1978 SF restoration, my first one.....

wtenglish · #1 03-26-2009, 12:27 AM

First of all I would like to compliment this website and those who built, maintain it and post regularly, excellent job!

My good friend "The Digger", who will be posting his 18' restoration on here shortly, got me fired up and I purchased my first Seacraft in February of this year. It's a 1978 20' SF and looked at lot better in the photos on Boat Trader than it did when I got it home. I hope the pros on here will be able to give me some good advice as I know I will have lots of questions.

This is what I found on line when searching for a boat.....

After a weekend of crushing fish at the Marathon Hump (pics to follow), here she sits in her new temporary home. We had some sanding assistance while we were out playing over the weekend. The strip down begins.....

After I had removed the rub rail. It didn't take long to figure out that the boat had been restored once before.....

Enough can't be said about having good help!

One thing that caught me by surprise was that the previous owner has evidently topped it off with fuel before parking it. I repositioned the fuel line and used the priming bulb to siphon out 50+ gallons.

Removal of the rear boxes and access hatches.

The previous restoration had built up the top of the transom with scraps of plywood and what I think is a Cabosil mixture.

Deck removed to expose the fuel tank.

Fuel tank removed and foam cleaned out.

Stinger that was either broken or not put back together properly during the last restoration.

That's it for now. Looking forward to the weekend!

Bmoney1209 · #2 03-26-2009, 08:50 AM

Looks good. Man, that first pic looks so clean I was wondering why you would be restoring, until I saw all of the others.

Good luck!

ROBCAR · #3 03-26-2009, 09:08 AM

Pretty good clean up job. This makes it so much easier to see what you got you do, new and fresh.

wtenglish · #4 03-26-2009, 02:27 PM

Can someone give me some guidance on a brand or a link to buy the two-part foam that I have seen on this site for filling stringers and the voids between the deck and hull?

Caymanboy · #5 03-26-2009, 03:27 PM

You can start with here, higher the number the denser the foam.
http://www.fgci.com/

wtenglish · #6 03-26-2009, 03:53 PM

Thanks Caymanboy. By the way, excellent job on your boat! You gave me some good ideas.

Caymanboy · #7 03-26-2009, 04:43 PM

Thank you, $5 for every one you use!!!!!! Jk! I got alot of my ideas off this site, very knowledgeable folks, pays to listen.

wtenglish · #8 03-29-2009, 07:29 PM

I continued with stripping the boat down this weekend. Here are some pics......

It appears that during the previous restoration there were inspection holes drilled in the stringers to check the foam and then sealed as shown with drops of some bonding material.

As I continued removing fiberglass at an attempt to access the transom I discovered that the last repair had boxed and glassed the stringers in but didn't fill with foam. Before I bought the boat I had read in a post on this forum a comment that someone made about "taking it down to the hull so there are no unanswered questions". I decided then that would be the approach I would take and I am glad I did.

Looking into the end of the stringer where the foam had been removed.

I removed the center knee brace between the transom and center drain that runs from one of the forward compartments. Wood was rotten as can be seen.

I cut the tops out of the stringers so that I can pull all of the old foam out and replace. It may be overkill but I felt I should do it anyway due to some of the holes that were visible that could have allowed moisture in.

I knew going into this weekend that removing the transom would be a chore due to it having been replaced and not "mulch" like some of the more fortunate people have had. I used my skill saw and set the blade depth so that I wouldn't cut through the exterior skin. A checkerboard pattern was developed as can be seen. I then used a hammer, chisel and flat pry bar to remove.

Coming out one piece at the time.

You can see in this photo that the copper drain from the old motor well was corroded and broke when being removed.

The bottom of the transom was wet when removed.

After about 2 1/2 hours I had it out with the exterior skin intact. I have some final grinding or sanding to remove some thin pieces of ply that stuck to the skin but that's for later.

Previous transom - Good Riddance!

ROBCAR · #9 03-31-2009, 09:02 AM

you are doing such a good job...very clean compare to the mess I did during my restoration!

wtenglish · #10 04-01-2009, 11:41 PM

ROBCAR, thanks for the compliments. Next step for me is to pop the forward boxes and gunwales out. Unfortunately I can't work on it this weekend but should be able to get after it next week.