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 9, 2016 at 9:46pm
Nice guess. I heard from the original boat owner that it was in fact a no hackle. 1982 vintage of boat fits with Swisher/Richards heyday as well.
Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on February 17, 2016 at 3:52pm

Looks like one of these 2 dry`s

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on April 1, 2016 at 7:31pm

I laid down two coats of West System epoxy, imbedding 12oz Rafa fiberglass in the second coat. Then I put on four flow coats of epoxy with graphite.  I had trouble using the foam roller RAFA recommended to spread the graphite/epoxy mix.  It just created a thousand little mounds/bubbles. It looked like the stippled surface of leather. I tried it after different periods of time after pouring out epoxy, thinking maybe I waited too long the first time or too soon on the second coat. However, each coat reacted the same way. Afterwards I thought that maybe I needed to saturate the foam roller first. I noticed some people use a half roller. Are you supposed to lock the roller and just spread the epoxy with a fixed roller? I am going to just lay down two coats of epoxy without glass on the sides, so I would like to figure this out before I start on the visible portion of my project.  Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on April 1, 2016 at 8:16pm
Kirk,
Anytime you use a roller to apply epoxy (with or without graphite)you MUST tip it with a dry brush. That is to drag it lightly over the surface to break the mini bubbles caused by the roller. Also when applying the epoxy just roll out an area of 24" X 24", always keeping a wet edge.
Jamestown Distributors has a bunch of videos on their website on how to use thier Total Boat Epoxy, it applies pretty much to all epoxys. Also Epoxyworks website(Gougeon Bros. West System) has a very good written method for using epoxy.
If your serious about the bright work looking decent, take the time to do your homework.
G'Luck,
Dorf
Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on April 1, 2016 at 11:16pm

thanks.  I ended up spreading and smoothing the epoxy with a brush, so I guess I ultimately finished it as I should have.  It turned out OK but not as smooth as I would like and it took a lot longer. I think I also worked too large an area at a time as well. In all the discussions and videos I watched and materials I read, no one mentioned the follow-up to the roller with the brush. Glad you mentioned it.

Permalink Reply by David Witton on April 2, 2016 at 6:25am

My approach was to use half of a foam roller. Saturate it with epoxy, keep it wet,  and use slow strokes. Then tip with a wide foam brush. Don't expect epoxy applied over bare plywood to level out particularly well - I sanded with 150 between coats. The final coats of varnish is where you'll be able to achieve a level finish.

Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on April 2, 2016 at 7:04am

I found the thick glass for the bottom to be alot rougher to work with than the thin stuff on the sides. I didnt worry about getting the bottom smooth and flat like my sides either. Also coating the wood first with epoxy prior to applying the glass helped seal in the wood and made for less gas type bubbles. I did a bunch of coats to get the glass embedded and somewhat smooth,then a couple final coats with a little of the graphite I called it done. Ive been varnishing my sides though over the glass work.

Looks like you got er done though.

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on April 2, 2016 at 4:58pm

Kirk,

Check out this video, it has the basic elements of glassing cloth with epoxy.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsupx-IXOzU

There is no video explanation but the elements are there.  Laying out fiberglass, wetting it out with epoxy, removing the excess and applying a fill coat.  

Note;  The fill coat starts at about the eight minute mark of the video and the guy uses a brush to tip off the rolled filler coat of the epoxy.

There are a couple of subsequent videos on filling the glass, they might add to the process of applying epoxy.

I also have found round 1" diameter foam rollers "Suck" for rolling on epoxy, just my humble opinion.  I use West System's Yellow Rollers, they are made for this, like in the video above.  Also there are 4 1/2" x 1" diameter cloth rollers, a Mohair Blend that work nice too and they are two for $ 5.00, less costly.  They are good for enamels, varnishes,urethanes and epoxys.  I get them at a local home paint store.

Anyhow hope you get it done to your satisfaction!

Dorf

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on April 3, 2016 at 9:32am
Thanks you guys. I had missed that "tipping" talked about in some articles was the same as brush work discussed in others, so I did tip the coats but my lack of experience left a bit of an uneven bottom. Good place to practice I guess. I am on to epoxy on the sides now and the first two coats look good. I am not going to glass the sides. Most rivers I fish are relatively easy so I do t think need to armor the sides.
Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on April 3, 2016 at 10:07am

The west system rollers (and tipping) do a great job over a brush for large areas. Less sanding to get smooth. Cutting them in half makes them not as expensive. The bottom doesnt matter much. My bottom is still a little rough. That heavy glass is just tough to fill over, the fish wont care...I did couple coats of epoxy on sides, sanded smooth then glassed. Using thin 6 oz glass is super easy to fill over and comes out really nice, it was kinda fun actually. (unlike the bottom glass). I was gonna paint but the glass came out pretty clear so I decided to leave it natural.

Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on April 5, 2016 at 9:03pm
The video doers linked above and others on Jamestown distributing were much more useful than the ones I watched previously. I used the roller for my epoxy coat on the side and it spread much more evenly and left me with a nice first coat. The cross hatched spreading pattern was critical to getting even distribution before tipping. Somehow I had missed that step or it was not highlighted in the materials I studied. This is A key point for other rookies preparing to lay down epoxy.
Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on April 24, 2016 at 9:53pm

An update on my project. I finished the exterior, (except for varnish and oiling chine cap). A friend is going to repaint the "ghost fly" for me, so I need to wait for him to get that done before I varnish. Hence, I am moving on to the interior.

Chine cap in place but not trimmed up yet. The old chine cap had screws every 2.5 to 3 inches, but that included aluminum cap screws. I used about a 6 inch spacing, but where there was a tighter radius I shortened spacing.  Does this sound about right?

The ghost fly shows through the three coats of epoxy, quite well.

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