1955 CC Hurricane Restoration

The Godfather wrote: This thread beats all threads in my book.

WOW, Thank You Dave. That's quite a compliment. Just so you know I have those pictures from the 55 catalog you sent me on the coffee table, I look at them every day for motivation.


Good to see you and Pam today Steve, just finished my leftover ribs.


Mark, I'll get some progress pics up within a couple of weeks, thanks for the encouragement. PS. These are easy hours, I'm having too much fun for this to be called work.

Pam and I just got back from an afternoon with Alan and Dana.   All I can say is WOW!!!   We saw the Hurricane briefly this summer at GL. Now with it upside down and torn apart, you can really appreciate the time and effort going into it's restoration! Alan will have this built the way CC should have!   What a great boat this old girl is going to be!!!

    Best thing is Alan will never have to worry about someone else having a twin to her. It definitely went to the right home!


ohhhh, and the Hemi setting in the corner about gives a guy a ..... well, lets just say its very COOL!

Andy wrote: If your going to be making the big steamer with pipe, I may be able to get your piping at cost.

Thanks Andy, I'll be experimenting with the steam bending in the next few weeks. I may be in touch, thanks for the offer.

storm34 wrote: Looking good Alan! Just got caught up on the thread. This is going to be a great piece of CC history!

Thanks Chris, I did get a lot done this weekend but nothing pictures will catch so not much of an update. All topside planking is now stripped, need to pop bungs out sometime this week and it'll all be ready to come off.

With all the new braces installed and framework repaired the boat is just rock solid now. Next is to repair the stem, that will a full weekend just to get that done. I think I'll feel real good when I have the stem, chines and keel complete and the boat is ready for planking. That is a personal mile marker/goal. I'm hoping to get to that point around the first of the year.

AA-

Better than new will be a gross understatement!

SNobsessed wrote: Alan - Great job, very interesting photos. What does the new wood get treated with?

Chris, everything is treated with 2 coats of CPES then bedded in 5200 when installing. I'm trying to predrill everything so even the screw holes are getting sealed.

Alan....Looking good! You are moving fast on this project. I can't wait for the spring to take a ride in it!!

Knee braces and keel supports fully installed, along with the new rear bottom frame and sistered topside frame.



The new bottom frame is now firmly attached directly to the strut support block, it was originally just fastened to the keel with 2 10x 2" screws and was floating all over the place. It is secured in all directions and it's not going anywhere now.



The framework under the engine has been altered a little I assume when the motor was swapped to the Gray 327. It was quite a hack job but is back better than original, only issue I have with it is clearance issues for the Hemi but I'll just have to remain open minded and deal with that when the boat is flipped back over.

Put in a full day yesterday making more knee braces.


Also found a new surprise at the rear most bottom frame member. I wasn't going to replace the knee braces there because they were hard to get at and looked pretty good but after a little digging around I found some more rot. This frame member is the only one in the boat that is one piece from chine to chine but it came out crumbling.



Today will be easy day of assembly and 90% of the frame repairs will be complete. Next step will be to strip the paint and varnish on the port topsides and removal of all the topside planking. The starboard side bung removal is complete and waiting to come off.

Alan, keep up the great work. Dana must be a VERY understanding wife or you've molded her into the boat somewhere. Thanks for posting your progress for us all to enjoy It's exciting just watching!

Pretty good weekend on the boat although not a lot to show for it.

Got it outside yesterday and degreased and pressure washed it then made a run to the lumber yard.

Today got all the knee braces removed and started to fab new ones. After removing all the knees I found another frame member that will need to be replaced because of rot and another that has a significant crack so those will get replaced.

I decided to fab new knee braces and add a keel frame member to each rib for some much needed support. Instead of replacing the original 1/4" plywood knees with more plywood I purchased some 3/4" white oak. All the chine knees were broken and the keel knees were so small and weak the boat was flexing every time it hit a wave. Instead of replacing the keel braces with original size braces I made them out of the white oak and ran them from stringer to stringer to tie the left and right frame members together. Then the new braces will be carriage bolted to the keel.

Even though the new braces are just clamped in place I can already feel the difference in the rigidity of the boat.

I got most of the braces cut, fitted and then decided to get some CPES on them so I could install them later this week as I was running out of clamps.




It's really amazing these scimpy pieces of plywood held the structure of this boat together.


Fitting and predrilling.

Pete, i didnt know silicone was in your vocabulary...you would be proud of the repair i did on my work car, the sunroof leaked when it would rain, it pi--ed me off for the last time, almost the entire tube in a caulk gun...i did smooth it out nicely

eric lavine wrote: your gonna need alotta deck screws

Eric, You haven't been listening!! You don't use deck screws! Unless you want to get in trouble later, Silicon Bronze is the only way to go - not even stainless!!!!

I know not original but would look sweet on her and new too.

Had stuff from this guy all good.

Edelbrock M8 for a Hemi

Alan,

I wish i had the time to do a project like that... some day i will do an old wooden boat....Keep up the good work! looking good so far! Can't wait to see her done!!!!