologies for not reading the entire thread, but if no one has mentioned it, West Marine has a two part epoxy called G-Flex that supposedly can handle a small amount of flexing without fracturing. I used it inside on all rivets below the waterline on my antique riveted tinny. So far very good. There were no leaks to begin with (1958 boat!), but good insurance. Good job so far partner.

Cheers! I plan on getting gflex for any rivet repairs/replacements. After reading how it weeps into small cracks well with the use of heat, sounds like a winner. A local place 5min from my house carries it in stock as well.

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Well I did the little online HIN decoder and discovered that I am the proud owner of a 1976 Lowe Lake Jon.
Found the online catalog and grabbed the description and specs

Useful to know the official capacities, and hull gauge. Also just fun to look through the original promotional materials. Despite my truck and my motorcycle being old enough for classic plates, this is now officially the "most" vintage vehicle I own.

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Got a little bit of day-dreaming, what-iffing and cost&weight estimating done this week. Took all the measurements and started thinking about framing and storage possibilities.

V.P. of weights and measures giving me a hand with some dimensions:


Took all the measurements and made a template of deck area on some graph paper and made copies for different ideas, and to hand out at our executive committee meeting. Our meetings tend to get pretty silly:


One of our promising junior engineers hard at work:

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Got the boat on my leak-checking setup this afternoon. Used the jack to change the level of the boat easily and check the whole bottom for leaks with only 10-12 gallons of water or so. Worked pretty well.


Found a few of these bad boys, as well as a few that were not dripping, but I could see a little wetness gleaming around the head of the rivet. Marked them all and tomorrow (hopefully) will see them all re-bucked and epoxied.



My brother will be around to hold my bucking bar tomorrow, just need to find some time when wife isn't asleep, as she is on nights this weekend. My rivet setter (thanks amazon) came in the mail today, and I already had an air hammer. Now I own even more implements for creating a catastrophic racket. Garage be praised.

 

[TriBull]

Got a little bit of day-dreaming, what-iffing and cost&weight estimating done this week. Took all the measurements and started thinking about framing and storage possibilities.

V.P. of weights and measures giving me a hand with some dimensions:
View attachment 113383

Took all the measurements and made a template of deck area on some graph paper and made copies for different ideas, and to hand out at our executive committee meeting. Our meetings tend to get pretty silly:
View attachment 113384

One of our promising junior engineers hard at work:

View attachment 113385

Home Schooling at its best!!!

 

[thill]

Nice progress. Thanks for the update. You have a crack team! I'm sure all will go well with them on the job.

Going the bucking route is the very best way, in my opinion. Be careful when bucking by air. If you can leave the water inside the boat and have your helper just reach over to hold the bar, give it a few taps, maybe a second or so, wipe dry and see if the dampness reappears. Usually they will stop after a second or to, but you can tap more if needed

If you have a rivet that leaks even after bucking for 3 seconds or so, circle it and do the rest. Drain the water, and take a chisel and carefully pop the head off the bad rivet, punch it out and replace it. You will probably find that the head pops off instantly because of corrosion under there. Those won't ever stop leaking. Sometimes the head pops off while bucking, which makes them really easy to diagnose.

We did this process to my brother in law's jon boat in the spring, and he probably had 50+ rivets that leaked. We had to replace about a dozen rivets, but the boat has been bone-dry ever since. (Victory!) Before that, it let in an annoying amount of water. Those drops add up. He wishes we had done this years ago. Wet feet are annoying, especially in cool weather.

I recommend you service the rivets and skip the epoxy until the boat is completely dry. Then you can epoxy as a precaution if you really want to. I just fix the leaks since learning about solid rivets. Have never gone the Gluvit route, but I'm not knocking it. I think it is effective for people who can't get to the rivets or don't have the means or desire. Or for "just in case" security. To each their own, and the end result is what matters. A dry boat is good!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Nice progress. Thanks for the update. You have a crack team! I'm sure all will go well with them on the job.

Going the bucking route is the very best way, in my opinion. Be careful when bucking by air. If you can leave the water inside the boat and have your helper just reach over to hold the bar, give it a few taps, maybe a second or so, wipe dry and see if the dampness reappears. Usually they will stop after a second or to, but you can tap more if needed

If you have a rivet that leaks even after bucking for 3 seconds or so, circle it and do the rest. Drain the water, and take a chisel and carefully pop the head off the bad rivet, punch it out and replace it. You will probably find that the head pops off instantly because of corrosion under there. Those won't ever stop leaking. Sometimes the head pops off while bucking, which makes them really easy to diagnose.

We did this process to my brother in law's jon boat in the spring, and he probably had 50+ rivets that leaked. We had to replace about a dozen rivets, but the boat has been bone-dry ever since. (Victory!) Before that, it let in an annoying amount of water. Those drops add up. He wishes we had done this years ago. Wet feet are annoying, especially in cool weather.

I recommend you service the rivets and skip the epoxy until the boat is completely dry. Then you can epoxy as a precaution if you really want to. I just fix the leaks since learning about solid rivets. Have never gone the Gluvit route, but I'm not knocking it. I think it is effective for people who can't get to the rivets or don't have the means or desire. Or for "just in case" security. To each their own, and the end result is what matters. A dry boat is good!

Thanks for sharing your experience! I didn't find 50 leakers, but at least half that!! The second rib from the front had some slight weeping on about 80% of its rivets, which is right near the welded patch. I wonder if it took a good enough bonk at some point in its life that wiggled that rib a little loose. Who knows.

My plan is to rebuck everything I found issue with, and then a pass of wicking g/flex in and around the rivet with a heat gun. After that I will re-check with my water&truck jack setup. Any repeat offenders will be drilled out and replaced. I think your way of riveting while water is still there might be faster overall, but my noise-making hours are very limited this weekend, so I'm trying to re-buck in a small window of time, even if it makes the process as a whole a little less efficient.

Once I pass the water&jack test with flying colors, will probably take a pass on the inside with the g/flex as well, i can't imagine ill run out if I'm applying with a syringe. I know inside sealing isn't the gold standard, but I figure I'm doing all the best stuff already and might as well add the extra "just in case layer". If I do run out of g/flex I might just shmear all inside rivets with a little clear roofing sealant like others have done. I don't think i will have any bare floor showing by the time I'm done with all this, so a few sealant goobers won't bother me.

Despite the tedium, I'm committed to doing this right. Any other work after this feels like wasted time if it's not on a good foundation. Despite that, it's fun to learn, and the lakes ain't gonna get unfrozen anytime soon anyway!!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

We can do it!!


Shoutout to my wife who held my "bucking bar" (just used the head of a small sledgehammer) after coming off her night shift. Didn't have time to get to it yesterday like I thought, but we got everything re-bucked pretty quickly. I def. dinged up a few of them getting the hang of it. Ended up turning down the pressure from the compressor a little bit, and pressing the setter really firmly onto the head of the rivet was helpful. little tough to keep it true, but after a few, I was leaving them shiny and rounded after a few good smacks. The trigger on this air hammer is pretty nice, and let me modulate speed a lot with partial pulls. Very helpful. a few of the rivets visibly tightened down when hit, I think this was sorely needed. Next up, g/flex!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

After cleaning up around the rivets and an acetone wipe, I got things all ready to go for applying g/flex epoxy to the rivets.

Before getting going, I set a small space heater underneath the boat to keep the "ambient" temperature of the hull a bit warmer. I don't know if this was strictly necessary, but frankly I find the phrase "strictly necessary" a little offensive and generally antithetical to this whole pursuit, so...onward.


Again, I have no idea if this helped one bit, or will impact the cure time, but it took 45 seconds to set up and I'm quite certain it didn't hurt anything so whatever. the hull did get warmer though. See before and after readings:

This method may come in handy for more temperature sensitive endeavors, like painting. Who knows.

Anywho, got all my epoxy mixed up and in a syringe. Highly recommend grabbing some cheap syringes for application of this stuff. I found some at a local craft store for a buck a piece with some other epoxy/related hobby stuff. pretty easy going with the syringe in one hand and the heat gun in another. Like I used to tell my tree-climbing trainees: two handed monkey eats more bananas. Would have been much slower going if I had to shmear it on and then set stuff down to use the heat gun. I wasn't in too much danger of running out of workable time with it, but if you think 45 minutes is cutting it close for you, again, syringe recommended. Also, this stuff is much runnier than sealant, so tipping the bow up to keep work surface mostly level was helpful. I did all the rivets I re-bucked, and then used up what I had in the syringe on any other rivets that looked at me funny. I have plenty left over, so I will probably use it on the inside as well as the aforementioned preventative layer. Can't hurt, and since I already have the stuff it won't cost me nuthin but a little time.


Orange/grapefruit bubbly water is just ok, 7/10. Not nearly as good as the coconut pineapple box I just finished off.

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Also, I pulled out my nifty little crane scale and weighed the old casting deck&frame out of curiosity.

75.4 lbs. uffda

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Happy fuego friday everyone.

got a little bit done filling old holes in the hull. there were several to tend to right off the bat, 8 from the ****** rope cleats that were bolted through the hull at some point, and the tiny holes I made from removing the rivets that were holding on the old plastic Lowe badges. Well, one was already gone, and the other is cracked and has lots of old paint on it that I don't feel like dealing with. Apologies to any die-hard preservationists reading this, I just didn't want to go through the trouble of preserving or recreating the original badges. not a big deal to me.

Decided to try my hand at brazing. Maybe other ways to go about it, but this drew me in with the prospect of 18 fewer holes in the boat and 18 fewer rivets to worry about. With these being well above waterline, I figure it's a low risk spot to try out something new, and they won't get covered up at any point so It will be easy to detect a problem/crack down the road. Hit all the holes with a wire brush and an acetone wipe-down and off we go:



First couple turned out pretty globular:



They got a bit better as I went, found that being patient with the heat allowed me to do more with less, and ended up with some that actually look halfway ok (at least to me).



I'm going to grind them all down flush anyway, so it probably doesn't matter much. I feel like it was a little tough to get the hull temp really high, just because it has SO much surface area to dissipate heat, and it's relatively thin sheet (.064). That's just me thinking out loud, as always, will gladly accept any tips. Wife is on nights again for the weekend, so will have to wait until tomorrow morning to grind these down a bit and see how they fair. Later tonight I will probably fill the four holes that bolted the bottom of the transom knee in. I am planning on building some different braces that will allow me to set my portable gas tank dead center in the back, and i like the idea of eliminating 4 holes in the bottom of the hull.

Always remember:

 

[user 23839]

Super appreciate the time you are taking to document your work on the Lowe and share it here. And congratulations on your diligence!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Hey all, sorry for lack up updates. Had one kids birthday, another kid sick, couple church commitments, and other things going on. Mostly wife's work schedule the past couple weeks haven't given me loads of time to be noisy in the garage, but such is life.

Maybe a controversial post, but what's done is done:


Decided to take the seats out for the following reasons:
- the small gap under them is annoying and I don't want to lose things under it or clean under it.
- ribs run full length of the boat, and either side of each seat so they are still giving support to the sides.
- I was suspect of the state of the foam underneath, and it would appear that after 50 years, that concern was warranted. 2 types of foam is weird, and there is a significant amount missing. I know that i will be adding back more foam than there originally was under the seats, so I'm not worried about losing the foam.
- removed 28 lbs. wheeeeee weight savings.
- the seats were extremely dinged, dented, bent, drilled into, etc. If I want to frame any flooring/decking/storage in or around the seats (and I do), I'm going to have to frame out what I want anyways. There isn't really a flat surface left on these old seats.
- the framing I add back in will help replace any lateral bracing I have removed, and then some. I am not an engineer, but I'm fairly confident that this thing will be stiffer than stock once framing and flooring are in, at a fraction of the weight.
- The seats were limiting in how much open floorspace I had between them. I gain more freedom with layout this way.
- found 3 old wasps nests under there.
- this gives me more freedom with deck height. I think for stabilities sake, I want my decking to be a little lower than the original seat height. 2 inches lower will not decrease deck space in a meaningful amount, but I think will increase stability while standing.

I realized after taking the first one out that I definitely did it the hard way. I later found my brain, along with the appropriate drill bit and took the 2nd one out in no time flat.


bulls-eye:



Now that they are out, I will be brazing to fill the new holes that I made. Got about a third of them done, i'll see to the rest this week. Hopefully wed. and fri will yield some garage time.

Also starting to mock up my two designs for framing to see which I like better. My aluminum order just came in, and I'll be picking it up tomorrow.

 

[airshot]

I really like your crew there, brings back fond memories. Cant wait to see pics of them on the maiden voyage !!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

I really like your crew there, brings back fond memories. Cant wait to see pics of them on the maiden voyage !!

Thanks, I like 'um too. They can't wait to get out on the water!

 

[TheGrandestPoobah]

Still doing hull work, quite a few holes to go, but we got our aluminum picked up yesterday, as well as these:





Outboard is a 1960 seahorse 10 (model qd-21). I already snagged the manual for it online (found a torrent of the pdf), and started poking through ita little. It runs and spits alright, but a little hard starting. I'm going to run through it as much as I can before spring. Carb kit, ignition tune-up kit, plugs, wires, take a peek at lower unit, new impeller, maybe new pawls and spring in the pull start. Also planning on doing the modification for a single line gas tank. Mostly so I can have a lighter plastic tank on board. I might make a separate thread in the motors section whenever I get around to doing all that, but I'll link it here if I do. Snagged it for $275. Maybe not the deal of a lifetime, but come spring, any 10/9.9/9.5 motors will likely jump quite a bit in price. I was happy with the deal and consider it a pretty good get (but what do I know).

The trolling motor he threw in for free with the outboard. It's not exactly what I was looking for but It fits the bill well enough to take it for free. It's a motorguide magnum 740, 35lb thrust. everything on it works fine. I am planning on at least cutting the shaft down to a reasonable length for my little boat. Might dink around with shrinking the mount as much as I can, but I haven't looked at it real hard yet.