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Input needed for flightcraft rebuild.


Nick1984

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The time has come.  I have a 91 flighty that I bought three years ago needing a restoration.  In the process of getting it ready for the summer I found that the motor box kickers were done and I knew there were a few soft spots in the stingers that needed addressed.  So now starts the completely unplanned keel up restoration.  

 

I have already selected my epoxy (system three silver tip and gel magic, I like the 72hr recoat times) and got all the 1708 and 4oz e glass fabric and tabbing.  I also got some cheeper epoxy and thickener for filleting.

 

My my question is what should I use for the stingers?   I know a guy on here a few years back used Douglas Fir that he got from Home Depot but I can’t seem to find any that is somewhat straight without a bunch on knots.  What would be the pros and cons of laminating two pieces of ABX together and shaping that, other that weight?

 

In the interest of full disclosure I am going to use Coosa 26 for the transom but I really don’t want to drop that kind of coin on the stringers.  The shipping alone would kill me. 

 And once I figure out how to upload pictures off the iPhone I’ll show you guys what I’m dealing with  

 

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On 5/28/2019 at 10:20 PM, Eagleboy99 said:

Wood?  Not a fan.  How about https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=57770&familyName=Prisma+Composite+Preforms+Hull+Beams  That is similar to the way CorrectCraft used (still?) did it.

How would a guy shape these and screw the floor to them?

Edited by Nick1984
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If you use wood, don’t purchase from Home Depot or Lowe’s.  That wood is garbage for boats. You should have a speciality lumber store in your area (I have two within an hours ride). They will have true Douglas fir and other species that you can use. It is more expensive, but you will see the quality difference. 

As for for wood in a boat, what you have lasted nearly 30 years. If you install correctly, encapsulate the wood properly you will get another 30 years out of it or more. 

Lots of stringer replacement info out there. It is a lot of work for sure. 

Edited by Marksa1458
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One of the attributes of the Flighty is the light weight, given all the work to rebuild using the correct or even improved materials will provide much better results.  Jamestown Distributors offers a lot of boat rebuilding videos along with all the materials for the project.  Another option is Noah's Marine. 

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Mark, 

that was my thought process as well.  

 

I’m in the process of taking the transom out now as well.   I was on the fence about it because it was still structurally sound but boy am I glad I cut it out.   I took a hole saw and cut out a chunk of the fiberglass and it wasn’t terrible but not great either.  I finally convinced myself to go for it and as soon as I cut the tabbing on the bottom the water started running out.   Now it’s all stripped out and waiting on the Coosa to show up. I decided that the transom is the only place I’m going to use composite since it is the only place that has bolts  under the water line.

 

I epoxied in the front keel stringer last night and will be working on glassing that back in this evening.  I plan on going over it with one layer of 6 oz tabbing then going over it with 1708.  I know that’s probably overkill but nothing showed excess like excess.  At 35 I’m hoping I’m restoring a boat that my grandkids can enjoy.  I know my 5 year old son is having a blast “helping” dad work on the boat when I don't have dust flying everywhere. 

I will try and get some better pictures of the progress so far so you all can see what’s going on.  I know the old thread from 09 was a big motivator for me when I started this project. 

3FFE06FA-0B73-4163-A81C-D4719E91ADE8.jpeg

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formulaben
1 hour ago, Nick1984 said:

I know that’s probably overkill but nothing showed excess like excess.

Or as I like to say, anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

  • Like 1
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 Beautiful build mark.  One day I would like to rebuild a boat like that.  I have built a boat from the ground up last year.  I built a 20’ whitewater rouge from glen L out of aluminum.  That was a fun build.  I ended up putting a big 225 Yamaha and a blind on it for duck hunting.  I was a welder before I started as an estimator so it wasn’t a big leap to get good at welding aluminum.  I stuck a few pieces together before I took on that project.  

 

Tonight I got the front stinger tabbed in.  What a pain.  I’m kind of wishing I popped the cap off at this point.  I really didn’t realized this was going to end up being such a big project.  On the plus side working under the front deck makes working under the back feel like I have heaps of room.  Lol. The Coosa is going to show up tomorrow so I plan on concentrating on the transom over the weekend as well as the bulkhead in the front. I’m purposely working on both ends so I can glue or glass something then go work on the other end without worrying about kicking something or sticking my hand in uncured resin. 

 

 

9C250E02-9168-4DF3-838D-BA9DF63EBA72.jpeg

  • Like 3
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On 6/5/2019 at 9:51 PM, Marksa1458 said:

I have been working on a 1975 Arabian. Restore thread is here.  There is some pics of the stringer work.

https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat-repair-and-restoration/boat-restoration-building-and-hull-repair/633214-1975-century-arabian-total-restore

Where is the rest of the thread?  It ended in 2016...I was interested to see the progress.

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Unfortunately that’s as far as I have gotten. Kids, sports and job have sidelined this project temporarily. Need to source a new prop shaft, stuffingbox and rudder next. :)

 

 

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Nick,

i built the Dynojet from Glen-l using a jet ski motor. Cool little boat and super fun project. My oldest is part of the welding program at his school and we were talking about that design a couple of weeks ago. He has a real interest in building aluminum boats. Great group of people on that forum. Will have to see if I can post a photo  

stringer looks great, but there is little hope of not putting your hand or foot in uncured resin  that stuff seems to get everywhere no matter how careful you are.  Are you using epoxy?

 

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That’s a cool boat.  If they aloud inboards/jet skis on our lake I’d build one in a heartbeat.  

 

Heres a few pictures of my build. 

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Made some decent progress on the boat this weekend all things considered. I got the transom laminated in and filleted.  

 

They must use differ hard thickness in AU because I ended up being an 1/8” short from the original lamination. I don’t think that’s a deal breaker, I’m just going to add another layer of 1708 and call it a day. Considering that I took the laminations out and they were not glued together I think the two 3/4” Coosa board I have in there are better then what I came with.  

I also got the from bulkhead cut out and stared coating that in 2 coats of resin.  I glued that in and filleted this afternoon.  The rest of the evening was spent fixing a slight mishap with the gel coat and a chisel when I was taking the transom out.  I got a bit overzealous and poked a bit of a hole.  I already fixed the glad I just had to fix the gel.  I had to mix some up anyhow because I took the two speedometers off the transom anyhow.  I figured I am going to put in a GPS speedo anyhow might as well fix the holes. I also took out the water temperature sensor since it didn’t work anyhow.  I drilled out the hole a bit them packed it with gel magic and called it a day.  

69BD3A78-9050-4C93-B52B-61DE894636CC.jpeg

989F644F-A1F8-4B9A-AF2C-D7B9D9EB77E9.jpeg

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