You may be familiar with my Mustang 24 build that has been going on for the past 4 odd years. Much to my dismay, it is still not quite finished, thanks mainly to the following obsession.
I have an '09 SeaDoo GTX 260IS, which is bullshit for a really really fast jet ski with suspension, which is supposed to be very kind to my ageing knees. But it's not and I still feel the need for speed, so I started looking for a small iconic Aussie boat which could handle a 200hp merc - one of the two refurbished but not used on the Mustang.
I've always had a soft spot for the original "bubble deck" 1600SO Haines Hunter from the late '60's. When one came up for sale in Newcastle last Easter for the right money, I jumped at it.
The seller assured me that he had personally replaced the transom and the floor with the assistance of one of his boat builder friends. Fine - why would I doubt that?
We get to Newcastle (I'm in Brisbane - 8 hour drive), and within 10 seconds, noticed that the boat's stringers had given way and that the hull had hogged. (Hooked - big hollow). So we renegotiate the purchase price and took it home.
So, we got it home, set it up in the back yard and started.
Got rid of the silly seats, cut the back deck off pulled up the new floor, and cut out the outer stringers.
Next lots of grinding to give a good bond, and start straightening the warped hull.
I used 90x35 studs @2.4m each, and sandwiched the hull from both sides and wedged where necessary to get it fair:
Started with fresh marine ply Stringers at the floor to hull intersect which was where the most obvious hogging was, then continued with the the same process for the inner and outer girders and the keel support. Lots of glassing and copious use of double bias knitted fabrics, and presto:
Next, made and fitted the new floors, cut the transom down to 20", flowcoated where necessary, prepped the rear deck, and put it back where it belonged:
The boys got a few mates to come over to turn the boat over and continue the fairing process.
Early bubble decks had a rounded bilge and a small full length keel, which is very old school. The boat was designed as an off-shore racing boat in the late 1960's and back then, the horsepower just wasn't there to show up problems with that design feature.
The later Mk2 version of the 1600SO had a plank fitted and was a much better boat to drive quickly with big horsepower. So I had to add a plank and blueprint the hull. I also put square edges on chines and transom to hull:
I had to replace both main rails with gal box section, make a new subframe which I had galvanised and stripped all the multi roller components and had them regalvanised.
New rollers, all new bolts and nyloc nuts, winch and winch-post, bearings and bearing buddies, brake cable and LED lights and now it's just like a bought one!
Rolled the boat over again, had to redo the transom (it wasnt exactly level - OCD...), so I took the opportunity to get the fairing as good as I could:
Gearbox rebuild is happening - just waiting on a few parts.
Steering helm fitted and Kevlar reinforced hoses are being prepared.
Solid engine mounts on motor, so hoping no chine walking due to sloppy steering system.
More pics as soon as I make some visible progress!
Hi Scottar:
Yes you did!
I had it painted in Arnies booth to save the hours of rectification I always suffer by painting outdoors.
The bugs just love wet 2 pac paint, and the tree leaves were falling everywhere...
And Catshark, the paint is Jotun. Very happy with it. Great gloss and very tough.
Obviously, it was painted and I fitted the motor, but I wasn't happy with the old style "drill a big hole in the side of the engine well, fit a slop stopper, and pass wires, cables, leads, oil and fuel line through".
So I got my hands on some later model tube and terminal gear and made it fit the old Merc:
IMG_3122.jpg
Took a bit of time with a die grinder, but it looks factory and will be totally water resistant.
The kevlar reinforced steering hoses turned up and were duely fitted and bled. They were the through the bulkhead type, so are very neat and again no place for water to get into the boat. Couple of breakouts for the fuel line and the shift/throttle cables, and its job done...
Next on the list was to get the fuel system happening.
I had a very shallow (100mm) 70 litre tank made from the leftover alloy from the Mustang build.
That went under the floor , fed 1/2" hose to the filter/separator then 10mm to the motor.
Fit and plumb the filler and the 2 x 3/4" breathers and that's done.
I still have a bit of flowcoating to tidy up and the oil bottle and battery to fit, but it is getting closer...
Next, the gunwale turned up from Cassel's in Sydney at the same time as the period HH stickers, which are amazingly good.
Fun fitting the gun'ls which look decidedly better than the chicken, but untidy with no end or bow caps:
So if you know where I can get either some of the correct look vinyl OR actual 1mm laminating teak, please let me know.
You will also notice in the above photo that the Merc hand controller has been mounted. Took a while to figure it out, but I'm pleased with the result.
It had to be mounted at an angle to the true centre line so it would clear the combing.
As I said, it took a while to get it right...
That faux teak is actually aweful, but it looks perfect in the HH stickers.
Go figure.
Currently working on the back seat.
It is complicated because of the triple facet of the rear of the cockpit.
This photo I found is one solution: $_20 (7).jpg It's really easy to do, but you lose 150mm of leg room by straightening out the kinks and it is definitely not factory.
This one is close to factory, in that the facets have been followed, but it just doesn't look right. bp5551909815251923726.jpg
If anyone has a clear photo of how it should look, please let me know.
This photo leads me to believe the sample above was on the right track, just not executed as well as the factory example.
And finding someone who actually remembers is going to be difficult, as these bubble decks are pushing 50 now... Screenshot-2018-3-27 haines+16 jpg (JPEG Image, 463 × 480 pixels).jpg
So I banged some ply together hopeing for inspiration, but only ended up with a faceted base and no real eureka moment... IMG_3165.jpg
But, tomorrow is another day, so who knows...
Worst case scenario (price wise), get in contact with a high end shipwright like Norman Wright and sons or Millkraft. There are also plastic teak board options but these will be thicker - google will show a few options
Finally figured out the back seat: I cut the front of the seat straight so it could hinge froward, and attached the back and side bolsters to the actual seat, so the whole lot will tilt.
The last photo is of the seat structure finished. Now I'll have to drill in some drainage holes so the upholstery can breath.
Wish I could use a sewing machine. I'd love to be able to do the upholstery...
Next job was to strip the inside of the boat out. I removed the tank cover, tank, fuel system, all controls and wiring and seats.
I left the hydraulic lines in place to avoid a major oil spill, but was very mindful with the grinder, as those lines are $150 each.
The boat was brought back to the bare structure so I could grind it all out in preparation for flowcoating.
Gave it a good hose out to remove the itchies. Check out the white ground-glass slurry on the driveway.
I'd like to think that I can get the interior flow-coated and speckled over the coming weekend. If that happens, I can get onto final fitting out, which will have us much closer to launching, hopefully for Christmas.
Just a thought - no doubt you're probably across it, but why not have the dash coated by one of those auto coating places which do the Kevlar, walnut woodgrain, wheel rim and other finishes. They use films which 'dissolve' onto the material - terrible description I know, but just trying to explain it. They also resist car engine bay temps which are pretty high. The film also flow forms to the shape. There was a place called Immersion Imaging at Geebung - he was brilliant. Does brilliant job on helmets etc. I used him to make a time capsule (out of 100mm Vinidex with a cap end and a screw-on end). Very reasonably priced. Stay with the project and good luck.
So - big weekend.
Hard to believe how long all of this takes.
I thought it wouldn't take too long to reflowcoat the areas under the engine well and the unupholstered sections of the new rear seat, but somehow, it took the whole weekend.
Started with the seat. Drilled a few holes to let the upholstery breath then flowcoated and speckled. Pretty happy with the result. IMG_3181.jpgIMG_3182.jpg
Move onto the underdeck and flowcoated and speckled. IMG_3186.jpg
Made new timber backing boards for the dash crash pad and knee pad (no pic's, sorry).
3 coats of everdure, captive bolts and good to go.
Re-fitted all the wiring, cables, fuel and oil lines, filler, breathers, refitted the front seats, quickly fitted the rear seat to make sure it would tilt as required, fitted the ski hooks (to tie boat to trailer) and fitted drain bung bodies (I had the Sika out for the ski hooks), and there goes the week-end!
Anyhoo, hooked it up to the tow car this morning and took it to Garry at Rowland Street Boat Trimmers to get a new set of seat covers and a bit of carpeting done.
Hi all.
Picked the Haines up from the upholsterer this afternoon.
Now the orange fleck in the flowcoat will make sense.
The front seats that I had in it were perfect, but for the wrong colour piping.
The tight-ass in me wanted to mask the seats and recolour the piping, but common sense won out and I had all new covers made.
Hope you like the effect:
I'm totally happy with the colours and the amazing job they did with the rear seat upholstery,
I'll have a think about the insides of the side pockets. I didn't get them trimmed, because I thought that I may flowcoat and speckle...
The alternative is to trim with a charcoal fabric.
My inspiration for these colours was this boat:
A fully restored 1964 Riva Ariston. What an unbelieveably beautiful floating piece of functional art...
The orange and white just works, but I didn't want to overdo the orange.
It worked on the Ariston because of all the Mahogany.
Actually, the Trident moored next to it had green accents, which also worked extremely well...
My intention is to put the 1600SO GT stripe down the centre of the deck and to add chine tape in orange as well.
As per Scottars advice, I got a small roll of Birds-eye Vinyl wrap, so I'll have another go at the dash.
If that's no good, I also ordered a small roll of matt teak, but I'm sure that either will look better than this:
I'll have a play over the weekend and get the gauges in, dash recovered and the side pockets figured out., finalise the mechanical fit-out (mount battery and oil bottle) install pull-apart hinges for the rear seat, and have a think about deck hardware.
Just looking at it, I think an orange pin stripe to the lower part of the internal white coaming to match the seating and leave the pockets in charcoal - will look mint when it's done.