1999 Crestliner Project

[thill]

All you need is a MIG welder and a bottle of Argon. Watch a few YouTube videos and give it a shot. It's what I did, and now I'm pretty comfortable welding aluminum

 

[LDUBS]

Thanks, I like the setup as well. It is a bit dated, but with some new materials it will be perfect.
That flip up cover covered the old stereo. The new ones are round. I want to see if I can repurpose it for something else.

I would be a great place to put a fuse block, and have room leftover.

 

[navipro]

All you need is a MIG welder and a bottle of Argon. Watch a few YouTube videos and give it a shot. It's what I did, and now I'm pretty comfortable welding aluminum

Thank you. I thought about it. I am comfortable welding steel, but have not tried aluminum. I do have a lincoln 160 welder from homedepot. Not sure if it will be enough. I will need to get a spool gun as well as the Argon bottle. About 3-400 around here. Decisions decisions...

 

[navipro]

Working on the transom today.
It is made of the 3 pieces of 5/8 ply. I have made one piece to exact size and 2 other about 1/4inch wider, so I do not to go crazy aligning them during glue up.
Not very happy with the plywood, as I have used ACX from local building center and it had 7 layers (which is 2 more then original) but had paper thin final layer of on the top and bottom. Not sure it it will delamenate, but it only acx I could find in 5/8.
Today glue was dry and clamps removed. I have trimmed the sticking out pieces flush with the top layer.
Before I glued it all I have installed the single layer in The boat and marked the holes. I wanted to drill them so I can soak them in the OTF.
Transom will have a very tight fit and i am not sure i can oull it out after hammering it in. I also hope that original holes were drilled perpendicular to the transom. Otherwise the holes will not lone up on the back.
Next was mixing some Old Timers Formula. I thought it would be 30 minute job to cover all areas with OTF, but it turned into 4 hour job. The edges on the ply were soaking in otf like crazy. At the end, I have went through 3 quarts of otf! And 90% of it went into end grain. I think I could have soaked even more, but I was so beat that it had to do.
I have layed the transom flat, plugged each the hole with my finger from the bottom and poured otf in. Had to top off each hole couple times, waited a minute or so for each hole and moved to the next one.
Tomorrow will do another soaking and will let it dry before doing straight spar.
Thanks for staying with me, guys!

 

[Still Afloat]

Thanks. I do not weld aluminum, nor know anyone who can can do odd jobs like that. I will have to find someone to weld the transom cover anyways, as it had to be cut for it to come out. So it all depends on the sequence of steps. If I will be able to do this all at the same time, I will do it.
Few of the cracks are right next to foam, it think I will bolt those up to prevent fire.

I think a professional welder could weld it quick enough to minimize on heat. Aluminum sinks the heat away quickly anyway. Perhaps a little melting but, I doubt if it would catch fire.