first time beginner restoring morebas

[futurenets]

could anyone offer my any advise about how to re-bed the deck to the hull on a morebas

I removed the rub rail to expose a series of pop rivots, some attached to the hull, some were attached and have broken free and some were never attached (would it leave the factory like this?) .

Is there some way I could do this without pop rivets?

given that I (appear to) need to find some way of forcing the edges of the deck down, so the hull fits snuggly into the deck edge recess and keep it there. in some parts, the deck has risen above the line of the hull.

 

[fishingdan]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

What is going on under the gunwale cap? Is it just a gunwale cap or is the whole interior of the boat one piece? It doesn't look right.

Gunwale caps are usually bonded to the hull with a good adheasive and mechanically fastened to the hull with screws or pop rivets.

 

[futurenets]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

thanks for the response and sorry to respond with "what is a gunwale cap?" - the bit that runs down the side of a boat? if so, the interior of the boat is one piece sitting on top of the hull.

 

[futurenets]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

given that the hull needs to be re-glued into position in the gunwale and then screwed or pop rivoted I think my question should have been ... are there special clamps for this job?

 

[sundog]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

As far as refastening the deck to the hull, strong adhesive or a fiberglass slurry and screws/bolts/rivets would be fine. I dont know about special clamps (Ive never seen any), but I used bags of sand/quickcrete to weight the deck along the edge.

Id check a few things out first, tho. Why did the deck lift? is there swelled/rotten wood numberneath forcing it up? is the hull warped/twisted (this could be a flaw in the stringers/keel, and would cause a trued deck to lift)? The decking/caps on some boats is required for rigidity (saved weight in stringers). if the deck has been torn or lifted from the hull, it could mean the hull was severly twisted or torqued at one time, and Id check the fiberglass bond of the stringers to the hull to make sure none of them has cracked.

good luck!

 

[Almeja]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

Saltwtater?

Don't use aluminum pop-rivets. They will corrode and fail. Results of that happening might be unpleasant.

 

[fishingdan]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

thanks for the response and sorry to respond with "what is a gunwale cap?" - the bit that runs down the side of a boat? if so, the interior of the boat is one piece sitting on top of the hull.

The majority of fiberglass boats have two or three major fiberglass pieces (some certainly have more).

It sounds like yours is two pieces (the hull bottom/sides/transom and the topside). The gunwale is deck area that sits on top of your hull sides from front to back.

I agree with the above post. Try to find out why it has separated. Many older boats did not have any adheasive in this joint and were connected only with fasteners. They can fail from corrosion or force (hull twisting, swelling of stringers, maybe the boat hitting the water very hard at one time, poor installation, etc). That joint is a structural joint and plays an important role in the overall strength and rigidity of the hull.

 

[futurenets]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

Very useful help and much appreciated ... even though its an old boat, I'm keen to put in the work mostly to learn.

Visually, I can't see any signed of twisting and the hull looks fine. Aluminium pop rivets were used and some corroded, also I don't think adhessive was used - could this be the problem?

Following the edge around the boat, most is okay with minor lifting here and there but the reason I ask about clamps is that in bottom left image, to close that gap is going to need quite a bit of pressure due to where the fibre glass appears to have distorted upwards with time.

Interestingly in this region, there are no pop rivot holes so this area looks like it was never joined correctly in the first place and maybe this is why it has distorted? inside is foam - could this expand to compound this issue?

Will have to research what "stringers" are but will this mean removing to deck from the hull. I'm really tempted to do this and see what happening underneath but will I be able to get it back on again?

again, thanks for your help.

 

[sundog]

Re: first time beginner restoring morebas

I call stingers the lateral braces/forms that frame the boat structurally along with the keel and strongbacks that brace it longitudinally (not even sure its a 'real' nautical term, now that you mention it).

checking them would at least require cutting site holes in the flooring and inspecting the fiberglass joint that connects it to the hull. If they are cracked, I would guess the hull had been really torqued at one point or another (considering the lifted decking and the cracked supports). If nothing else, it will tell you what you have under your feet.