Little winter project

3 Squids

3 Squids

Junior Member
Hey guys. So I picked up this little winter project however it***8217;s not for me. Money wise I don***8217;t see much value in this boat. It seems like something you would of ordered out of the Sears catalog back in the day. But there***8217;s a lot of sentimental value here. This boat belonged to my newphews father. Unfortunately he was killed a couple years ago in a car accident. My nephew, Tristan inherited the boat. His father was a waterman and loved being on the water and Tristan definitely got the bug from him. He***8217;s turning 10 in a few days and I feel a good gift would be me helping him bring his dads boat back to life for him to putt around the creeks in.

I***8217;d feel much better finding him a 18***8217; fisherman to fix up but it***8217;s his dads boat and he talks about it all the time. We talked about doing the work secretly and surprising him with it complete but I feel he needs to be involved to appreciate it more as well as he has no father figure in his life right now to do fun guys stuff with so maybe I can try to fill that void just a little.

From what I can see in the few minutes I***8216;ve looked at it is every bit of wood in it is soft. It***8217;s been in a barn and dry for the past few years but nothing is solid. Floor is just plywood that was never glassed. Transom is pretty much non existent. I***8217;m sure the stringers aren***8217;t there. One nice thing is I can pretty much just lift the whole boat up myself haha. Motor will be coming off and hopefully by spring I***8217;ll scrape up enough money to find a decent deal on something newer. I***8217;ve asked him in the past if he***8217;d want a little console in it but he insist he wants a tiller. His big brother has a little skiff with a tiller so I think that has something to do with it.

I***8217;ll snap pics along the way and hopefully we can get it together by this boating season. My plan is to gut it out and maybe try to find someone to soda blast it. It has quite a few layers of topside and bottom paint. It***8217;d be a nightmare to sand but I really don***8217;t know if soda blasting is in the budget so I may have to get dirty and do it. We***8217;ll see. Any advice you guys have is always appreciated.
 

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Just got some info. The hull is a 1963 15’ Dixie. Originally it had a windshield and front and rear seats. This is the only image I’ve been able to locate.
cCJSo7z.jpg


I talked to my nephew and he really wants to keep the motor that’s on it. It’s a 1980 25hp Evinrude. His dad stopped using it because of a bad fuel pump. That’s been at least 5 years ago so I’d imagine there’s more attention needed now. I have a complete parts motor but haven’t gotten to run the number on it yet to find out what it is. Time will tell where this goes. Going to grab a can of Aqua Strip tomorrow and see how it does. I got a quote of $1100 to soda blast it and that’s just not going to happen. If it takes me a couple hundred buck and a few days of stripping and sanding so be it.
 
You are a good man.

Good luck with the work, you are going to make a huge positive impact on your nephew.

On IMGUR when you get to the page where you copy the link to the photo for message boards, click "huge thumbnail" at the bottom before you copy.
 
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looks like a fun hull to work on. I'd go at it with a pressure washer first, that might take off more than u think
 
I plan on trying a pressure washer first. But something is telling me that’s what his dad tried right before he passed with little success. I bought some stripper but it’s been below freezing so doing it outside really isn’t going to go well. I believe that stuff uses heat to activate. It says on the can results decrease below 60F. I may be able to get it in my dads garage if I’m going to go the stripper route but won’t be able to sand and make a dust mess in there once the stripper is done. But from what I’ve seen online many people have had success with the paint stripper without affecting the gel coat.
 
Well this project didn’t pan out like I hoped. I really got looking at it and there’s a ton of little blister spots in the hull, many below the water line. Every piece of wood in it is pretty much non existent any more. In talking to my sister and her in-laws we’ve decided though this boat has sentimental value, 1- it’s going to cost a ton of money to fix and 2-it really isn’t a practical hull for our area. We boat in the lower Chesapeake bay and many of its rivers and this little runabout hull was designed for more of a lake life. Even on a nice day it can turn bad quick and really, normal conditions with this hull would be sketchy.

So my sister is planning on making some sort of flower garden out of her just to keep it at the house with more functionality then a rotting boat on a trailer.

As for my nephew, he’s bummed out but understands. He really didn’t mind when I brought home his new toy. A buddy of mine bought a SeaRay Laguna 18 just to get the 200 Merc of the back of it and the SeaStar setup. He took that off and sold me the boat and solid trailer for $500. The boat seems solid as a rock. Really seems all we need to do is put a motor, controls and a helm on it. I’m thinking we will just find a 70-90hp to put on it so he can putt around the rivers, nothing too crazy. So the part hunt is on and hopefully we can have him on the water by the time the weather breaks. I’ll post some pics soon as I can figure out how to.
 
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