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Phase one is complete...mostly. As most of you likely know, I've been working (for months now) on strippiong and painting my 1969 Grumman Sport Boat for use as, not only a duck boat, but also float hunting, camping, fresh water fishing boat. (Yesterday, we used as a ski boat.)
This project has turned out to be like the book 100 Years of Solitude (which my girlfriend hated, too her forever to read, so our inside joke now is when anything turns in a quagmire, we call it a hundred years of...in this case...duck boat. I've lost exact tract, but I am well past 200 man-hours of labor in this boat. I started working on this early may and I just finished July 3. In fact, I'm not yet finished as I still have to paint the interior and re-install the oar locks.
I bought this boat from a young guy in St. Petersburg, FL and towed it the 5,000 miles back here last summer. A previous owner had done a good job of painting the exterior hull blue and had used a good etching primer, so, for the most part, the exterior required little work other than sanding, priming, and painting.
The interior, however, was in the early stages of peeling apart. A primer gray colored paint with some non slip stuff in it. The bulk of my time was spent stripping paint (required a full gallon of aircraft paint remover) and then stripping down to bare metal using an air compressor and die grinder with rollock abrasive discs. (I went through about 20 discs.)
With the inside of the hull stripped to bare metal, I treated the entire inside hull for corrosion prevention using Alumaprep 33 and Alodine, which also aids in paint adhesion. I followed that with aircraft zing chromate green primer, which, by the way, is pretty close to a "camo green" color. This part required 1.5 qts of Alodine and a qt of Alumaprep. Currently, the interior is still in the zinc primer green as I ran out of tan, and ran out of time. I will paint the interior as part of "phase two."
With the interior done, I flipped the boat off the trailer and onto saw horses for the exterior hull. An initial sanding with 220 grit and then sandable, filler type gray primer (automotive stuff.) I followed that with a sanding of 320 and thin coats of Hunter Specialties Marsh Grass Tan. It required 5 cans of gray primer and 8 cans of the Tan to get it done.
The transom was partially rotted Cedar ont he outside and what appeared to be part of pallet on the inside. Removed those and made two new pieces of transom wood made from 3/8 Marine AB plywood. Two sheets, bonded together with waterproof Gorilla glue, and clamped overnight. The inside piece had some very intricate curves in it, to match the shape of the aluminum, and I spent a good 10 hours sanding and shaping that one piece. Stained everything with Minwax Early American #230 and coated with 6 coats of Minwax Spar Urethane varnish. I sealed all of the bolts and bolt holes with 3M 5200 structural adhesive sealant.
Actual repairs to the boat consisted of plugging 6-8 holes drilled in the boat by previous owners. Most were associated with a winch and remote anchor lowering/raising system. (Most of which was gone from the boat when I bought it. Only the rusted and seized winch remains.-It now resides at the Anchorage municipal landfill.) Those holes-mostly 1/4-3/8 dia were scab patched with stock aluminum treated with alodine and sealed with 3M 5200. No rivets. I patched them from the inside and filled the remaining space on the outside with bondo. Sanded and feathered, then painted over with primer.
Phase two will consist of painting the interior tan. Reinstalling the sail thwart (the boat came with some of the original Grumman sail rigging. I recently cut three spruce poles to make mast and boom with and next summer’s project will be to build all of the sailing rig, including a new sail sewn from canvas. But that’s a different thread!) Phase three will be the building of a blind for it.
Power. So I have three outboards for this boat. A 2 stroke 4hp, a 4 stroke 4 hp, and a 2 stroke 9.9. I figure to use the smaller engines for duck hunting camping etc ad the bigger engine for moose hunting or going in to PWS.
And now…the obligatory photographs....
This project has turned out to be like the book 100 Years of Solitude (which my girlfriend hated, too her forever to read, so our inside joke now is when anything turns in a quagmire, we call it a hundred years of...in this case...duck boat. I've lost exact tract, but I am well past 200 man-hours of labor in this boat. I started working on this early may and I just finished July 3. In fact, I'm not yet finished as I still have to paint the interior and re-install the oar locks.
I bought this boat from a young guy in St. Petersburg, FL and towed it the 5,000 miles back here last summer. A previous owner had done a good job of painting the exterior hull blue and had used a good etching primer, so, for the most part, the exterior required little work other than sanding, priming, and painting.
The interior, however, was in the early stages of peeling apart. A primer gray colored paint with some non slip stuff in it. The bulk of my time was spent stripping paint (required a full gallon of aircraft paint remover) and then stripping down to bare metal using an air compressor and die grinder with rollock abrasive discs. (I went through about 20 discs.)
With the inside of the hull stripped to bare metal, I treated the entire inside hull for corrosion prevention using Alumaprep 33 and Alodine, which also aids in paint adhesion. I followed that with aircraft zing chromate green primer, which, by the way, is pretty close to a "camo green" color. This part required 1.5 qts of Alodine and a qt of Alumaprep. Currently, the interior is still in the zinc primer green as I ran out of tan, and ran out of time. I will paint the interior as part of "phase two."
With the interior done, I flipped the boat off the trailer and onto saw horses for the exterior hull. An initial sanding with 220 grit and then sandable, filler type gray primer (automotive stuff.) I followed that with a sanding of 320 and thin coats of Hunter Specialties Marsh Grass Tan. It required 5 cans of gray primer and 8 cans of the Tan to get it done.
The transom was partially rotted Cedar ont he outside and what appeared to be part of pallet on the inside. Removed those and made two new pieces of transom wood made from 3/8 Marine AB plywood. Two sheets, bonded together with waterproof Gorilla glue, and clamped overnight. The inside piece had some very intricate curves in it, to match the shape of the aluminum, and I spent a good 10 hours sanding and shaping that one piece. Stained everything with Minwax Early American #230 and coated with 6 coats of Minwax Spar Urethane varnish. I sealed all of the bolts and bolt holes with 3M 5200 structural adhesive sealant.
Actual repairs to the boat consisted of plugging 6-8 holes drilled in the boat by previous owners. Most were associated with a winch and remote anchor lowering/raising system. (Most of which was gone from the boat when I bought it. Only the rusted and seized winch remains.-It now resides at the Anchorage municipal landfill.) Those holes-mostly 1/4-3/8 dia were scab patched with stock aluminum treated with alodine and sealed with 3M 5200. No rivets. I patched them from the inside and filled the remaining space on the outside with bondo. Sanded and feathered, then painted over with primer.
Phase two will consist of painting the interior tan. Reinstalling the sail thwart (the boat came with some of the original Grumman sail rigging. I recently cut three spruce poles to make mast and boom with and next summer’s project will be to build all of the sailing rig, including a new sail sewn from canvas. But that’s a different thread!) Phase three will be the building of a blind for it.
Power. So I have three outboards for this boat. A 2 stroke 4hp, a 4 stroke 4 hp, and a 2 stroke 9.9. I figure to use the smaller engines for duck hunting camping etc ad the bigger engine for moose hunting or going in to PWS.
And now…the obligatory photographs....
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