Ol' Girl gets a new Ol' Girl

[Toni]

I got a text message from Steve Ericsson that said I was "stringerfied". Here are the pictures and what he says he did.
Since I had to play music at church this weekend, I took a change of clothes with me and went to Trent's directly after to get the inner stringers built and installed, can't beat the weather for glass work!

Luckily as I mentioned earlier, I saved the front halves of the inner stringers to use for patterns. I chose the best one and test fit it where I want the inner stringers to go and it was a near perfect fit so I traced it onto the new marine ply. The rest of the stringer was basically just extensions of the pattern lines. I had to scarf on extensions to these also as they are even longer than the outer stringers. Once that was done, a few test fits and trims, the new stringers are trial fit for the final time.

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Pretty much just what I wanted. So, these were brushed with a nice coat of poly resin and left to tack up while I cleaned up my mess in Trent's driveway. In the warm sunshine today, they didn't take long to cure. Then the same procedure as before was used to tab these stringers into place.

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[Toni]

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So now The Ol' Girl has her new stringers!! When I get back from Tri-cities in a few days, the stringers will get their final layer of glass and the bulkheads will go in and it's time to get the flooring cut, sounds like a good project for next weekend, I hope the weather holds!!

[Mike Carey]

beautiful Toni. I'm sure you're feeling a great sense of accomplishment as this project comes together.

[Steve Ericsson]

I am feeling some sense of accomplishment, Toni however, is probably feeling more sense of urgency!!

[Toni]

I am feeling some sense of accomplishment, Toni however, is probably feeling more sense of urgency!!

You got that right. We got a date for chum and they don't wait.

[Rosann G]

YAY Toni!! and Steve too

[Toni]

More from Steve and Trent:

So, moving along. The stringers have mostly be final glassed in and today the bulkheads were put in to form the bilge and the fish/storage box. Yesterday I cut out the bulkheads and put a layer of resin/glass on them. I also cut the drain pipe for the fish/storage box.

Yesterday the first step was to drill out the bilge drain hole, sand it round and smooth on the inside, then hot coat it with resin to seal it. The transom glass was paper thin and non-existent in places before, now it is nearly 1/4" and solid new glass. After that, the next step was to put in the fish/storage box drain. I used a piece of PVC pipe that happens to be the same size as the bilge drain hole so it can be plugged to keep ice/water/fish blood in the box until she wants to drain it and clean it up. The PVC pipe was first bedded into "peanut butter" fairing compound to seal it to the hull. Then the bulkheads were put in and sealed to the stringers.

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The PVC pipe was then bedded on both sides all the way around and glassed over. The holes in the bulkheads are cut oversize so the area around the pipe can be filled with fairing compound and glassed. The idea here is that if the glass seal around the pipe ever breaks or leaks, there is no exposed wood there to get wet or wick water. The bilge and the next bulkhead that hold the drain pipe were sealed in place with fairing compound. I have decided that the bulkheads will not be screwed to the stringers or attached in anyway by fasteners other than fairing compound and glass. This way, hopefully, if for any reason one of the bulkheads somehow gets wet and rots, the rot cannot travel from that piece of wood to another and rot out other structural pieces. By the same token, if a stringer gets wet and rots, the rot cannot travel to any other piece. However, I challenge any drop of water to get under this floor when I'm done with it!!

The bulkheads were then faired in with a nice thick bead of fairing compound and then glassed over with triax cloth. This gives a nice rounded inside corner inside the fish/storage box to make it easy to clean and so there are no sharp corners to catch dirt and grime and makes for a stronger corner bond.

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This is where we're at as of now.

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[Toni]

Steve sent me a few pictures on my phone that got my heart beating faster.
So on to the flooring. Today I got over to Trent's a bit late, but luckily a break in the rain allowed me to get my pop up set up and get things going.

First up was the sub-floor to form the opening of the fish box/storage locker. Luckily I saved the front piece of the old floor for a template for the bow curve, it came in real handy. First I cut out the shape and a rough opening for the fishbox.

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Yep, that is actually sunshine on the front of the plywood, haven't seen much of that last few days. Once this piece was fit on to the stringers, I took my router and a flush cut edge bit and trimmed around the fish box opening and also the outside edges along the stringers. Then I used a quarter round bit to round off the edges so the fiberglass will lay nicely when the sub floor gets glassed down to the stringers, this should help prevent air bubbles at the transitions.

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Before I could go any further, I needed to trim the glass and sand the fairing compound on the bilge bulkhead. This gives a real good idea of the bond between the stringers and bulkheads, these babies ain't going nowhere!!

[Toni]

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Next came the floor at the transom. I measured the needed width every two feet and cut to those dimensions, then rough cut the bilge. I couldn't get my router under the splash well to flush cut the edges, so I laid the floor in and fastened it down in place and scribed a line to the stringers from the bottom through the rough cut opening. Then cut slowly right at the scribed line then quarter rounded the top edge for the glass to lay.

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[Toni]

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After that came the the next floor section, same procedure. I cut out the rough cut for the fish box and scribed the underside with a sharpie. Then I measured out from this line 1" to form the top of the fish box/storage locker.

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If you remember back to the stringers, I made the front 2/3s of the stringers 1/2" lower than the aft sections, that was for the sub floor to sit 1/2" lower so that top of the sub floor is even with the top of the rear portion of the stringers. This is so the main floor will lay right over the sub floor with no height transition, you will never know it's there. The sub floor then forms the lip that the lid will sit on.

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The new dance floor, I can hear the kokanee flopping already!

[Toni]

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Yesterday I made a mount for the bilge pump out of stainless screws and stainless rod that will get glassed into the bilge area. This way no screws need to penetrate the hull glass and the mount won't ever corrode.

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I still have to finish glassing one outside stringer, the bilge pump mount will get installed at that time while I have some resin and glass in already in progress.

That's were we stand as of this evening. One more piece of floor to cut out, then glass the undersides and install them permanently.

[hewesfisher]

Nice quality work. Won't be long Toni.

[Toni]

OCT. 7th Had to go to Seattle this morning, got back a little early so I stopped by just to take a look at the boat and do some planning. That last piece of plywood kept staring at me and talking to me, so I went ahead and let the floor piece out of it. A little cutting, trimming, routing and it was done.

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So now we have a complete floor, nice and solid.

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Cut out the fish box lid too, it is rough cut yet, still needs to be edge sanded smooth and straight once the glass is finished. Until the glass is on the fish box opening, I won't know the exact size the lid has to be.

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So now the floor pieces will come out and get a layer of glass on the bottom sides and then get put in one last time with some good construction adhesive. Then the floor will get faired and tabbed to the hull and the expandable foam can go in. She's coming along nicely!!

[Toni]

STURDY floors! They aren't even fiber-glassed yet. I was really impressed by the way the inside of the fish box was rounded.
On Tuesday:
So put the switch here (Steve is seating on the seat)

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Or put the switch here

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Seat box...

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So we talked seat boxes, navigation lights, downrigger mounts, trailer and brackets, inside shelf/toe hold. Where the handle for the kicker is going-about how high. We also talked about the big padded seat box I have. We talked about the thunder and lighting that was going on. [/color]

[Rosann G]

woohoo! lookin good Toni and Steve

[Toni]

This should really be Steve Ericsson's rebuild. So much thought and planning! But this is what he said:
FLOORS!!! SHE HAS NEW PERMANENT FLOORS!!!

Finally the floors are in!!! A few days ago I started getting ready to put the floors in for the final time. The first step was to glass the bottom side of the floor pieces. I used the 2# CSM that Wannafish ordered with the original order, nice and light but it is pretty thirsty.

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I decided to gelcoat the bottom of the floor that will cover the bilge area, since it would be difficult to get it coated real well when the floor is down as I can't see up in there. I decided to coat the bilge area too for the same reason.

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[Toni]

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The bilge pump mount is in place as well.

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Before the floor could go down, I glassed in the fish box edge around the subfloor all the way down the walls of the box. This wouldn't be so easy once the floor is down, plus this way I only have to glass the final floor edge to the sub floor. For this I also used the CSM. The nice thing about chop strand mat is it forms around corners or odd shapes very well and still stays together, so it is the perfect choice for this. Once dry, a little sanding by hand and the rolled edge will be nice and smooth and ready for gelcoat.

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[Toni]

The joint between the aft and center floor sections doesn't fall on the subfloor, so I would need something to align the edges and support them together so they can't flex and move independently and crack the final glass. I was thinking of wood blocks underneath screwed on both sides from above, but I don't want screw penetrations through the floor anywhere except for the stringer bond with adhesive where water could penetrate the glass layer. I finally decided on a biscuit joint, never done one before so it took awhile to think of it. My carpentry/cabinet building goes clear back to high school before biscuits - we used dowels and doweling jigs, which I thought of, but biscuits are so much better. I bought a bottle of biscuits and a biscuit blade for my router from Harbor Freight and made the cuts and put the biscuits in at the center lines between the stringers.

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This made the floor nice and solid, and no penetrations through the glass top or bottom. The next step was to lay the floors. The first thing was to bed the edges since they don't quite sit on the hull. Bedding compound was made with resin and fiberglass sandings sifted through a flour sifter. I mixed the resin pretty hot so it would set fairly fast. Then a nice thick bead of structural glue was laid down the tops of the stringers and the floor pieces set down and screwed. The bedding compound squeezed up around the edges and a plastic spreader smoothed it out level with the floor.

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[Toni]

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A fillet bead will be laid on top of the bedding compound later. I wanted the bedding compound to shrink and fill the gaps before the edges get a fillet and tabbing.
At the bow where the floor meets the hull, there is a varying angle of space that previously was filled with the wood scraps that were so hard to cut out when the floor was removed.

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I needed to do something similar as this would take a huge amount of bedding compound to fill and would be a waste of resin. I decided to cut a continuous fillet out of plywood and fair it down with a belt sander. I traced both sides of the bow floor and measured at intervals the distance to the hull from the top of the floor edge as seen in the picture above and transfered those to the plywood, drew a line between them and cut the piece out.

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Then the piece was turned over and the outside edge sanded down with the belt sander.

[Toni]

Reminds me of a wooden propeller for an airplane or a boomerang. Once the fillets fit perfectly, the bow floor was then laid down to complete the floor install. With the exception of the fillets, the floor is now in permanently!!

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Then the piece was turned over and the outside edge sanded down with the belt sander.

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Once the bedding compound set up on the edges, there is no flex in the floor anywhere whatsoever, far better than before. Once everything set up nice, it was getting too late and the temps were dropping and the dew point was coming up, so no more glass work - plus it was getting late anyway, time to quit for the day. The fillets will be bonded in place next, the entire floor faired around the edges, then the holes bored out for 2 part expanding foam will be cut and the foam poured in, hopefully this weekend.

We're getting very close to final glass work on the floor!!