1955 CC Hurricane Restoration

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!

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.

62 wood wrote: Alan, Popcorn popper is about to come out...leftover ribs for lunch tomorrow!    BTW, wondering why "your" Gray is rated a 225hp? ... The Higgins is a 188hp.?

Steve, Just swap the valve covers, isn't that what Reid does!!

Dig through that manual I gave you, I think you'll find what you need in there.

I don't have the docs in front of me, but I believe the 327 with a single side draft carb was 188 HP and the dual side draft is 225 hp. Isn't the 4bbl quadrajet down draft rated at 230+ hp? I think the only other difference between the models is timing.    

Pete , The original motor in the Higgins was a 250 , rated a whopping 135hp! My 188 IS a 327.


Steve , I thought kinda the same...but both 327's (the 188 and the 225) have twin Carter YH sidedrafts...so much for that theory, ehhh?

The only spec difference in the Graymarine manual is the WOT rpms...the 188 calls for 4000, while the 225 runs 4400. All other specs are the same...so how do you turn 10% more out of the 225?

Wow....all I can say is this boat sure did end up in the right hands. Gonna be a beauty. Hard to believe how much progress has been made since GL.

john

This post is dying for some updated pics...

Joel, Crazy thing with this project is I put in 12 hours this weekend and I'm probably the only one that could see a difference. After this weekend I should have both sides off and I'll shoot some new pics.

This one is of the port side that I stripped the varnish and paint off saturday. Popped a few bungs out tonight.


I do have the framing complete, all screw holes have been filled with epoxy coated dowls and then sanded flush. All framewor is cleaned up and sealed with CPES. I ordered some bilge paint today and will get all the framework painted before the bottom goes on.

I did a quick count tonight and I came up with 59 pieces, either frames, knee, or keel braces that I have fabricated, fitted and installed to date.

Very beautiful boat, very inspiring project. And we gripe about repairs on the fiberglass hulls.

Didn't get as many hours on the boat as I wanted to this weekend but still some good progress. Another change of plans though became very obvious once I started removing the topside planking, I found 2 issues. About 1-2" of each plank end was soft where they meet the stem so it would all be unusable. The other issue is there was a major repair to the transom and the aft end of all the planks at one time. It appears that the last 2 rows of screws on all the planking must have been loosened and planks resealed with 5200. I wasn't able to remove any of the planks with out destoying them. I tries for hours but finally gave in to replacing all the topside planking with new. That's not such a bad thing as I was torn between doing that or refinishing anyway, this just made replacement mandatory. It will add some expense but I'll be much happier with the end result.

No other real suprises once I got the planking off.



One side stripped and cleaned up fairly well




The port side planking will come off much easier now that I don't have to try to save it. Thanks to my trusty wire wheel the screws are exposed and removed pretty quickly.


The stem is a little softer than I could tell before plank removal but still repairable without having to remove the whole thing and rebuild it. Looks like 2 or 3 more layers of lamination will have to be replaced. Beneath that it's pretty solid.

M3Fan wrote: Seeing those pics makes it apparent that the planking will have to have be curved both to fit the curves top to bottom and bow to stern. Will you have to save all the old planking as a guide? How will you create the compound curves?

'
Joel, All the planking was numbering before removing and is now put away to be used for templates. The curve bow to stern is done with steaming but the curve top to bottom is achieved by cutting the plank out of a very wide piece of stock. For example, a plank that is 5" wide on the boat may actually be cut from an 8"+ wide piece of stock to accomodate the shape of the hull. Most of the plank pieces at the bow are shorter than the fairly straight pieces from midships back.

Thats sawdust John, from all the woodworking goin' on

Wow!!! Just read through the entire thread and all I can say is this is an amazing project and will be an amazing boat when finished.

Have you done this type of restoration before Alan? What kind of experience do you have with the bending of the wood etc? I hope you can keep the photos and descriptions coming for us that have no experience with this type of work.

81nautique wrote: [QUOTE=M3Fan] The curve bow to stern is done with steaming but the curve top to bottom is achieved by cutting the plank out of a very wide piece of stock. For example, a plank that is 5" wide on the boat may actually be cut from an 8"+ wide piece of stock to accomodate the shape of the hull.

OMG on the top to bottom curve method. YGBFKM.

Have Dana hide ALL accelerants. All. Lighter fluid, gas, lantern fluid, kerosene, everything. At some point, you might be reaching for it.

Alan- I am loving the pictures as well. Keep up the good work. One question comes to mind from looking at other pictures (not from real world experience!). Is there a reason you took the hull sides apart prior to getting the bottom back in shape? Most of the projects I have seen, the bottom and first side plank are repaired first, barrier coated, painted, and them flipped to proceed with the sides. Do the frames get real floppy with both the bottom and sides off, or did you brace it enought to account for that?