New boat out of old

[Gerhard]

Hello

First time on this forum.
I was reading an article in this forum about a guy that didn't know if he should put a glass or plastic windshield on his boat. The answer was simple, if money is no issue definetly glass. I had to use lexan, an ok plastic. An old trick to keeping the plastic windsheild clear looking is that when the plastic gets milky looking with time , go over it with a heat gun. A trick that I learnt from cutting plexi shelving. The cut edge is allways white . If you go over the edge with a heat gun, the edge turns clear. I tried the heat gun on my boat windsheild when it became milky, cleared it up nicely.
Saying that, I can't leave without bragging a bit about my boat project. My neibour had an old craftliner aluminum boat sitting in his back yard for , he said 25 to 30 years. I bothered him for a few years to sell it to me. I told him that I would turn that old boat into a boat that would turn heads. Got his curiousoty up , and he sold me the boat. Took a year of my spare time to strip everything out of that boat and to rebiuld it. Made the top out of mahogany. The windsheild frame is also mahogany. Built a form to bend the wood for the windshield. 3/16 by 3/16" strips all glued together with epoxy specually made for boats. final coat marine varnish. On top of the windshield , all inclosed in mahogany is a hidden flip out tarp that goes over the two front seats. When we took the boat for her maiden voyage someone on the pier said , what a beatifull old girl. The wife blushed and said thank you. I whispered to her , not you, the boat.

[chowdan]

Wow! that truly is a head turner!!! she is just beautiful! i love the mahogany look. Always have loved that look.

She truly is beautiful and is a head turner! Great job! How does she ride since she is a aluminum hull?

[longliner45]

nice ,,,,does he want it back now,,,? longliner

[Gerhard]

Thanks chowdan
I put a 60 hp yamaha 4 stroke on her . Only 23 hours so far. Top speed so far is 32 miles per hour. On rough water I slowed down to 22 miles per hour. Wife was still calm. She's my danger gage. I liked the way the windshield directed water that came over the hull over the boat. Stayed nice and dry.

[Lt. Holden]

Gerhard,
Truly beautiful and inspirational! Could you post some inprocess photos, especially of that stunning windshield? I would love to see the details of the retractable Bimini top!
Some friends of mine have a 1960 Lone Star 18' Eldorado, great boat with outstanding performance (45 m.ph. with a 88 hp Johnson O/B) but it is a homely bugger! I have always envisioned adding that "woodie" touch just as you have done so that her looks would match her performance. Please post more PIX.

[Gerhard]

Lt . Holden
I wanted to post some in process pictures of the boat, but i've used up all the space on this forum that I'm allowed, 2mb. If I had somewhere else to send the photo's , I'd be glad to send them.
Longliner asked if , he wanted it back now. I take it that that means the neighbor that sold it to me. He kept asking me if it was finished yet, so he could get his buddies to steal it. The boat is no longer parked in the yard , and he dos'ent know where it is. I think he was just joking, but ..

[Lt. Holden]

Gerhard, could you e-mail them to me then I could post them on the site since I haven't posted any photos here yet? I was curious about what sort of tools you used to get such stunning results? Or can you post them somewhere else on this forum? The picture sizes are quite small (32Kb) do you have a lot of other oictures posted here?
jtlangevin@verizon.net

[eponodyne]

The other option is a Photobucket account. I have used them for some years and have found their photo hosting to be easy-to-use and failsafe.

Please consider it, as I am what you might call VERY VERY interested in what you've done!

The deck is bee-YOO-tiful! How long were you saving the planks for?? I haven't seen grain that nice in many many years. Great job, congrats.

[Gerhard]

It's been a year now since I first put the new old boat in the water. She handles well. Before I rebuilt this boat we allways had open bow boats. It's nice to be able to go the thirty miles down our big lake and not have to worry about water coming over the front , into the boat. The only problen so far is with the drain plug hole. Seems that the drain hole is made out of two parts . One inside the other. No matter how much I titen the rubber plug , it still leaks between the two parts . I'm thinking of soldering the two parts together, but they do not come apart so that I can clean them first. O well, I'll think more on it before I take her out for the first time this summer.

[rasorinc]

Would this cure your problem? http://www.iboats.com/One_Way_Drain_...view_id.237497

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by Gerhard

Lt . Holden
I wanted to post some in process pictures of the boat, but i've used up all the space on this forum that I'm allowed, 2mb ...

I think the 2mb limit applies to individual files, not to the total. Try converting files to jpg format if you haven't already done so.

Great boat!

[Ilan Voyager]

Compliments. Very nice job.