Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Starting a Steele 16 drift boat restoration
The wood appears to be in great shape, but until I remove the Uhmw shoe, I won't know for sure.
As much as I like to keep things original, I also like natural wood, so I am torn between sticking with Steele's painted boat and showing off the wood grains. I have indoor storage to protect it from the Montana winters.
Your thoughts on paint vs clear and need for fiberglass vs a shoe?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on
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Thanks David
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I talked with Steve Steele and he confirmed my boat was built in 1982 for Jimmy Gabettas in eastern Idaho.
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Day 1 was a good day. I pulled a couple hundred brass ribbed nails from the uhmw shoe and off it came. It was also glued down. Bottom of boat appears to be really sound except for some soft wood around the drain plug. The chines are probably my biggest concern. They are soft in places on the bottom, where the shoe overlapped (probably held water, plus take a beating on rocks). Time to start stripping paint. Interesting note: when the shoe was put on they fiberglassed the bow end triangle. Not sure if I can remove that or should just feather my new fiberglass bottom into it. Photo shows fiberglassed area on left side with obvious line of where glass ended. Any suggestions?
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image.jpeg, 433 KB
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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on
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Kirk,
Assuming you are going to glass the whole bottom without the UHMW Shoe, I'd just feather the front edge and rough it and the whole bottom up with 80-100 grit and apply a fresh coat of epoxy to the complete bottom prior to adding the glass and new outer chine logs.
I'd add a fairly heavy glass, a minimum of 12 oz or better. There are lots of references in the posts on this forum on how to glass a bottom. You can do a search to find several.
G'Luck,
Dorf
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Figured out that photo upload issues were the result of working off my Ipad instead of a PC. Photos show bottom after uhmw shoe was pulled, bow triangle with old fiberglass job and seam where fiberglass ends.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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Graphite, "To Have or Have Not, That is the Question." My apologies to Ernest H.
Rick N
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After removing UHMW shoe I found a gray glue (which came off easy with heat gun), a thin coat of epoxy (?) and a white paint or sealant of some kind. I am using heat gun to scrape off paint, but I find that in most places the paint is on epoxy but in some places it is directly on wood (see second picture). It is never beneath the epoxy layer. I think the epoxy layer is original and when they removed the original 1/4 ply shoe and prepped the surface for the UHMW shoe, they partially scraped off the epoxy then applied the white paint. I plan on scraping/sanding off all of the epoxy layer because it flakes off if you pick at it. My question is where there is the white paint directly on wood (which tends to be weathered with deep grains), do I need to remove all of the white paint? I am concerned that in areas with deep grain from weathering, I would need to remove a lot of wood to get all the white paint out. I am going to fiberglass, then apply graphite mix top coat, so it wont be visible (The epoxy and white paint doesn't exist on sides of boat). Its just a matter of whether white paint in a few little grain grooves would inhibit bonding of my new epoxy and glass? Is this a bigger problem than removal of a lot of wood to get at it?
Thanks.
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My response is the paint won't compromise your future work. It has been my experience, limited as it may be that a fresh coating of epoxy mixed properly applied to clean wood will stick jst fine. You might consider prepping the surface and applying a coat of epoxy and letting it cure. The majority of epoxies have an open "window" of approximately 72 hours for a chemical bond to occur between existing coats of epoxy and subsequent coats. Of course your mileage might vary dependent upon what brand of epoxy you use. You also have to be aware of amine blush which is commonly washed off with water and Scotchbrite pads. If for some reason you don't or aren't able to reapply the epoxy within that window abrading the surface with sandpaper will provide tooth for a mechanical bond to the older epoxy. Recommendations vary, check with your epoxy manufacturer for more accurate details.
Rick N
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I am nearly done sanding the epoxy off the bottom and I am wondering how to tackle a couple areas of damaged wood. I don't have my pc with me so the photos are uploaded instead of imbedded (iPad doesn't show the row of icons). My questions are how much of the black stained wood should I remove from around the nail holes and drain plug? Some holes are empty from pulling nails when I removed the uhmw shoe, while others still have nails and screws in place (tied to ro ribs?). I am planning on filling all of the holes before I epoxy and fiberglass the base.
Second question relates to chine caps. They are mostly sound and black rubber gasket appears to be present and pliable. However one spot is troublesome where it looks like a simple butt end joint was used. There is water damage on the ends. A few other places have some deterioration of wood but mainly near the surface. See photos. Should I remove and replace or just prep and epoxy? From other threads on this site I assume wrapping fiberglass over chine cap is a bad idea.
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Missing photos from previous post. Will only upload one at a time.
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Damaged chine cap
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