Newbie working on a 16' tin.

[Davidius]

Hello all, this is my first tin boat and as I'm working on it I'm sure I will need advice so feel free to chime in. Is a 16' long, 48" wide at the floor and around 6' at the top. I got it without a motor and found a 71 johnson 40 horse tiller conversion to use on it. All the wood is original, no idea of the year as it was titled as a home built in 89. I suspect its a 70's model, the seller told me it was a smoker craft but I have no way to verify. What I have done so far is to strip it to the hull, I had a welder fix a couple cracked ribs too. There was no foam in the boat except in the covered bow. I have bought and fit foam inside the ribs, to support the floor I cut 2x3's to run lengthwise and will fit more foam between them. I may foam up the sides and cover with carpeted paneling.

 

[Davidius]

The center seat front panel was in bad shape and will be replaced with 1/8" aluminum, I may replace the rear as well depending on price. The bow cover was very weak and flimsy so I took it off to reinforce it and now I'm planning on installing the fuel tank in the bow and fill the rest of the open area with foam in order to keep the center bench open for storage. For the bow cap I want to have a center hatch to check the mechanical fuel gauge and build or find a funnel to go down to the filler cap from the bow cap for filling and the cap has a built in vent I'd like to keep exposed to open air. I will keep the original cap and replace the center section with thicker material after reinforcing the framing to allow crawling over the bow for beaching. The battery will be centrally mouted in the rear with a bilge pump in each back corner, one automatic and one manually controlled. The rear wooden bench was removed and will be rebuilt as an L going all the way up to the center bench on the port side. (I'm 6'6" and sitting on port side is easier for me to handle the tiller.) If I can mount the tank in the bow I will run the fuel line inside a PVC pipe along the inside top of the boat where the ribs end and add another pipe on the opposite side to run wiring through.

 

[Slick17]

Looks good. I'd leave that front piece off or lower it so it's a safer standing area.

 

[Davidius]

I thought about leaving it an open bow as well. Add a small casting deck to cover the tank with provisions for a removable aft mounted deck extension to have a larger casting area and another seat mount. That will be a project for next weekend though. Yesterday I fit some foam and new wood loosely from the bench rearward as I haven't figured out what to do up front. I used el cheapo lowes 1" sheet foam with a foil type stuff on one side and plastic on the other between the ribs as that's as tall as my ribs are, the rear I cut four 2x3's to support and raise the floor so I can install seat mounts and increase noise deadening. Rear flooring is 1/2" ply as is the floor inside the bench, inside the bench I will add a small framework of 2x3 in the center to support the access door/hatch. The ribs in front of the bench aren't level or flat so I will have to build up the floor in the back a couple inches to make it level.

 

[Davidius]

I forgot to mention the gaps between and around the 2x3's will be filled with more sheet foam that's 1" and .5" to get a solid fill. I might wrap the foam in plastic, might not, either way I will seal the sides of the foam blocks with tape to keep small pieces from breaking off and getting into the bike pumps. The bench cap is 3/4" and the rear bench will be 3/4" as well. On the subject of wood. It is untreated, plain jane plywood. I want to carpet the benches and sides. I'm on the fence about carpet or traction paint on the floors. Either way is there a particular wood sealer someone has used that once cured will allow paint or adhesive to stick to it?

 

[onthewater102]

One of these posts has a reference to a laytex paint you should coat the foam boards in - otherwise if you spill gasoline on them they dissolve into a puddle of goo.

 

[Davidius]

That sounds a lot easier than wrapping them in plastic, I'll look for the thread. Thanks.

 

[onthewater102]

found it

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=34900&p=357220&hilit=latex#p357220

 

[Davidius]

Thanks for the link, I ended up wrapping the foam in plastic and taping the seams though. Done in one go and I didn't have to wait for it to dry. Not much of an update but I got a lot done this weekend. I spar urethaned most of the wood from the center bench back with 3 coats. It looks good enough I was half tempted to leave it as is until the sun reflected off of it. Still on the fence about carpet of grit paint on the floor bottom. I got both of my motors running, the main is a 1971 johnson 40 horse with tiller conversion that I got for $200 off of Craigslist, the PO tried something with the wiring and the wires melted down and he felt it was only good for parts so I took a chance, did a hack job temp wiring setup and a couple pops and gurgles later it fired off and ran great, waterpump is shot and a seal is leaking on the gear case so I've got all lower unit seals and pump on order, there wasn't a gasket on the diagram where the lower bolted to the extension housing or where the extension housing bolted up the the bottom of the leg, should I silicone it or leave it as is without anything? My kicker is a 1967 johnson 6 hp that came with the boat, the PO said it ran fine "a few years ago" it has a broken connecting pin between the tiller link and throttle linkage, I jammed a screw driver in there and it fired off after a dozen pulls and won't idle with the choke off so I ordered a carb kit for both motors. I went ahead and replaced the leaking rivets that rebucking didn't cure. What I thought would be a dozen rivets turned into 51, a couple were in aluminum that spread a bit when the rivets were removed so I used stainless steel truss head machine screws, lock nuts and washers and used 5200 top and bottom. While I'm waiting the seven days for the 5200 to dry I'm going to state at the transom and hope the wood replaces itself, someone added a bunch of stuff and to do that they took out a bunch of bolts holding a support to the inside of the transom. More to come later, it's slow going.

 

[onthewater102]

Davidius » 09 Jul 2014, 00:45[/url]"]... More to come later, it's slow going.

truer words have never been spoken...

 

[Davidius]

It was a long hot day at work but I managed to put an hour in on my boat tonight. Money was running tight so I decided to reuse the front bulkhead of the center seat. I beat it as flat as I could and put a 2x4 under the hull and jacked it up until the floor was flat and riveted it back in. The upper portion had dry rotted plywood under it so I replaced it with plain 3/8 plywood after giving it a couple coats of spar urethane just to make sure it lasts a good long while. I riveted it back down using a borrowed "big daddy" rivet tool and if it wasn't $150+ I'd go out and buy one, luckily enough my boss let me borrow it from the shop.
With that done I went inside to work on my switch panel. Marine switches are outrageous and the rubber booties seem to come at a premium around here too. I decided to build my panel inside a "water proof" pistol case I got new on discount for $15 as some of the foam inside was missing... No problem I said, I'll take it. It's roughly 10x7.5 inside dimensions which is plenty big. I plan to mount it slightly angled off vertical so the lid drops down and drill a couple small holes in the corners just in case any water gets in, it will trickle right out. the aluminum I got from the recycling center for a couple bucks and was trimmed freehand on a band saw and will be mounted just under flush with the ede of the box to give plenty of room for the toggles. It will look hokey but I think it will work well. I've got the choke, ignition, two bilge pumps/one is selectable auto or manual, running lights, anchor light, two or three storage area lights that will be off the same switch along with a basic light inside the box to light up the switches. All lights are LED for low current draw. With seven switches inside a 10x7 box there should be enough room that switches won't be hit accidentally. Tomorrow after work I will try and get the panel belt sanded and a few stand offs built and get the panel secured. Any advice is appreciated, thank you for looking.

 

[huntinfool]

Looks good so far, keep it up!

 

[Davidius]

Today's progress isn't much. I got my seals in the mail and I took my lower unit apart to reseal it. Ha! All internals look great, there is a drain in the bottom of the exhaust housing that lets any accumulated water drain out which was filled with silt that became cement. It's deep enough I can't get a drill bit to it so I used a cut up coat hanger. Several frustrating minutes of scratching with a bent coat hanger and blowing it out with the compressor I got stuck on top of what turned out to be a lock washer, most likely from a waterpump bolt. After that got chipped out I got down about an inch and was stopped again. I was sure I hit bottom and blew out the hole. I didn't hit bottom, I hit the water pump bolt the washer probably went to. After my neighbors were convinced someone wasn't being murdered in my driveway I got back into it and sprayed brake clean in the hole hoping it will soften the soil and let my wobble the bolt loose.