Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Old wood drift boat
I found an old wood drift boat that was apparently built by the Rouge River boat shop. I'm thinking about looking at it any suggestions on what I should be keeping an eye out for? It appears to be fiberglassed and worn thru on one bottom section. How hard is it going to be to remove the old fiberglass. The whole boat is painted and I would like to remove the paint and at least keep the interior natural. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
Mark
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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Mark, you are at a good site for this info. In the last 12 plus months many have found this site after acquiring similar boats, old and in need of restoration. Rather than spelling out the process again I'm suggesting a quick search or two to see what has already been advised. There is so much good info here a couple of hours spent reading all the posts will vastly increase your knowledge. Roger Fletcher's book is a wonderful resource and is very helpful in understanding the parts, pieces, history and construction of Wooden Drift Boats. Here is his web address.
www.riverstouch.com/
Good luck and welcome to the group!
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by Brant Jaouen on
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Just a quick thought Mark - it's very difficult to take a painted boat back to natural wood. It's not impossible, but I tried this on my boat (painted when I bought it) and I ended up giving up and just painting it a new color. Natural ("bright") finish looks awesome, but I think you will find that there are some pretty great looking painted boats out there as well. I would also venture that paint can be easier to maintain. Good luck with the new boat. Post pics!
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Permalink Reply by Charles Ray Heater on
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Mark:
After decades of building and finishing wooden drift boats, I have decided that the finish of least maintenance is to paint a boat inside and out-one color. I painted my Rapid Robert one color inside and out with Z Spars alkyd enamel medium green color over epoxy. I had the boat for 5 years and then sold it for what I was asking for. The only thing I did was wash it out and oil the removeable floorboard slats. The boat always looked new. I did not have to deal with mold or mildew on the oiled interior as has sometimes occured. I did not have to recoat a varnished area yearly. I simply painted 2 coats of this type of paint using only 2 quarts due to the epoxy precoating. The boat appeared new looking when I sold it.
You should check to make sure that the "fiberglassing" was not done with poleyester resin as I have found so many old boats were. A heat gun will easily strip poly fiberglassing and the rework can be done with epoxy/glass.
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