’64 Atom on Craigslist

It's worth $450 just for the parts!

John I'm 35 miles from Ft.Wayne, If I can help let me know. I know nothing about these old woodies, but I could pick up and store till spring.

It's gotta be worth more than that in parts, but sounds like a good project. Of course my wife say I don't need any more projects.


Steve

This is the 16' Atom. Atoms were lengthened twice to handle larger engines. This 16 even was available with the small Y block V8.

It's going to need a down to the frame job. All brightwork ply (deck, cockpit side boards, hull sides and transom) needs to be replaced. If there isn't any rot in the bottom ply it may be saved. Solids like the dash can be saved by bleaching. You never know about the frames until you get the ply removed but I'd say work would be needed on the transom frame and stem. From the pictures, I do see the original wheel and step pads are missing. I don't feel it's the deluxe version because it has the standard plexi windshield.

John,
Does the engine turn over (not seized)?



John, Go back in a edit your post. Use the "enter" key between your pictures. The pictures will then stack top to bottom on the page instead of side to side. Makes the thread easier to read.

If your excited about it and have a place to keep it, buy it! You'll be amazed at what you can learn to do with a little motivation, patience and help from folks on CCF.

Pete, what do you mean by "scarfing together"? Similar to dovetailing or mortising?   Where do you find the solid mahogany and marine grade mahogany plywood?

Ok, I have a buddy who owns a cabinet shop (many types of power saws!) Any particular blades you would recommend for the scarfing, or for any other special cuts for that matter.

No, I'm not sure it's an Atom. The seller thinks it is but again, he's not overly familiar w/ CCs. I'm not familiar enough with them yet to tell from the pics. He says he doesn't have a title, but I think I remember him saying he found the factory plate. Did the plates state the model name back then or just #s etc.?

If they did just have numbers, is there a code that IDs the model?

So what do you do?   Is there an alternative method? Are there alternative materials? Or do you just keep ruining expensive mahogany ply until you get it right?

Were there structural differences between the Atom and the CS or was it a matter of different engines and different trim?

Larry, thanks for the link. The scarfed ply they have is already glued so that will pose a problem with staining. They don't mention scarf cuts on their custom cut page so I'll have to wait until Monday and call to find out if they can make the cut and ship as such. I imagine it would be pretty fragile to ship it that way though.

BTW, found this helpful link:
http://www.boat-links.com/scarf_bevels.html

Larry,
Scarfed ply was very common with all the ply boat builders. All the ply CC's I've seen are scarfed. Higgins too and they also were a less expensive boat. I feel scarfing was a offshoot of building ply landing craft (and one model of PT's) from the war. It was done at the mill with some rather large pieces of equipment. Phenolic resins (same as bonding the plys together) were used which didn't soak into the wood as much like epoxies do. Also, the face veneer was sanded after scarfing. They must have really started with a very thick face. My face veneer on my X55 is close to a 1/8" so I'd have to say before sanding it was better than 3/16". The last provider of scarfed panels was Harbor sales I believe in Boston. It was the early 80's when I got the last of the scarfed out of them and at that time it was for painted applications only. They no longer had the thick face veneer/post sanding set up for bright work. Boulter has a jig but basically it is a non accurate hand operation.

Butt blocking has a couple disadvantages. The biggest is you will get a very defined line at the joint very visible with a bright panel (Brian, Johns boat is bright whether it's a Atom or a Compact) A scarf produces a "feathered" edge very difficult to see. My X's scarfs you really need to look for them up close. The block itself also produces a flat spot on the face because it doesn't allow the ply to flex as much around the hull. Not too bad towards the aft where the panel is relatively flat but the aft is also the most visible spot where you don't want the joint showing! The butt joint is also on the weak side. Because the cross section of the ply edges is so small, very little bonding takes place so any stress from flexing of the panel must go through the butt block itself. If flexed enough, it will create so much stress on the joint at the ply edge that it is prone to fracturing at that point. The block will hold it but you'll end up with a crack. I've seen two failures. Both were on home built ply boats using epoxy.

John,
I don't feel there were any structural differences between the Atom and Compact. It was trim level only. The late 50's is when the Atom started to be built as a higher level "premium" boat.

Hope the sale all works out for you! Looks like a great project. I did notice after I posted that it is a bright finish regardless of the model. I am leaning toward scarfing the plywood at Rob's shop. If he can replank a 20' Chris Craft Custom (3 of them now) and refinish a Riva, I would trust him with a scarf! If the original had the scarf joint, I don't see much value in trying to make it dissapear in a rebuild. Either way, I will keep you posted.

Well I have a verbal agreement w/ the seller. Just got off the phone. I'm targeting 11 Dec to go pick it up.

How would you guys haul it? He says the trailer frame is real solid channel w/ only surface rust. The tires are an old size I'm not familiar w/.... G7815...a 15" wheel/tire I presume, sound right?   My thoughts were to put new tires on, pack the bearings, strap the boat down nice and snug, hang a safety triangle (no lights) and hit the road. Otherwise I'm hauling a flatbed out and back.   What do you think?

I've done the same thing. What I found out when arranging to go get our '62 Classic is that you don't know what is on the trailer. The PO agreed to put new tires and bearings on it only to find out that there were 2 different hubs on it and the original hub took really unusual bearings that would be hard to find especially if we had to go searching while broken down on the road.

That's a 1961 Custom Craft Manta Ray that I found in a filed in Albany, ME. I sold it when the Mustang became available.

86BFN wrote: It looks to me like the trailer has car tires on it. i.e. white wall tires.(not good).

I really don't feel G78 15" are going to be a problem handling a boat and trailer weighing about 1500lbs. However, it's a good idea to put the boat/trailer on the car carrier. The alternate of course is new tires and bearings. Not something you want to do somewhere and then run into problems.

These tires are 12" wide whitewall reproductions. The load rating is only 200 pounds above the weight of the boat and trailer. No problems - they run cool.

JoeinNY wrote: If you think his trailer is clean you really ought to see the boat some day...

Pete, they look cool too!

I'll make it reunion some time but I don't think it will be in 09.