Recent content by dearl

Got time to work on the boat a little this weekend. Finished sanding the areas I previously welded. Layed out the holes for the transom support, re-drilled all of those holes. Installed 2x2x1/4" aluminum angle for the support. I used 1/4 Stainless hardware and Nylocks. It will be coming back...

Here is the recipe, it makes a lot so half of this recipe should be a gracious plenty....

Well I had some rivet help lined up for yesterday, but that fell through so I figured I could start welding up all the un-needed holes in the transom skin. PO had replaced the transom once before, and 90% of the holes used to bolt the transom to the knee brace were well over sized and honestly...

Nice progress...One word of caution, if you are dead set on sealing it with fiberglass use epoxy resin. It will cost more up front, but if this is a boat you will have for a long time, use epoxy resin not polyester. Your plan for the sub-floor sounds like a good one, keep in mind your...

Finishing up on the left over areas under the strakes that need to be sanded and primed. I have so many loose ends on this boat that need to be tied up....and all are contingent on the rivets being finished in the bottom....and I cant put them in by myself...and the weekend cant get here fast...

Properly treated exterior plywood will last a very long time. The key is to not letting it sit out in the weather and just soak up water. I rebuilt a tracker floor once but went back with.125 aluminum sheet. It really made the whole boat feel more rigid, plus I never had to worry about wet floor...

Even at 20 Hp that's not a lot of horsepower to lift and hold a lot of weight, keep in mind a motor has to lift and hold nose weight in order to plane the hull. If it cant you get what's called porposing. The nose will raise and lower on its on at speed trying to plane. Keep your heaviest weight...

Got the material ready to re-install the Keel and Strakes, plus rivet up the un-used strake holes. My Gluvit came in yesterday, hope to be applying that to the inside seams and rivet tails next week. Im going with 3/16 x 1/2" Brazier head solid rivets for the structural stuff...

Ambitious build....I like it. Now that the slate is clean its easier to visualize what you want. Lots of room in that little boat, options are endless. Keep weight balance in mind during the design.

Found myself under the boat last night, worked on sanding the surface below what will be the Keel plate, and knocking out the left over rivets. Got the Keel and one strake sanded and Primered before calling it quits. One more strake surface to sand and prep and then we can re-install those. The...

Flywheel key for starters, the compression is concerning...I mean it will run like that but not like it should. Im with nccatfisher, the Aerosol sea foam is pretty oily stuff. I de-carb engines with it, but they are running, and will usually bog it down if you hit it too hard. Try pumping the...

Cleco's are a mechanical fastening tool. You use a set of "pliers" to compress the cleco, you insert it into a hole drilled through 2 pieces of metal. Once you let go of the pliers, it expands and mechanically holds the 2 pieces together while you keep drilling more holes or try and align a...

Finally made some room in the barn to get the boat and trailer backed in. The plan is to get the hull under the Keel strip sanded, cleaned and primed this week. The Keel strip is clean and primed, hopefully I can get some help one day this week to get it riveted in place. The hull had 4 strakes...

Welcome to Tin boats... There's several ways to do this, the simplest way would be to do just as you said, clean it and use some sort of caulk to try and seal the joint again. Probably get some use out of it like that but you will be doing it again. Best way and will probably last you many...

Kill the corrosion before you do anything else. The pitting you see will have a white powdery dust in or around it, this is caused by water being trapped between your old transom wood and the aluminum. Mix a solution of 50% muriatic acid to 50% water, work it into the pits really good with a...