Crap

Well. The shit hit the proverbial fan today. I went out to do some finishing touches before dropping in the floor on Friday. When I noticed that one particular spot was not drying. I pushed it with my thumb. Went straight through the plywood. Crap. Whoops. Guess I need a new floor.

Dropping the floor in

There was a question about the plan to drop in a new floor.

I have already ordered a 1/8 inch sheet of 4 ft. by 8 ft. piece of fiberglass. The plan is to, once I get the sheet, to cut it in the shape of the floor. I have already cut out all the existing fiberglass and created a clean surface on which to drop the new fiberglass in. The new floor will be shaped to fit my exact outlay. Instead of glassing it all by hand, the sheet is already made. Once it is shaped, resin will be rolled onto the floor, with 7% filler to extend the setting period. Resin will also be rolled on the bottom of the fiberglass sheet. The whole rolling (the resin) will take (hopefully) only ten minutes. Once the resin is in place, the new sheet of fiberglass will be dropped in. Once in place, a 10 foot piece of plywood, once again cut exactly to the floor, will be placed on top of the new sheet. No resin in between the fiberglass and the plywood. On top of the plywood, weight will be place evenly throughout, designed to guarantee that all of the resin will stick to the fiberglass. Once the resin is set and dry, the plywood and the weight will be removed and the new bottom is in place. After that, I will use fiberglass tape and resin (including fillers) to fill in the cracks. The new bottom will be a better finish and much easier to put in place.

Today I have been clearing up all the aluminum on the boat and will hopefully send much of the chrome to be rechromed.

Thanks all.

Question

I was wondering if any of you could answer this for me. On the deck their is a set of grooves near the bow as well as the mid section. I am planning on using Interlux Perfection for the whole project and was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to paint it with those grooves. A picture is attached. Also, I have had extensive experience on painting, and am wondering whether anyone has any advice on what kind of paint to use. I personally like Perfection because it is an extremely tough finish. If done correctly, some might think there is a real gel coat on there. However, I am open to suggestions. On the whole project.

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The last couple days really have been quite exciting. I finished almost all the prep work for my new floor, have done many many many hours with steel wool, and have ordered an eight ft. by four ft. piece of 1/8 inch fiberglass.


I was and am extremely impressed with the bow light. The picture gives you some idea of the size of it. Their is a flag staff that is also very impressive. Though I am very happy with them, I also realize that many of the cleats, lights, and other accessories will have to be rechromed. I am not looking forward to that.



The picture of above is a rough cut out of the inside of the boat. The idea is to drop a new sheet of fiberglass right into the bottom. I have decided that a new pre cut bottom is much easier and takes much less time than doing it all by hand. I will keep everyone updated. Once again, thanks for the interest.

Today was another good day for lil' ol' Glasspar. Removing all the glass I wanted removed is finished. Done. After a brief intermission (the girlfriends mother wanted me to drive to Annapolis), I returned to the good ol' boat. After looking at all the parts I have, I realized that there were many missing. I stopped by to see the guy I got the boat from. After a short conversation he showed me all the parts that I was missing. Including a very impressive anchor and navigation light. The nav light is huge with fins and a very impressive flag staff above it. I am very happy with it. This boat really is a living relic of the 1950's. I do worry about the finish on some of the parts. The nav light, cleats, steering wheel, and other things need to be rechromed. I am NOT looking forward to that, but, it needs to be done so i'll figure it out.

Tomorrow I will be stopping by Harbor Sales in Sudlersville to talk to the about a 1/8 inch sheet of fiberglass to drop in the boat. I need to sand and fill in some grooves I made when I grinded the glass. After that, she will be ready for a new floor.

Thanks everyone. I will have some pictures of the Nav light and others soon.

The most recent progress on this boat has taken place over the last three weeks. Once it heated up a little bit I got motivated to do something about this boat. Two major things I started doing.

First I have decided to drop in a new fiberglass floor. It is a single sheet of 1/8 inch fiberglass which I bought from Harbor Sales in Sudlersville, Maryland. To get prepared to drop this on top of the plywood (which is in good condition) I needed to get rid of all the old fiberglass from the floor. This posed a problem once I got to the edges. I did and do not want to remove the fiberglass taping around the edges that provide support for the plywood. However, I did want to remove some of it so that I could have a relatively even surface with the new fiberglass on top. Another problem with the edges is that over the last 53 years air has gotten inbetween the glass and the wood. Not good. For a week i tried to cut this extremely thick fiberglass taping with everything from exacto knives to straight buck knives. That fiberglass is hard as nails, and can withstand knives like rocks. Finally, some divine intervention kicked in. So. I got out the big boy tools. A grinder, I found out, will take care of that ol' fiberglass very nicely, providing that you are careful and don't cut straight through the plywood underneath. Last night and today I cut a rough copy of what I want it to look like before I drop the glass in. The last thing I did today with ol' Glasspar is to take a geometric compass, lock it at an inch and a half, and traced around the whole floor. The sharpie with which i traced will provide a clear and distinct guide for me to finish up grinding out the nasty old fiberglass. I must warn anybody that wants to take the same drastic measures as I do. Where a mask. That old fiberglass is nasty stuff. By the time I was finished today, the BLACK Glasspar looked as if it were placed in a snowglobe.
The second major step forward that I have been working on is replacing the seats. The original seats for the Glasspar Lido were made of marine grade (I hope at least) plywood with horsehair used as cushioning. Because of pure good luck, I managed to save one (only one) of the original seat cushions. It was the back of one of the front seats. Because it was such an awful rainy day a couple days ago, I decided to work in the wood shop. I created both back rests for the front seat. I am a little annoyed that I didn't get the front bench seat because I will have to do a lot of shaping and what not for it. I did make a back seat (without backrest), but I still have a lot of small details to finish. Hopefully I will be able to get that done soon. I still have a little bit of time to finish up the prep work. It's still not warm enough here in Maryland for any fiberglass work.

I also decided today that the inside of the hull will most likely need another coat of resin to firm up the existing glass. I'm not really looking forward to that, but it needs to be done. If I do it right the first time around, the final product will be a much prettier finish with less maintenance down the road.
Thanks all, and, if anyone knows how to put up a photo album on this damn thing I would love to here it.

The first phase of the project was to remove all cleats, lights, metal, and the engine. I learned very quickly that it is easier said than done. Each and every screw or bolt had rusted through and had rusted itself to whatever I was trying to remove. A lot of WD-40 and lots of elbow grease later I had everything off but the engine, steering wheel, and pulley system. Each one posed it's own problem. First of all, the engine weighed much more than I could handle manually. Out came the trusty old Kubota. After removing all the screw's were removed, I chained that monstrosity to the buckett and lifted up. Once again, easier said than done. My first attempt resulted in me lifting up the entire boat. It did not want to go. Not at all. Fine. I lowered it and started over. Each and every time resulted in another failure. Until I decided the tractor wasn't helping anything. So. Here we go. My brother and I tried lifting the thing again. Nope. Doesn't work. I finally realized that there was another screw attaching the engine to the transom. The head of the bolt had rusted off and it looked almost as if the screw was part of the engine itself. I hammered that damn screw out of there and got the tractor. Again. Round two. Engine comes right off the transom. On the way to my truck, however, was more difficult. The chain came undone, allowing that massive thing to fall four feet to the ground. After finally getting it into the truck I was beat. Done for the day.
The next morning's project was the steering system (a set of pulley's connecting the steering wheel to the engine). A previous owner had thru bolted the pulleys. Eventually brute force is what got the thing off of there. The steering wheel posed another problem. Like the rest of the bolts on Glasspar, the bolts connecting the steering wheel to the boat were rusted through. I ended up cutting it out with a grinder. Whoops. I guess I'm gonna have more work towards the end of the project.