1958 Cadillac 14' Daytona Rebuild

[Lost But Happy]

I used Owens Corning Foamular polystyrene 2" thick foam board insulation, the pink stuff. It cuts very easy with a sharp razor blade, I marked and cut each side which was deep enough to snap each piece apart. Any shaping was done with the razor blade as well. A saw would have just made a big mess. No glue needed for my boat as each seat holds 5 sheet perfectly tight. Note I did leave about a 3" gap off the bottom which will keep the insulation from sitting in water and also allow water to run under each bench seat.

While I am sure other insulation would work I read that polystyrene should hold up over time both to water/ice and also wont break down and leave little white beads all over the boat.

Excellent! That is the same stuff i am using. I also had the thought of gluing a 2-3" block to the bottom part of the foam to elevate it up off of the floor as well.

Thank you!

 

[nlb34]

Plywood is now epoxy coated. I have built stitch and glue boats before and used Clarkcraft Epoxy Plus which mixes 1:1. While I have had great success with this epoxy the smallest size sold is 1 gallon, which is expensive. I went with TotalBoat Penetrating Epoxy which appears to be commonly used to coat transom wood. The epoxy mixes 2:1 and is very thin, it certainly does soak in. I mixed 6 oz for each batch and using a foam roller I was able to easily coat each part within the 20 min working time.

Once cured (2 days) I intend to mount and seal the transom with 3M 5200 as recommended.

 

[nlb34]

Over the last two weeks I got several more items on the boat taken care of. 1st I "polished" the insides and outsides. I used 320 and 400 grit to sand down any burs and then used 000 steel wool to shine up the boat while attempting to keep all of the strokes lengthwise to provide a uniform grain finish. Up close you can see lots of scratches but this is a work boat not a show boat so I am happy.

2nd I glued up the transom using 3M 5200 sealant. My only advice is have lots of gloves, paper towels, and acetone at the ready.

3rd I painted the boat bottom and benches with Durabak. The procedure which worked well was to sand the aluminum and wood with 80grit, lots of actone was used to then clean the aluminum. The aluminum was primed with Metcote etch primer as recommended. The primer was applied with a roller and brush which to my surprise provided a nice even coat. 4 hours later Durabak was rolled on and then 1 hour later a second coat of Durabak was applied. Time will tell if the Durabak holds up. Note I used 1 layer of rough Durabak on the floor and everything got smooth for the second coat.