68 Chris Craft

I moved all the boat pics to a new photobucket album and if i get a chance today ill figure out the link thing and add it to my sig...

Later

75 Tique wrote: Funny you mention dannenburgs book, I was killing time at Barnes and Noble in the mall last night and picked it up and was flipping through it. Was thinking it would make a nice Christmas give for Alan, but I'm guessing he already has it.

Well I do already have it Larry, thanks for thinking about me. If it helps you out I was thinking of signing up for skidim's and Overton's christmas registry!!!

Good start Sean, and Yes we are jealous of your workspace.

Sean,
Great start and I'm glad to see you have help. The ACBS does have a youth program and even scholarships. However, I don't know how involved your local chaper is in the program.

Get a humidifier going in the shop and try to keep it as high as possible. A couple years back, our chapter had a winter tech seminar at the shop of one of our members. He was restoring a 24' Shepard. The first thing alot of us noticed was his precise and close plank joints. He was a very high end cabinet maker and this being his first boat was just doing what he normally did but not thinking ahead. The following summer I ran into him without his boat and of course had to ask where it was. Yup, he was pulling all the side planking off the boat!!!

Larry,
Using Correct Craft as a example, on the "low end" ply boats wood filler is used. When filler/stain is applied, the wood filler takes on the color close to the deck/hull sides. With a "high end" planked boat each screw is covered with a wood bung. This are cut using a bung (plug) cutter out of the same wood (scrap). They are set over the screw high and then with a wood chisel cut off as flush as possible. This requires "reading" the wood grain on each plug. You want to chisel from the low side of the grain so if the bung cuts off at a angle you will still have wood above the planking!

75 Tique wrote:    Not much depth to work with, with a 1/4-inch plywood skin, is there?

Depth stops on the combination drill/countersinks is a must!! I drilled lots of 1/4" on my Atom.

Beau and I are reviewing plans for a small plywood boat. We are looking for something easy to build for the boys and using a 10hp motor, a minimax maybe? the Indiana rules are under 10hp if you are under 14 or so. Thought it would make a good project for us and give him something to do when we get more into the finishing stages of the chris.

I found under the cottage an old town mahogany canoe and a 12' home built wooden boat that Larry used to run on the lake with a 30hp merc, kinda what sparked Beau's interest in the little boat program...

wait wait wait... you just 'found' an old mahogany canoe under your cottage?! how sweet is that?! All we've found at ours is re-rod & glass...

Nate

Its about a 16' Old Town canoe. the interior appears to be all mahogany with a painted fiber coating on the exterior. We knew there was a couple things under there last fall when we bought it but just got around to pulling them out and cleaning them up. Im really a 'glass boat kinda guy but I'm trying to get into the retro wood thing here. The remodel last winter kind of went cottage retro in the face of the megadollar homes being built around us.

that's what I was thinking Pete. Lift it...how heavy is it? If it's real easy to pick up, it's Cedar. Cedar's pretty much the standard wood for canoes & kayaks, with mahogany being used just for trim work. My kayak I built a couple years back is all cedar with Ash & Mahogany trim.

Nate

Sean,
Is there a name plate on it that states it's a Old Town? Is it canvas covered? Is there a model # on it? It will not be aromatic cedar. Most likely eastern white cedar. Very little smell unless you are doing some heavy planing/sawing.

Canoes as well as small row/fishing boats made with the canvas covering a wood hull are referred to as "baggies". The coating on the canvas was specifically designed for these boats. It was more like a thinned down bedding compound. The first coat was troweled on and then second and third thinned down coats were brushed on. Light sanding and then paint.

I was working at Watercraft Sales when a customer brought in a small 12' baggie row boat he wanted me to restore. This was about 1969 and we looked for a source of the canvas and the coating without success. One of our mechanics at the time was also into airplanes and he suggested putting on airplane fabric and doping it. Well, after much work with the hull, I did use the airplane fabric. That thing was beautiful and was the lightest 12' row boat I'd ever seen! One stroke of the oars and it seemed to move like 30 feet. The customer was overjoyed! He picked it up, took it home and that very night, the boat was stolen! Someone was watching!!!

Im getting ready to start treating the stringers and such with the ceps before we lay in the first layers of plywood. I want to paint the hard to reach places gray while i have the bottom open. What are you using for bildge paint?

Sean,
No on the Interlux Bilgecoat. It's a gloss finish designed primarily for fiberglass.

Most of the Chris's used the burgandy color. Some odd models and pre WWII used the gray. It's a low gloss penetrating finish. Take a look at private lable bilge paint

Chris's were at least consistent and actually used a bilge paint like most wood boat bilders did. Now, with wood Correct Crafts, I've seen enough of them to know they would through all their left over paints and solvent washes in a bucket and call it "bilge" paint!!! My Atom is a mix of green and gray!!

Are you hard glueing (epoxy) or using 5200 on the new bottom?

75 stang wrote: The chris is grey below the floor and some burgandy above the floor. Thanks

That's real odd!! Well, maybe because it was one of the very last boats out the door, they were running low on bilge paint and used both colors!

75 stang wrote: The seats were a variety of burgandy, it may have been to match in those areas, its not complete from the water line up sort of painting.

Some of the hull sides show? Aren't the cockpit sides covered with upholstered panels?