Seeking Advice - 1978 Larvo Drift Boat Build

Hey everybody,

I have been lurking and lurking gathering info - but figured I would create a thread so I could ask specific questions.

First - Please be patient, I am green and above all I am looking for advice to re do this boat with saftey as #1 priority.

alright - onto the back story:

Picked this drift boat up for free (ok, I paid 20$ for it...) trailer, motor, and all. I was going to turn around and sell it, but honestly - I love fishing the Green, and I am never going to shell out 3k for a drift boat (I fish lakes too much, all other funds are being saved to upgrade the tracker, plus, I only fish the green 2 or 3 times a year). I sold the evinrude that came with it to fund this project - right now, my budget is about $600 to re finish it myself (based on motor sale).

So here was the boat when I picked it up (Picture 1,2,3).

Here is my general plan right now:

1) Pull all the oar / weight wood blocks off and flip the boat over
2) Sand the hull with 80 grit, feather out large glass areas, patch with West Marine TS101 (its what I have on hand) 1st question - what should I fair this repair with? I have no more fairing compound in the TS system left. (Picture 4 shows the style of what I will repair, the rest are deep scratches extending through the original gel coat)
3) De-Grease and shoot the bottom, here is what I ordered to get that done:
3a) Wax N Grease Killer Solvent Wash
3B) Coloring Agents for Gel Coats (Green and Dark Blue)
3C) Patch Aid for Gel Coat
3D) Sea Foam Green Gel Coat, Sea Hawk Paints
I am planning on using 33Oz LVLP General Purpos Air Spray Gun (going to drill the nozzle out to 2mm).
4) Sand and Polish The Bottom Coat Per this video (I will use cheaper tools):

This is as far as I have planned out right now... here is what I really could really use input with:

Pictures 5 and 6 show the general wear of the interior... How would you all go about finishing that off? I read on some of the Corvette Fiberglass body forums to clean it, then lay resin on it to seal. I was kind of thinking about cleaning it then smoothing it with fairing compounds, sanding down, then gel coating. Again - I could really use everyone's input here.

Picture 7 shows the middle row insert.. .honestly, I am at a loss here... my first thought was.. sand and clean the surface, then do a layer of CSM on the top and the bottom, fair, and gel coat... My second thought was use that original piece as a mold, and make a new one (bi axial, then csm, then biaxial, fair, gelcoat..) again, not sure... any input is really appreciated.

Picture 8 shows the seat holders that are blown out...I am thinking I will 1) make a card board template 2) cut out some plywood (do I need a special kind?) 3) lay that up in place with biaxial and csm fair, gelcoat.

Picture 9 - this ones got me boggled? looks like there was ply wood in there, I guess my thought is to cut that out and replace it, sort of the same process as what I describe to fix Picture 8.

All in all, this is going to take some SERIOUS doing, honestly typing up all this was kind of dis heartening thinking about all the work, but, it will get done slowly. If you guys could give me any advice on my plans, or materials I would appreciate it.

Last question.. My thought is its best to fix picture ten before flipping the boat and repairing / gel coating the bottom. agree?

If you guys could recommend a mat and resin for the repairs above I would really appreciate it.

Also, is referencing pictures like this the best way? of should I link them in the post with imgur?

Thanks everyone,

-Josh

 

Got it flipped and marked out where I am going to start... most these spider cracks look like they are only gel coat deep? Can I just sand the down and fair it out before re shooting the gel?

Thanks,

-Josh

 

Per this video:


I need to dremel out the spider cracks and fair it... so thats what Im going to do. Purchased some total fair today.

 

Slow down a little.

You don’t need any special resin to do the repairs, if you have epoxy on hand and want to use it that’s fine. Even the cheapest stuff you can find will work.

The correct method for Repairing the cracks depends on the cause.

If the hull is flexing in those areas and that’s the reason for them, it will crack again as soon as it flexes.

If they are impact fractures you need to remove all the damaged glass and re-glass it before gelcoating. If you don’t the cracks will return quickly.

If the cracks are from thick gel coat, then just routing them out and filling them will leave you with Gel Coat that’s still too thick, and will crack.

Cleaning and scuffing the inside portions is all that’s needed before applying gel coat. Don’t get carried away filling and fairing the surface, gel coat will hide a lot of ugly.

 

Thank you very much for the advice, I read a lot of what you posted in other threads - it was very helpful.

I really don't know what caused these SpiderCracks, From the looks of it (and the boats former usage) it is a mix of impact (Sides) and thick gel coat (Undersides of gunnels). I added picture.

Do I need to sand away all the old Gel Coat before applying new?

Thanks for your tips on the interior - much appreciated, I might just get out of this on budget!

Thanks again, much appreciated. I will try to slow down a little, I tend to get passionate (read - obsessed) about hobby projects.

 

You don’t need to remove all the old gel coat, just sand it thoroughly with 80 grit.

I lived very close to where they were built and knew Ron (owner).

These boats are overbuilt in some areas and a little thin in others. The gunnels tend to crack like on yours, add a little glass on the underside of the crack and mostly cosmetics on the top side.

Minor cracks and damage on the hull aren’t much of a structural concern, they just don’t look good, but the fish don’t care.

Drift boats get beat up, they’re built for it, so while every defect may bother you now, making it look too good leads to depression when you drag it over rocks and scratch it up worse.

 

Thank you - Seems like people really enjoyed these Larvos during their heyday. I will probably go radio silent on this thread for a bit, I think you have provided enough info to get to work. Now I am just waiting on my materials to show up. Going to prep and lay glass in the next few days, I will update as I get it done. I fish all my boats hard, so in the end, all this beautification is for nothing.

Thank you,

-Josh

 

got the bottom of the gunnel lips ground out, all the spider cracks routed, and started roughing down the old gel coat. Some new supplies should be here Wednesday this week.

I also got somebody off fiverr to remake the original logos so that I can get them printed out on vinyl, pretty excited about that..

Bottoms looking good (better)! Ill update after I lay down the Gel.

 

wow! I am over the moon, just got my graphics back... I could not be more excited. Getting them off the Vinyl shop now...


Does anyone know if these boats came with a string rowing seat? Like this:

 

No, but that seat is pretty cool if you get a rope that the sun won't destroy in a couple years.

 

The rope seat was standard for a while, but it was not on all models.

 

OK I was wondering, because the rowers bench had holes drilled (see attached).

Well - I got all the old gel coat knocked down, Now I am just getting ready to patch up some glass. There is some pretty serious flex in this area, should I reinforce it with a layer? its the same way on both sides witch leads me to believe it is a design feature.

I got my vinyl decals orders, found a local company that did them for 10$ per side - I slightly up sized, the new ones will be 9" OD compared to the original 8" OD.

Looking forward to getting this prep out of the way and actually laying some gel... might start feeling like I'm making progress - ha!

Thanks,

-Josh

 

Dropped the trailer off to get blasted and coated today, freeing up some space in the garage to shoot the Gel...

 

I attached some pictures.. need some advice. on the bottom, it looks like its slightly indented. To me, I think it was a busted bunk pushing up on the floor of the boat over the years. Any Thoughts? Floor is sturdy, but not sure - how would you guys handle it? I am leaning twoards nothing.

Second is the gunnel area that has more flex than the rest, both sides are identical... so is this a "design feature"?

Thanks,

-Josh.

 

The hull bottoms are designed to flex, so if it sits on a trailer that creates uneven support it will take on that shape after a while. Not much you can do except fix the bunks.

The sides flex too, the seats hold the shape though.

You don’t want a rigid Hull when bouncing off rocks.