1995 Grumman 1784 TC Complete Rebuild

dearl · Sep 23, 2019

Finally made some room in the barn to get the boat and trailer backed in. The plan is to get the hull under the Keel strip sanded, cleaned and primed this week. The Keel strip is clean and primed, hopefully I can get some help one day this week to get it riveted in place. The hull had 4 strakes originally, but due to 2 of them being damaged pretty bad, I will only be re-installing the 2 outside strakes. This shouldn't be an issue, as long as I have something on the bottom to act as a rudder. Once these are installed, I plan to start on the Nose Keel, its in pretty bad shape. That's all that's stopping me from putting her back together.

Pector55 · Sep 23, 2019

Man, you really know your stuff. I tried to look up what a cleo because I wanted to see and learn how those work but Google isn't much help because it has so many other meanings.

dearl · Sep 23, 2019

Cleco's are a mechanical fastening tool. You use a set of "pliers" to compress the cleco, you insert it into a hole drilled through 2 pieces of metal. Once you let go of the pliers, it expands and mechanically holds the 2 pieces together while you keep drilling more holes or try and align a piece before riveting...Come in real handy with projects like this one. :beer:

dearl · Sep 24, 2019

Found myself under the boat last night, worked on sanding the surface below what will be the Keel plate, and knocking out the left over rivets. Got the Keel and one strake sanded and Primered before calling it quits. One more strake surface to sand and prep and then we can re-install those. The other 2 strakes that Im not putting back on, I'll have to sand those, but we will just rivet up the holes.

SE Primered ready for Strake

SE Primered ready for Keel

dearl · Sep 25, 2019

Got the material ready to re-install the Keel and Strakes, plus rivet up the un-used strake holes. My Gluvit came in yesterday, hope to be applying that to the inside seams and rivet tails next week. Im going with 3/16 x 1/2" Brazier head solid rivets for the structural stuff (stringers/strakes/Keel) they buck fairly easy and leave a nice tail, plenty of meat left over. Im scared to figure how many rivets I have actually put in this hull, time consuming yes, but cheap insurance.

dearl · Sep 26, 2019

Finishing up on the left over areas under the strakes that need to be sanded and primed. I have so many loose ends on this boat that need to be tied up....and all are contingent on the rivets being finished in the bottom....and I cant put them in by myself...and the weekend cant get here fast enough Lol. Im hoping after this weekend I can move on to getting the Nose Keel done. That one job being finished will make this whole process speed up tremendously. I think I will start on welding up the un-used transom skin holes tonight. Got a lot going on back there...PO got happy with a drill that's for sure.
Once the bottom keel strip is in and I Gluvit those rivets, I can move on to permanently mounting the 22 gallon fuel tank. I have some Teflon sealant material we use on lids here at work, pretty tuff stuff. Wonder how that would work as a bushing between the neoprene tank and the aluminum hull.

Transom holes.....

dearl · Sep 30, 2019

Well I had some rivet help lined up for yesterday, but that fell through so I figured I could start welding up all the un-needed holes in the transom skin. PO had replaced the transom once before, and 90% of the holes used to bolt the transom to the knee brace were well over sized and honestly, just screwed up. I start close to the bottom of the hull drilling each hole to clean out any paint primer or silicon, and worked my way up and across, stopping for a bit in between each hole, didn't want the transom skin to warp on me. I got 80% of them, still plenty left. You can see in the last few pics the difference in the transom.

You can see the measurements for the transom support brace, I welded up the holes for it, the PO had put 1/4' bolts in it, It should have 3/16" solid rivets in it. I plan to replace the support with a new one, so I will be going back to Solid rivets. Measurement is so I don't forget how far off the bottom it was.

I would like to install the hull drain in the center of the transom, as you can see I already have 3 holes back there now. I may weld up one of the 3/4" holes and punch a new one in the center. I think my rivet help is coming over a couple of days this week, hopefully we can knock out the Keel and 2 strakes so I can move on to bracing and the transom wood.

dearl · Oct 6, 2019

Got time to work on the boat a little this weekend. Finished sanding the areas I previously welded. Layed out the holes for the transom support, re-drilled all of those holes. Installed 2x2x1/4" aluminum angle for the support. I used 1/4 Stainless hardware and Nylocks. It will be coming back off for a final coat of primer and 5200 before I make it permanent. Spent a good part of last Thursday trying to get the registration straight, come to find out the boat has been titled before so I have to get another document from the guy I got it from so I can get the title back in my name. I'll be glad when the paper works over.