Starting a Steele 16 drift boat restoration

This is my first project so I am looking for general guidance to start with. I have bee perusing other discussions and can see there are lots of choices to be made. I believe my boat is from the 70s and possibly was first sold to Jimmy Gabettas of Jimmy's All Season Angler in eastern Idaho.
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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Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on February 2, 2016 at 12:41pm

Permalink Reply by David Witton on January 30, 2016 at 4:00pm

If the black wood is soft and punky it's not providing much value the way it is - I'd dig it out of there and fill the voids with epoxy mixed with wood flour or cabosil. 

My advise would be to treat yourself to a new chine cap...

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on January 30, 2016 at 10:06pm
Thanks David
Permalink Reply by Mark Heskett on January 30, 2016 at 12:36pm

The interior of my 1971 Rogue River Boat Shop after stripping three coats of paint and soaking in one coat of boat oil

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on January 30, 2016 at 7:27pm

Kirk,

To repair the holes as seen in your pics I'd take a Dremel Tool with a small carbide bit and remove the punkey wood.  Take care to feather the edges, kinda like a scarf joint (about 1" in diameter).  Then fill these holes with a Wood Epoxy.  

I have used this technique in making structural and cosmetic repairs on an original wooden carousel for years and have not had a repair fail in stress positions.  It will work on your drift boat.  Make the top (outside) surface a little proud and fair as you can with a putty knife.  Then sand flush with 100 Grit. 

The bottom then will be ready for a coat of clean epoxy prior to glassing.

Here's a reference for Wood Epoxy;  http://www.rockler.com/sculpwood-moldable-epoxy-putty

There is also at Home Depot, Woodcraft and other like places a form of Wood Epoxy in a (~1" Dia.) plastic tube. It is a two part epoxy in the form of a roll.  The resin on the outside and the hardener inside it.  You cut off a lenght of it and knead it until it's mixed and then spread it in the void.  I use a lot of this too, I like it for this type of repair.

Let any and all of these materials cure overnight for a cure.   

G'Luck,

Dorf

ps: Pls post a picture of the repair,after you've made a few of them.

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on January 30, 2016 at 10:05pm
Thanks Phillip
Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on January 31, 2016 at 7:14am

Kirk,

Another trick in applying the Wood Epoxy to the holes is to place a piece of clear plastic (Zip- Loc Bag material) over the epoxy when trying to flatten it out.  This will keep it from sticking to the putty knife and pulling it out of the hole you are trying to stick it in.  Leave it there until the epoxy cures.

Also the one inch diameter is a maximum.  Taper the sides only partway down, don't make a one inch hole.  This will create a larger contact area with "good" wood to provide better adhesion.

Hope this helps,

Dorf

Permalink Reply by tungsten on January 31, 2016 at 8:43am

Cool boat!When you where sanding you would have been able to smell what the previous coat was,hopefully it didn't smell like bondo.

Heat up a small batch of epoxy this will make it like water and will fill the small holes you can burp them with a tooth pick.

I vote for New chines ,cause its not my money:)

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on February 16, 2016 at 9:31pm

I have used my Dremel to rout out the punky wood around the nails in my base. then I treated them with System 3's RotFix to inhibit any rot I didn't dig out to keep it from spreading. There were a lot of nail holes from the old UHMW shoe! 

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on February 16, 2016 at 9:37pm

Finished sculptwood patch after sanding.

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on February 8, 2016 at 9:18am

Look what I found when I stripped the green paint off! I talked with Steve Steele and he said they didn't do any décor like this, so it was probably added by an owner.  This also confirms my suspicions that this was a clear finish boat and the green paint was added later. Probably when a nice rock crack was repaired with fiberglass (those pictures will be posted later).

I want to preserve the fly. I am amazed it didn't come off with the heat gun and scraper, although, I did scrape a few little pieces off. I need to get a magnifying glass out to see whether I have epoxy or varnish over the top of it or beneath it.  I think I either have to sand around this very carefully then epoxy over the top, or sand it off and get an artistic friend to recreate it. 

Any guesses on the pattern? So far, I am leaning towards a blue winged olive wet fly/emerger. Although my brother thinks its a early green drake.

Permalink Reply by Mark Heskett on February 9, 2016 at 11:13am

Looks like a Swisher/Richards no-hackle quill wing design fly.

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