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14 foot fiberglass boat rebuild

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Wolvenar:
It's one of those moment that you look back on and wonder "What was I thinking"
One day while I was taking garbage to the dump, I saw a boat being dropped off. Now again I really do NOT know what I was thinking for sure, this thing was nasty.. I didn't get any pictures of it when I unloaded it at my place but..

To start with this think weighed as a guess close to 300lb, it was completely covered in wet moss inside and out.
The moss had pitted the gel coat on the outside and the maple wood used for seats was totally mossed over also, where there wasn't moss, there was mold and some sort of other life like mushrooms and other unidentifiable things. All the foam in it was soaked with water and goo'd with god only knows what kind of biofilm.
I unloaded this thing in the yard, and the back of it sat into a shallow puddle, it immediately filled with water... oh boy..

Well I somehow convinced the kids to use the pressure washer and good old green scrub pads on it. They cleaned up the boat reasonably well.  That's when I could see how bad it was. I still do not know why I didn't load that thing back up right then and there and head back to the dump, other than the kids would been disappointed if I didn't fix it now. To them, it was a lot of work they did.
So this thing had basically no wood left in the transom, and 4 places of damage through the bottom, the fiberglass on the transom corners were cracked and worn through, the seats looked pretty bad, the seat mounts to the fiberglass of the hull were rotted away, and the gel coat was so pitted and spidered it was peeling off in places. Someone had tried to fix one of the damaged places, it might have worked for them, but it was a terrible job that needed to be done right. 

Earliest pics I think I have


inside




transom


A shot of the side where it was not spidered but the moss had done its damage

I figured at this point I better track down anyone who may lay claim to it before I actually get money involved.
So since the DNR and state were not either able or willing to tell me who the current owner was, I figured I had a rather good indicator who at least ONE owner once was  :P 
That is now that the moss didn't cover up all identification


I found out that it was at LEAST older than a 1963 model not only from the tags, but the fact it was not legally required to be a titled boat as I found out when I went to get it in my name. In Minnesota anything older than a 1963 model and this small was not required to be titled or so i was told by a lady over the phone when speaking with the DNR (dont blame me if I'm wrong about this, its what I was told)

That kinda hints that the state DID know all about this boat, because they did tell me it was older than a 1963.
I called Knotty Pines Resort to see if they knew any history, and if they would have a problem with me registering this if I were to fix it. The resort owner said, he does not know who the owner might been but it was sold at auction a decade earlier, possibly the same time he bought the resort?  He also said he would give his blessing to see it fixed up (which he gave me in writing). He wanted to get some pictures of it to put on his history of the resort wall. So I loaded up and head over.
After getting this from Knotty Pines and a signing a statement that I wont hold the state liable etc, I was able to re register the boat as a home built one. This was done so they could more quickly bypass tracking down the previous owner and ensuring there were no liens on it and so on. 













Kids and I ( not pictured of course) out testing my work
This was after a lot of sanding, clean up and fiberglass repair which I will detail when I can dig up where I put those pics.
old seats were temporarily put back in , after cleaning and drying that maple still had some life in it.

I have replaced the transom and the seats with composite deck boarding. Figured it will be more than enough for the transom since this is a small light boat. So far its worked very well, and I should never have to worry about it rotting out ever again.


Here it is with new wood for the front and back seats, plus I used bedliner to make the inside a lot nicer, and coated the wood of course.


After this I caught the bug!!
My next project?

Ax3s:
Good little boat for being so old and the condition it was in.

coldspot:
Very nice work you have done with it!

Yea, the DMV here isn't very helpful either

 I, (imho) wouldn't touch another glass boat, (have owned more than 3)
Aluminum or wooden is what I want next
I'm thinking about selling or trading my 1993 SSZ175 Fish n Ski
for a sailboat or HD bike
After many years of hanging out on the lakes and reservoirs
I got a 9' pontoon for drifting the river and now enjoy
that kind of fishing much more than the old ways of
chasing the bikini's with the gas guzzling glass boats
(yea, youth is wasted on the young)

tomw:
Glass boats are simply too darned heavy.

Wolvenar:
I'm hooked on the fiberglass, its just that you can do almost anything you would ever want with it, near infinitely repairable or modded.
Aluminum would be nice though as I haven't picked up a trailer for it yet and am tossing it in the truck . not so much fun at the lake.
Sounds like you have had your fun with them to coldspot

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