Vintage Inboard Cruisers to Centre Console Conversion

[gazza2006au]

The transom cap is just sitting in place nothing glued or glassed in yet just getting a look for it i need to make two outer transom caps for the rear of the gunnels if i reuse the old ones i will still have to modify the very rear vertical side and make something out of plywood it would look to boxy

i won't be able to do much more to the transom/splash well cap untill i grind out the air bubbles in the transom tabbing and give it a good sand while i have access from the top bac of the boat rather than trying to do it from the inside

slow progress guys turtle wins the race

[CT]

Just glass straight from the edge of the gunnel across the void to the transom. It should span it fine.

Grind out a v in the splash well join before you glass the two bits back together. To keep it all in shape, screw timber to the underside with screws in both pieces to keep it flat. Put tape or plastic on the timber to make sure you dont glue it in as well.

1st photo, glued together with a butt joint, screwed down holding everything flat.
2nd photo, screws out and reground ready to glass.
3rd photo, glassed the v back together.

Just my opinion. Use it at your own risk.

[gazza2006au]

Thanks CT how many layer of glass did u put on yours?

[CT]

Six.
Three 600 gsm biaxial
Three 600 gsm double bias
Alternated one of each.

Plus tabbing.
Was supposed to be three layers of 600 gsm. All the long runs got three but overlapping corners ended up with about 12!

[gazza2006au]

I am still going with the hard top idea guys just keep swapping and changing my mind when i can't figure out how to glue it all together without f..... it up or it being wonky and off on one side more than the other i also decided to angle the side windows out rather than in at the top heres some drawing going to extend the cabin back about 20cm too

Awesome thanks CT! my skin is about 4mm thick but the bits that go on the side corners have plywood reinforced with chopped mat that is around 10mm thick

[scottar]

Measure, measure and measure again Gazza then stand back and look at it. Yours shouldn't be too hard because it has corners as points of reference. When I was trying to get mine central it was pain because everything is curved.

[gazza2006au]

Measure, measure and measure again Gazza then stand back and look at it. Yours shouldn't be too hard because it has corners as points of reference. When I was trying to get mine central it was pain because everything is curved.

Yeah it all holds together with stitch and glue technique but worried the wind may blow it off or a bat lands on it overnight while the glue is curing we have plagues of bats here they love hanging in mine and the neighbours trees also worried if it does get blown off that my pets will walk or lay on the glue

[blacklab]

Gazza, Common !!!
Show some dedication man,, I would at least expect you to stay with it while the glue cures !. These are the things us dedicated boat renovators have to do.
Get a camp fire goin, keep the billy on the boil and brace that sucker thru the night, By morning all would be good.
Cant believe you haven't considered this..... No more excuses, get that sucker started.


Col

[gazza2006au]

Lol Col i have no where flat to glass the panels for the hard top planwas to get my boat floor down than use that as a working surface cover it with plastic than lay the hard top panels on the plastic glass one side flip it over than glass the other side do all panels than assemble using cable ties and glue on a good night so it doesn't rain unsure how to attach the hard top to the hull of the boat without drilling more holes and shit plus i need to keep it all squared up with the hull

i will try pull a all nighter on the computer tonight and get cranking in the morning hopefully i can stay awake past 7am and work on the boat, have been crashing out just before sunrise and its pissing me off with this good weather i'm missing it all by my sleeping is controlled by medication once i fall a sleep its lights out for hours no waking up or if i do i feel like crap like I've had a few b..ngs lol

[gazza2006au]

Another shitty day guys no work i was up untill sun rise than crashed going to skip meds today so i stay awake and get it done tomorrow, we had that massive storm hit here right on the six am dot this morning my house was creeking from the wind thought it had blown the tarp off the boat

looked back 1 year ago to my edited pictures and wondered how the cabin could vary so much from my original drawing that looked mint as the new cabin looks nothing like it i think i am going to change the cabin back to the original drawing, any idea how to get the same angles from the computer to real life? i have a angle degree meter buti don't think that would be very accurate measuring the laptop screen

[catshark]

always use three reference points, point A is the first bow roller to start off, Point B is the second bow roller where it bends to level out, point C is the first axle hub to mark the 90* bend and tapers out by the top by a couple inches, in this shape you have two R/H triangles and a rectangle. Pythagorus is your friend here, or just wing it like i would and eyeball it up. does kinda take on the bar crusher look , great design.

[gazza2006au]

Thanks Cat i didn't think of using points for reference when i cut what i have now i just winged it but i was never overly happy with it now looking back to that first drawing i much like that design, a bit of wasted money and plywood just racking up the bill but ah well i need to be happy with what i am building

i will redesign it when i get around to doing the hard top i will even buy some huge sheets of cardboard this time instead of just making cuts and seeing how they work, has been costly mistake about $100

[gazza2006au]

If i could say the f word multiple times right now i would put my self in a really shit spot no sleep only way i could work on boat pulled it off all night no sleep that is haha than had a feed this morning than started work only had enough hardener to do 4 batches of glue first 3 batches went to one stringer very happy with the way that went than started panicing trying to find everything i kept moving everything around was doing my head in started having a panic attack didnt wanna waste last batch of glue for second stringer got second stringer glued down but not filletted packed up called it a day came inside now resting had some sugar

For probably one full year i have been shitting my self on gluing in the stringers just over done it went into stress mode had to many months thinking how i am going to apprach laying down the glue than holding it all together and wondering if it will all collapse when i pull the tarp over i just went into melt down

The fumed silica i bought from ebay came in 2x 4 litre paint tins that fumed silica was a absolute dream to work with about 15 to 20 sea spoons per 300mls of resin made a perfect piping bag full of mon sagging glue worked beautiful it laid down the fillets really well really happy i used that over talc will likely never use talc again

I used the tip of piping bag to radius the fillet

[gazza2006au]

Spun out this morning recouped now had a feed and a nap, i will try order some hardener this week or next still left with about 7kg of resin i donno where i messed up but ran out of hardener well before resin however 24 litres is quiet an amount so maybe 15mls more hardner each batch or something I'm not really sure where it went i am using automotive mixing measuring cups that have 5:1 ratio so a little unsure

really happy with the way the stringer sat on the glue than really happy how easy the fumed silica was to squeeze out of the piping bag i ran back along the fillet with the bag while the bag was still puffed and it done a good job to radius the fillet

now i have oneand a half stringers done i am over that "F...." moment where i don't need to stress, the glue mix took around 4 to 5mins to mix up including adding the fumed silica by the time i stopped gluing and the bag was empty all up took probably 15mins tops the glue in the bag didn't even heat up but the left over bags were pilling up inside a mixing cup inside the boat o glanced over and the resin in the piping bags were smoking maybe i was a little effected by the fumes? something i need to monitor

once the stringers are in i will rerun the string line front to back and go along my stringers and draw a line along my original floor height than i will buy a new electric planner (dog chewed my cable in half on old one) and plane the stringers down all level than i will install the bulkheads than start glassing

stay tuned fella's

[gazza2006au]

All stringers are now glued in just need to fillet some of the stringers once i get the hardener, i just used some of the 2 part 50/50 epoxy glue to glue the stringers down i was going to fillet with this but its absolutely shit house to use the consistency is so thick i mixed in 3 table spoons of fumed silica with it and it was incredibly hard to mix into the glue from here on i think i will only use the fumed silica and epoxy resin i looked at the stringers i made the FS and epoxy mix for the other day and it didn't sag worked beautiful so that will be the go to glue from here on