1959 Lone Star El Dorado "Project Texas Tornado" (Another Boat)

Picked up my 200 rivets from Jay-Cee sales (rivetsonline) from their warehouse, all I can say is that is A LOT of rivets in one place! quick and easy to deal with, would definitely recommend them to someone needing more than a few rivets of any sort.

Today I rolled the boat out into the driveway and started drilling and hammering away at old rivets that needed to come out for one reason or another, a few were stating to rot away and could have started to cause leaks or corrosion to the surrounding metal, some were holding pieces like the port holes, windsheild bracket, drain, and transom board in so those all needed to some out, some had come out and the PO had replaced them with bolts, nuts and silicone :p- those came out too and will be set for replacing. All in all, 120 were drilled out today and I am sick of drilling! A fair ammount of the rivets were on the underside of the boat so I needed to get the boat in the air and my cherry picker came to the rescue.



The transom came out easilly, It was in suprisingly good condition and so was the aluminum it was butted up against, there was a little surface oxidation but no horrible pitting. Does anyone know of a good way to neutralize the oxidation that is there so it will not spread once I put a new board in?





 
I got the transom boards glued today, I measured everything and it still looked closer to 1-3/4 but not quite. So I decided to do only 2- "3/4" pieces and see how it goes from there and I can do something to make up for a little bit of play if need be. I used Titebond III for the glue. I used a combo of about a dozen 1-1/4 screws and whatever I could find that was heavy, including about a couple thousand rounds of ammo


Pre glue pieces:


About as exciting as watching paint dry....
 
Out of curiosity, where are you located? I see you mentioning going to Detroit, and RivetsOnline out of Farmington. I'm guessing I live an hour or two from you, depending on which direction you had to go to those places.
 
timberwolffxdl said:
Out of curiosity, where are you located? I see you mentioning going to Detroit, and RivetsOnline out of Farmington. I'm guessing I live an hour or two from you, depending on which direction you had to go to those places.

Im in Grosse Pointe, not too far from you, about two hours on the nose. I have been wanting to get down to your area to go mountain biking at Fort Custer, but I just have not had the time. BTW, just checked out your CL360, that thing is sweet!
 
I got my transom all cut up and drilled today, all the screw holes from gluing have been filled with G-flex epoxy. The hole locations had no real rhyme or reason to their locations, some were off from the other ones by an inch or more. So I took the old transom and clamped it on the new one and used it as a drill jig.
The locations of all the holes are definitely specific to the boat you have. I would get the transom made and cut to the dimension and then mock it up in the boat to find the location of all the holes. If your boat at one time did have a splash well, there will be two 1 inch diameter holes for a drain.





And here are some drawings I made of it, the first is the dimensions of the board and the second is approximate location and size of the holes.

 
luke000 said:
Im in Grosse Pointe, not too far from you, about two hours on the nose. I have been wanting to get down to your area to go mountain biking at Fort Custer, but I just have not had the time. BTW, just checked out your CL360, that thing is sweet!
let me know when you do. I haven't been out there near as much this year as I wanted since I developed this little running habit... In fact I wanted to get out biking this past weekend and just didn't work it out. Ft Custer is a great set of trails!
 
:D
 

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Great work so far - my brother in law is a big boat guy and he's rebuilding a similar sized fibreglass boat (and had to replace the transom, too).

A question about the trailer - comparing your trailer to the brochure it looks like the winch stand is reversed? Just looks a bit odd, that's all.

Keep the pics coming ;)
 
hillsy said:
Great work so far - my brother in law is a big boat guy and he's rebuilding a similar sized fibreglass boat (and had to replace the transom, too).

A question about the trailer - comparing your trailer to the brochure it looks like the winch stand is reversed? Just looks a bit odd, that's all.

Keep the pics coming ;)

Actually the winch stand is properly orientate, my copy of the '59 catalogue shows it in my orientation, otherwise the bow stop would not work and the boat would run into the winch itself. Good eye though!

Well I have not done much work on the actual boat in a few weeks. I measured for new floor boards, but that is about it. But last weekend I was at an estate sale at an old house, the guy was very wealthy and a hoarder who liked tools and boat stuff. I went and picked up a new (used) Stihl chainsaw with a 32 inch bar as well as a 10 inch everett abrasive chop saw. I went back on the final hour of the sale and went into the boat house to find two items I have been wanting and unable to afford- so I made a VERY lowball offer.... long story short- I walked away with a 70HP Evinrude and a Miller AEAD gas drive welder! The Evinrude was on a pallet buried underneath some rope and boards. I got the stuff home that night and the next day I built up my outboard stand I made for my last project to take a long shaft motor, set the evinrude on there and gave it a test run! 132-134 PSI in the cylinders, spark, a replaced lower unit. The motor starts and kinda runs (surges), needs the carbs rebuilt and the PO recently replaced the fuel lines but they leak so those will have to get done. otherwise it just needs some basic mechanical work and it will be good to go! Cosmetically its pretty rough but that is just incentive for me to repaint it! The only other dow side to the motor is a lack of power trim/tilt witch I was really dead set on getting but this motor was so cheep and is in such good mechanical shape I think I am just going to deal with it







 
I got a little bit of work done on the boat today, my little brother and I bucked some rivets on the hull. Him on the outside with the pneumatic hammer and me inside with a forging hammer head. After some trial and error on the first one, I figured out that it goes much better when you let the bucking bar do the work. We got 16 done today, 19 more to go on the stern and then a few dozen more for the transom.





New rivet on the right, factory rivet on the left:
The lighting and angle on this one make the new rivet look like it is undersized but it is not.



New rivet on the left, factory rivet on the right:


 
Nice mate ;D I was wondering how you were getting on with this 8)
 
Nice work, bucking rivets is work but they will hold soooo much better then the other styles. Need that in a boat being pounded by waves etc.
 
I went to lowes today and picked up 2 sheets of plywood for the floor. Same BC grade as the transom. I am going to cut it so size this weekend and hopefully buck some more rivets. I know i should probably seal the boards before I put them in the boat with some sort of flooring but I am unsure of what to use. I am guessing it is going to depend on what I am going to use as a flooring cover, and again I have no idea of what I am going to use- decisions decisions decisions.... I am completly open to suggustions! The PO put Nautolex vinyl in the boat on some 3/8 plywood but I am not too crazy about it. I am leaning towards marine carpet because I want a cozy/warm feeling to the boat's interior. Again, open to suggestions
 
Yep Marine carpet is the go. Nothing like a bit of grip when you punch a big wave.

I used fibreglass resin to seat the boards up. Mind you I bought CD grade because I knew I was sealing them with resin.
 
I am deciding between either FG resin or spar varnish/linseed oil/mineral spirits mixture.

I got some of the floorboards cut up and fit today before I ran out of wood, it all fits very nicely. There is some very minor warping in the wood but it should all go away once I screw it down.









 
Use Bitumen paint, thinned down with mineral turpentine just a bit, so it really soaks in ;) And definitely marine carpet :D

for example:
 

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I got my transom completely coated with a mixture of 1 part spar vanish, 1 part linseed oil, and 2 parts mineral spirits. It needs to dry at least 72 hours and then everything will get 2 coats of straight spar varnish. I also did this to the undersides of all the floor boards that I have cut so far. I have never worked with spar varnish before (I have always been a sikkens person) but I like this stuff, it's a lot cheaper and it smells nice!



 
I made a little progress on the boat again today; I got some more rivets bucked on the stern, and the drain plug re-installed (more bucking rivets). I also flipped the floorboards and applied the coat of sealant. I SOAKED the edges on all the pieces too :). And finally I put the first coat of spar on the transom board.
 
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