1955 CC Hurricane Restoration

I thought I'd sneak this in before Alan posts his sure-to-be-impressive update. I was definitely thinking of his project while I re-did my dining room ceiling and beam facade in T & G knotty pine. Not nearly impressive, but somewhat on topic!

I really fought with the curved bow strips last week. I'm using 1/4" hydrotek Meranti marine plywood which is very stiff and didn't want to bend for me.

So I decided to remove everything I did last week and cut and install intermediate frame members attached at the stem and chine so I'd have something to use for leverage. The original build method used floating strips as intermediates and they really didn't support anything. My plywood would bend at the main frames but flatten out between them, I had a very segmented shape that just didn't like. I think my problem is because I'm using plywood and the original was mahogony planking and was probably steam bent.

I decided to try steaming the plywood and see what it would do. That was the trick, I didn't soak it beacuse I didn't want to ruin it but 10 minutes in the steam box made it do whatever I wanted.

So the starboard side is completely attached and the port side has the full sheets on, I'll try to get the strips fitted after work and installed by the weekend. As usual the second side should go twice as fast as the first.







Hopefully by the time I get to the topsides I've figured out how to be a little neater with the 5200.

81nautique wrote: Looking good Joel, I think we should break that room in with another Octoberfest this fall.

Agreed!

Been waiting all evening for my Sunday night update...

john

Pictures inside the garage look awesome...I am always impressed.

Pictures outside the garage look very scary.

Sure missed ya this weekend.

john

Awesome! You should be well pleased.
bj

Alan,

Looks good. Seeing your rigging reminded me of this rig from a guy building a new boat on the Glen-L site.


3-15-04
Built a frame around the boat in order to cold-mold 16' mahogany planks to the hull (Tried stapling on the bottom but did not like it. Holes do not close even even after not water.)



Only God knows how much patience you have to have in order to do this... I disasswmble half of the frame for every plank in order to prepare (sand and clean) a place for the next one.

He ended up with a pretty nice final product.

Now as I suspected this weekends work was so much easier than last week. I really figured out the steam bending and got very proficient with clamping the pieces up within 30 seconds of taking them out of the steam box. A 2 day soak and 30 minutes in the steamer made the planking so pliable it was actually an enjoyable day. Lots of progress to show, I managed to take a day off of work friday so I put in about 18 hours in 2 days and the bottom is all dry fitted and ready for the next step.

Also learned another trick, one of the things that I was having a hard time with was leaving a 1/16" gap in my planking. This is for the 5200 to ooze out and create a nice seal, it was actually easier to fit everything tight than it was to leave a consistant gap. What I learned was instead of waiting for the wood to dry out overnight and fitting it the next day I tried fitting it right after cooling. By doing that it shrunk back while drying and gave me my spacing. Sort of discovered that by accident but it is a neat trick and allowed me to get much more done in one day. I really believe the factory steamed these boards without soaking so they could just bend, fasten and go to the next board without waiting for the wood to dry.

Anyway here are this weekends pictures, I'm getting so close to my goal of finishing the bottom before skiing season now I can taste it. I figure another month to cpes, permamently install the bottom, famowood the screw holes, fair and final cpes before I quit for the summer. Enjoy, I sure am.

Nice saw! I borrowed the Bosch version of that basic tool for my ceiling and loved it. I've gotta get me a sliding miter one of these days.

jbear wrote: And...what am I gonna look forward to tomoorrow night john

Is Patti gone for the weekend?

Alan, you're having way too much fun. Have it now though before they put regulations on it!

Alan, looks like a job well done . Looking forward to seeing it in person .   My question is , are you going to have all that saw dust and wood chips cleaned up by Halloween?

Yeah, time for an update Alan!

Ok, Been a little busy with other pesky things like work so the past few weekends haven't been that fruitful but here's where we're at.


One side done and the other all CPes'd and ready to be screwed down.

And finally both sides installed. 36 tubes of rubber and 2100 screws and I have the carpel tunnel to prove it! towards the end of first day my hands cramped to the point where I couldn't squeeze the caulking gun anymore. I had to break down and buy a pnuematic gun, best $35 I've ever spent.


Started roughing in the shape, My goal is to get the bottom shaped, faired , holes filled, and then Cpes'd this weekend.


We'll see where I go from there but this would be my first winters goal and considering all the extra work that was required to get to this point I'll be happy to put it aside for a little while. I will say I'm a little burnt out on it right now so it's time to change gears, too much of a good thing . I'll probably spend some time over the summer preparing mechanical items and I hope to fire up the Hemi soon and see what we've got there. Enjoy and thanks for the encouragement.

Looks great Alan!!! I am always amazed to read your updates on this project. I hear you on the burn out too. I was more than glad to switch projects for a while.