Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

[RacinRob]

Hi all,
Glad to have found you. I have found a ton of info will cruising through the site.
I just opened my own can of worms on my Brendella. Was vacuuming the carpet and noticed a soft spot on the drive shaft cover. Pulled back carpet and thought, no problem, I can fix that. Well after finding all the other bad spots I cut most of the floor out. Which of course led to more discovery. No I'm starting where Hilton did on his Brendella. Engine coming out today or tomorrow depending on how I pull it. My goal is 30 days. I'm not working much so I have the time. As long as that time does not cut into my kayak fishing time. I'm am happy to have found a good thread on the repair. I am very good at rebuilding anything from cars to houses so, one more thing here to add to the list of rebuilds. Let the fun begin.

I do have a question now. I have cut most of the front part of the stringer out. In the front where the front floor under the deck is is in good shape still. The dilemma I have is the stringer runs another foot or so under that floor. The front section of the stringer seems to be dry and good. Can I do a butt joint right there instead of pulling up the front floor. Or do I need to run the new stringer up that extra foot to the front. Before I cut it out I thought I would ask. I thought I would also seal that off with glass as to not expose the new wood to that old piece just in case it could contaminate the new. The little bit of deck up there just on that little section is coming off. A couple pics attached here.

Last question. When I cut the floor out I left a ring around the edge. I am going to trim a little more than I this picture. Can I, as seen in this picture, put a piece of ply under the old floor screwed or glassed in, and then screw/glass the new piece on top of the under ply? I don't want to put the new wood on top of the old glass edge because it would raise the floor 3/4" and be on an angle if I make the stringers the same height as original. If I raise the stringer to level then my seats are all going to need to be modified.

Thanks for all the help and head start I gained from Hiltons thread, Rob

 

[chconger]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Hi There


My view is just to go after the final bit. Replace all the wood. Rot spores follow the sugar in the wood (they follow the grain) so they are probably running forward.

At first I was nibbling around the edges; I find it just slows down the project with too many decision points.

Best of luck. Can you throw up some pictures of a larger view?

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Hi RacinRob, Welcome to the Iboats Dry Dock...
Glad to see you opened up a thread...
As far as the last foot of that stringer, my personal feeling is that if you are going full restoration, what is the point of leaving just a foot of old stringer in there, instead of just replacing it all...unless of course it is in perfect condition and really hard to get to...and if you do, it should be scabbed together for strength...
For your deck, it really is best to just remove it all and replace it back to the original position...you are actually creating more work for your self by doing it the other way...
Make sure the hull is properly supported before you start removing too much structure, or it could flex and throw it out of whack...
Also, when you take your pictures, it is sometimes better to see some overall shots to get a better idea of what we are looking at...
And, if you get a free photobucket account, you can post your pictures like this...

That way we don't have to click on them to look at them...
Have fun and best of luck!
GT1M

 

[bakerjw]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Welcome to the dry dock. There's no such thing as just diving in a bit. Once your toes leave the diving board, you're in all the way. Many have been where you're at and continued on.

30 days is very ambitious. I just hit 35 today. And that is 35 of every weekend and every evening. My hope is to get my rebuild all sealed up by week 8. And that is more than a couple of thousand thrown at the project and a minimum of 25 hours a week. I am not trying to be a killjoy, but you have to be realistic because you will have setbacks.

G1M has good advice. Get the hull stabilized before starting and do it all the way.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Everything is coming out or is out. I knew I should before even asking. Engine out tomorrow evening by forklift. As far as 30 days goes. I've done complete house renovations in 30-40 days. Gutted and rebuilt. This is new to me though. When I pull the remaining floor edge out how do I suspend the floor to the side of the boat while I glass it? Do I glass a couple pieces of wood to the side of the boat as support? The floor is about 2-3 inches over the bottom of the boat. My boat is real stout around the perimeter and I measured the distance across before I started cutting things out. It has not changed at all. I think it will be same on the trailer. I'm not taking the top off for any reason so the main structure around the top looks like it will hold everything together. I took an old outboard Tahiti apart 25 yrs ago and when I cut the top off of that one it got all kinds of distorted. I got it back together and it worked great. I don't have photo bucket right now, so the pics I post for a bit might be small. Sorry.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Forgot to add. I drilled hole in the top of the other stringer to see the condition of the wood. I walked away and when I came back there was water coming out of the hole. Also had water under the foam in the drivers area. I have not used the boat this year. I've been fishing in my kayak too much.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

R U saying that the original deck does/did not rest on the tops of the original existing stringers?

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

There are two stringers down the middle you can see in the pics. The out side of the floor is hung with glass to the side of the boat. I can still stand on the little ledge in most places and it does not give at all. The inside part of the floor rests on the stringers.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

The deck will be attached to the hull with thickened resin and tabbing (strips of fiberglass and resin). This is usually done after attaching the decking to the stringers. Before glassing the deck to the hull, thought, ithe deck does seem to be "floating" somewhat.

You will probably want to make some measurements from the top of the remnants of the current deck to some spots on the hull or the cap. That will give you a way to check that yourr new deck is at the correct level.

Hope this helps!

Jim

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

This link has drawings and descriptions on how to fabricate and install your stingers, deck, and transom.

"Fabricating Decks, Stringers, and Transoms"

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

You will probably want to make some measurements from the top of the remnants of the current deck to some spots on the hull or the cap. That will give you a way to check that yourr new deck is at the correct level.

Hope this helps!

Jim

I took a lot of measurements, but I did not measure from the cap down to the deck. I did not measure that yet because I did not know what to do with the attachment. When I fasten to the stringer first, how do I get it to "float" level against the side of the boat? When I took it apart I found one small block of wood under the floor that had never been attached to anything. Could that have been left over from when the deck was first installed? I guess I could tie a string to a bunch of blocks to support it and once it is attached to the side pull the blocks out the back.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

This link has drawings and descriptions on how to fabricate and install your stingers, deck, and transom.

"Fabricating Decks, Stringers, and Transoms"

Thanks. I ran into this last night. I did not read through everything, but saw those drawings on how it goes together.

Thanks for all the responses from everyone. You guys seem like a great bunch of guys just like over at my kayak club. We always have each others backs, even the new guys.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

The deck will be attached to the hull with thickened resin and tabbing (strips of fiberglass and resin). This is usually done after attaching the decking to the stringers. Before glassing the deck to the hull, thought, ithe deck does seem to be "floating" somewhat.



Jim

If you look at the pictures on this page http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...della-boat-restoration-progress-575658-3.html you will see how my floor lays out. This is the same boat as mine. See how there are no supports on the outside edges and the panels in the center that are removable. Therefore the floating floor on the outside edges. I have a plan now, unless I hear something better from all of you.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Ok, here is a question for the future when I am reassembling some components. The main reason, from what I can tell, that the stringers took on water was that the ski pylon is mounted through the stringers with six bolts each side. One stringer was almost completely missing the wood and the bolts were just held by the sandwiched fiberglass. How can I run bolts through the stringer and keep the water out? I was thinking about drilling an oversized hole though it, then using epoxy to glue in a sleeve of maybe aluminum or stainless. This would keep the bolt assembly from creating too much pressure and squeezing the stringer too much.

 

[StinkinShip]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Just my two cents but if you've gone this far why not go all the way. Been reading the hell out of this forum for years. tons and tons of learning material. Plus the guys here are like a bunch of cheerleaders and will route you on all the way through. (provided you feed there inner children lots of boat porn) Good luck on your endeavor. T.J.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Next question. I know epoxy is better than poly, but if my boat was done originally in poly should I use it again? If it was epoxy I know I should use it again because of the adhering factor. How can I tell the difference, or can I?

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Most boats are built using poly...usually epoxy is reserved for really high end boats...
Done right, and with better attention to details than the factory, it is extremely strong and will last for decades...

For the ski pylon you can do a couple of different things, your bushing idea will work, you can also add a stainless steel backing plate to each mounting point, if you won't have access to the fasteners after the deck is down, you can install threaded studs or run threads into the plates...another method is to add a extra plate of ply for mounting with SS T-nuts epoxied in place...any perforations in the deck for hardware need to be sealed with a quality marine sealant, like 3M 4200/5200, to prevent any water intrusion into the wood...

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Post up some pics of the current Pylon configuration. I got some ideas for you but I would like to see where and how it's currently attached.

 

[RacinRob]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Here are a couple pics. Hope you can see them well enough. The metal plate is mounted in between the stringers and held by 6 bolts each side. The bolts go through the stringer. It is beside the drivers seat.

Was also wondering about the lag bolts for mounting the engine. They go directly into the stringer. The wood was very mushy in there. Basically no structure left but the mush inside fiberglass. Should I try to use inserts there and switch to using bolts? Would that be strong enough?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Hello from a new guy with a stringer question

Ok, I'd say there's nothing wrong with your thinking. What size are the bolts currently used? I'd overdrill as you propose and then mount the system with the inserts (I'd try and use Schedule 40 PVC 1/4" pipe for the inserts) and use PB to fill around the inserts to ensure proper alignment. Hope that makes sense.