240 Rebuild

[JimCt]

Those old Connies were classics!  Lots to take care of but there is nothing like the feel of a wooden boat under your feet.  Sort of like the difference between a house with plaster walls vs. sheet rock walls.  Wood boats are always devising secret schemes to compost themselves but unlike these glass boats with hidden wood (and rot) you can generally keep an eye on things and see a problem developing.

Neat trick with the acetone.

[JimCt]

Have decided to replace these with two 55 gal. tanks:



Pulled more wiring today and removed the gauges & switches from the panel.

[JimCt]

Easter bunny is in a bad mood this weekend... RAIN!  :(
Picture of Easter Bunny  :arrow:  :twisted:.

Have been stripping the last of the hardware and cleaning everything up in the bilge area so when it goes inside this weekend we can start moving in a positive direction.


  Have decided to put off stripping the bottom until late this summer when we have some really hot days and the Peel-Off stripper will be more effective.  In prep. for moving the boat I adjusted roller spacing on the trailer and moved the winch forward about a foot.  Slid the boat on the trailer for a look-see.  Bow is low so will need higher fwd. roller brackets, the rear rollers have to be moved back 6" and the winch upright moved another 12" forward but I think the trailer will be fine.

[JimCt]

Moved inside today to start getting everything dried out.  Pulled the plywood pad which the outdrive bolts through off the inside of the transom as it was wet and dozey in places.  The plywood laminated across the full width of the transom was wet but still hard.

[jy118lfd]

Jim, Have you thouhgt about glassing the hole in your transom and mounting a bracket followed by a pair of 200 hp etecs  SORRY ABOUT THE END OF THAT. Thats my own dream.

I mean you probably could beef up the transom without too much work and think of the room you would have inside without that cover being there.

This seems to be my problem, Once I start something I think well, while I'm in there It would only be a few more dollars and some time too??? There I go can't leave anything alone.

She's coming along you'll be trolling bass in her before you know it. You can look back on this day and remember how it seemed so far away to be fishing in the boat.

[JimCt]

That thought has been suggested by others but I have to say I've never been much of a fan of outboards.  No doubt this is an irrational prejudice on my part, but there it is. What I will be doing though is putting a bracket on for a back-up motor something like this:



The kicker will have a seperate fuel supply and be manual start.  If the main engine gets knocked out because of bad fuel or a severe electrical problem the kicker will be unaffected.

Plan for main power is either a Mercruiser 4.3 or a 5.0.  Since I've had no experience in installing an I/O, I'll have a tech to take a look at the boat to go over what's needed in prep. for installation.

[JimCt]

Bad plywood removed.  Transom down to bare glass:


Broken stringer found.  Also partially delaminated from hull.  No sign of damage on outside of hull.  Delamination looks like a simple case of resin starvation.  Because of this discovery, all flooring will be removed in order to inspect the stringer grid 100%.


Engine mounts removed and found to be originally attached simply with two 10 penny nails and resin.

[JimCt]

Just cut out the starboard side deck aft of the console.  Because of the snapped port side stringer we wanted to chase this down to see if the other stringer was bad.  The stbd. stringer turned out to be fine.  However, a mystery appeared.

The foam under the deck was covered with a full 2" of dirt.  I mean dirt, like in soil you'd find in a garden. How ten pounds of soil could have found it's way there is beyond my comprehension.  That whole area under the floor is sealed up with no access.  First thought was maybe the boat had been sunk at one time or another and had gotten silt in it.  But no, this isn't silt or sand or harbor mud... it's potting soil.  An unskilled gardener could successfully raise peas or tomatoes in it.  

Got the foam & dirt out tonight and vacuumed the area clean so it will dry out.  Just about done with the demolition phase.  Soon we start to put it all back together.

[JimCt]

Figured out the dirt mystery.  I found a city of mice nests in there.  Somehow the mice brought in sticks, leaves and other sundry nesting materials and over the years, sitting on the wet foam, it composted.

This weekend I cut open the top of the port stringer to inspect the foam.  It was wet from the transom going forward about four feet.  Using a filleting knife and a large kitchen spoon I spent about four hours digging the wet mess out; three or four trash bag's worth.  Since I consider myself a moderately lazy person, I figured there had to be a fast, simple way to dig the foam out.  Well, there is.

You know those metal paint stirrers with the two small propellers on the end?   I bought one, the 5 gallon bucket size, and chucked it up on my plug-in drill and gave it a try.  Worked perfectly.  The prop bit smoothly into the foam and broke it up into cornflake-size bits.  Once broken up I just Shop-Vac'ed it out and that was that.  Will take pictures of the Starboard stringer de-foaming operation some time this week.

[JimCt]

Opened up the starboard stringer.  Another surprise!!!  It has soggy foam... but not soggy with water.  It is saturated with gasoline.  How gas got in there is unknowable.  Needless to say, I won't be using any power tools until I de-fuse this bomb.

I owe some pictures of the current surgery and hope to get them posted tomorrow.

[JimCt]

Stringer foam removal tools: paint stirrer and a filleting knife.


Opened stringer with wet foam chopped up.


Deck section removed at head door.


  Will build new door leaves which will swing out.  The originals swung inward and therefore had no secure stop at the bottom.  The new doors will be much more solid when closed.

Have ordered stitchmat, 6oz. glass and 5 gallons of resin (4 gallons unwaxed, 1 gallon waxed), epoxy putty and a 3" roller frame from Merton's in Springfield Mass.  Joe Merton was a big help in going over the project with me and recommending which to buy & why. I realize I'll be needing more resin & glass as things move along but this will get me started and provide a baseline for calculating material usage.

Thus far, I've filled 11 trash bags with wet & gas soaked foam.  Bags averaged about 50 pounds; 550 pounds of dead weight gone.  Walking around on the boat, it even feels lighter.  With the help of the stirrer/foam buster I was able to remove all the stringer foam right back to the transom.  My knuckles took a beating from reaching around inside the stringer cavities with the drill bucking around breaking up the foam but the time saved was worth it.

[LilRichard]

Looking good Jim!

I appreciate the tip on the drill/stirrer- I will be heading to Home Depot tomorrow to buy one and copy your technique!

[JimCt]

Take a peek around while you're at Home Depot and see if there's maybe a better tool or method for de-foaming. Maybe you can "advance the technology".

One drawback I found was that my hand got cramped holding the drill.  The drill kicks around some so holding the drill body really needs 2 hands.  I didn't use a cordless because the RPM was too low and the load on the drill would quickly drain the battery.  I used my Wet-Dry Shop-Vac to pick up the broken up foam chips.  If you don't have one, get the big size vac.  The broken up foam chips use up a lot of volume.

[Ben87]

I'm totally impressed by what you are doing as well as everyone who does these sorts of projects.  I truly enjoy the pictures and hope you keep posting them up, I learn so much from them.

[JimCt]

Thanks, Ben!  Always nice to get a pat on the head.

Pictures will keep coming until one of the group here shows up to confiscate my camera.