| 1Bad16 |
Bout time this section gets some activity....
a bit of history... my first Donzi was a 1997 16 2+2 Classic... started life as a stock paltry 210 (merc rated) 350 2V w/ Alpha GEN II... ran a whopping 54 mph and chinewalked like crazy. this was June 2000.... by June 2005 i'd seen 81.3 GPS.
I was tired of the 16.. too small and just plain out of hull.. without modifying fiberglass... and i wanted an 18... easily transportable and i can use it on our small inland lakes... and it'll handle the big lakes on most days... i have an affinity for "CLASSIC" donzi's... ie, old ones... 1960's vintage... especially the early 18's which are termed the "barrelback" due to the arched transom... manufactured from 1965 through mid 1968... after mid 68 the transom was changed to the current style.. and the hull was changed to a radiused keel and shortened inner strakes... the "barrelback" is a fully straked, sharp keeled 24* hull...
anywho... i'd been trying to buy a certain 1966 single hatch barrelback ( from 1965 thru mid 66 all 18's were "triple" hatch boats - outer suicide hatches with removable center section) from a fellow donzi fanatic. it was essentially a very abused bare shell.. that needed EVERYTHING...
early 2005 (like april) he called me and decided to let her go, finally... he also has a VERY early (late 64 or so) 16.. that is beautiful... that he stole from Michigan... so i had to steel a boat back ya know. so i found myself making a trip to Connecticut to pick this boat up... 3 day power tour... i didn't get much sleep...
the boat was a fiberglass shell.. no interior, no engine, no drive system, no wiring, hoses, etc etc... i did get the rubrail and some hardware though... most needs to be rechromed or replaced... some you CANNOT find new.. soime you can.
the deck had been cut up some as well as the ski locker and there were holes in the hatch... the coring from the rear seat to the transom was JUNK... think shredded wheat sittin in milk for a while junk... the transom wood was rotten at the bottom and there was a big cutout.
this boat was originally built with a 340 buick and OMC stringer drive... whre teh engine sits on a cage and tilts to trim the drive... over time a few owners back this had been removed and replaced with a volvo... well the cuout was too large so a plate was placed over the hole and the volvo cutout made and volvo placed on it..
the boat has been clearcoated and the topside is very checked and cracked, etc, but structurally is pretty straight... it'll need to either be regelled or repainted. basically it needs a full top off, everything restoration... the stringers for the most part are dry and solid... except a couple of spots which i dried out and injected thinned resin into... this wa a winter long process of rebuilding and beefing up. as you'll see in the photos.
i began work on this boat in april 2005... worked hard on it through july 2005... then bought a house, moved and let it sit until about christmas 2005... i moved it to the new house and shop... and have been hard on it ever since and it is now august 2006... finish ETA? i donno... i have some big dollar items to buy... most expensive being interior and the bravo + 2" Imco... the latter to handle the 361 CID mouse under the hatch... power yet to be determined but guestimates (with good exhaust) put it in the 440 hp / 460 ft-lb area)...
left to do at this point is some pre rigging and what not and cutting of the transom hole after figuring out where to put things (most likely the X dim will be 16")...i need to then flip the hull.. and REMOVE approx 10 - 12 inches of inner strake... this should greatly enhance ride attitude, performance and comfort. i still need interior, i need to finish the engine build... get a sterndrive and paint the thing... as well as redo chrome and stainless parts... ad figure out what i want for a trailer... not a snowball's chance in HE Double toothpicks am i putting it back on what it came with...
this is a major undertaking... after budget i figure easily approx 18 - 20K in the boat alone... (a new 18 goes for about 40 to 45K). i am already up to 800 hours of labor
I will do every bit of work myself.. except for the interior... though i must admit i've ahd a couple of friends stop by to give me a hand now and again.
at this point i have well over 1000 photographs to document the whole process...
i'll add some photos of progress.. this could take a while...
first... how it sat.. on the east coast when i arrived in glastonbury :eek: |
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| 1Bad16 |
at least we made it home in one piece... almost lost the hatch a couple of times and i was stopping every hour or so to replace light bulbs and fuses and patching and chasing down short circuits...
this boat is hull #105 BTW... 18-105 to be exact... Don Aronow was still with Donzi as a consultant as the Chisholm's had purchased Donzi in mid 66 and this boat was built in late 66. |
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| 1Bad16 |
| i was living at a small place on the lake.. no where to work... so i took ti to my parents... where we have a rather large well equipped shop... first thing to do... gotta build a cradle for the hull and the deck... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| and get the deck flipped over on it's cradle... to begin core replacement and glass work... the deck uses balsa coring.. what i found was grain parallel to the glass surface.. sucks up water like a sponge... you want to replace with either foam or end grain balsa... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| i wish i could find the jacka$$ that did this... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| a cutoff wheel in your straight die grinder works very well for removing the inner glass... if the coring is waterlogged.. it'll peel right off... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| it'll also require some of this... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| then you get a nice wide chisel.. not TOO sharp preferably.. don't want to gouge the glass... and you might need a mallet if you have "weak hands" so you can get the coring out... the dry stuff can be tough... but a little persuasion goes a long way :) |
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| 1Bad16 |
then sand teh whole surface with your DA... a 40, 60 or 80 grit pad and get it to glass and smoothed out... the square cutouts are getting filled... so that i can recut the roudn holes for the original vents... the area is also sunken and needs to be "pushed" back out...
to fill the open areas.. i used a piece of smooth counter top laminate... waxed surface.. placed against the outside of the deck it was hot glued to the deck... and backed with a bit of duct tape... the inside was tapered on about a 12:1 so that new glass could be laid in place... |
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| 1Bad16 |
then we laid glass over the whole area... 32 oz dow corning matte- weave or a biaxial (0 x 90) stitchmat if you will. this was to strengthen the glass after it had been pushed out so it would hold shape.
i am using polyester resin through-out this whole project... btw |
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| 1Bad16 |
| after wetting out with resin... stitchmat, especially heavy matte will absorb quite a bit of resin... |
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| 1Bad16 |
the resin i am using at this point is a laminating polyester... it does not require sanding between layups... it also remains kinda tacky after curing... MEK is the catalyst.
Next is the coring... end grain balsa, 1/2 inch thick. begin by wetting the surface with some resin... let it begin to kick... then trowel on some fiber reenforced polyester putty... basically microballoon modified.. like peanut butter... kinda like laying down glue for tiling... anywho... also wet out your balsa so you do not draw all of the resin from the putty and you get a good bond... helps to dry fit all of the balsa first... |
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| 1Bad16 |
fill in all the edges where the balsa does not meet with the putty and taper to and edge so glass fits nicely... then cut your glass to cover... remove the glass.. roll on some resin to coat the balsa.. lay your glass back on and wet it out...
on the inside layer i am using a 24 oz stitchmat, tradename is kyntex. it si a biaxial 45 - 45 weave. lays and folds nice... unlike the dow corning 32 oz.. which is a BEAR if you have to follow any curved surfaces... |
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| 1Bad16 |
it is important that your cradle meet the contour of the deck as it was when it had coring in it.. when removed the deck is light and flimsy... and will spring up.. but as the coring is replaced and resin added it sags back to the buck... if you don't have it supported well it'll lose shape and when you go to put the deck back on..
do half the deck at a time...
here is the deck with the square holes filled... |
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| 1Bad16 |
at this point i had removed coring from the front deck... and then bought the home... so the boat sat... it was really fun putting the top on... be very careful.. things will crack if you do not take your time...
anyway here it is in the new shop... ready for work to resume... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| coring out of the fore deck |
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| 1Bad16 |
| same procedure as the aft deck for coring replacement... the large deck area poses an issue though.. very flimsy.. be careful when pushing the coring into the putty... that the deck is well but not over supported... the curve will be LOCKED in place once things setup... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| make sure you leave your mark.... |
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| 1Bad16 |
and then i figured.. heck, might as well take care of the hatch too while i am at it... i like stealth... i am not into scoops and stuff... so lets make it flat... though a NACA duct or two might make it in there before it is painted... just to feed the mouse some fresh air...
as you can see... this hatch has seen better days... the guy that did the volvo is a real dip$hit... he had raised the motor so far when going volvo he had to cut the hatch to let the engine stick through...
but i thiiiink we can fix that... same procedure as the rear deck with holes, remove coring, sand, taper, glass, putty, balsa, glass, blah blah blah... you get the point... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| then we plugged the hole in the dash... so that we can go to an original dash panel... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| original dash panel w/ gauges installed... |
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| Wally |
| Man! great work...and you really seam to know your donzi history! Great job :cool: |
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| 1Bad16 |
| and then it was on to the hull... I had already chiseled out the transom wood... it was rotton at the bottom... you LITERALLY had to chisel it out wiht a chisel and BIG hammer and some muscle.. lots of sweat.. luckily no blood |
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| 1Bad16 |
| evaluating... the first thing i had to do was remove the existing paint.. or gelcoat or whatever was pigmented and put on the hull... so the 4 1/2 inch angle grinder and 40 grit sanding discs did the trick.. took about 3 solid nights to get ti smoothed out... |
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| 1Bad16 |
since the stringers were dry, except for a few small areas according the moisture meter i didn't want to remove them... so i bought 2 sheets of 3/4 marine plywood... (OUCH $$) and sistered the stringers for 8 feet... they are now 1 1/2 inches thick... should handle anything i toss between them :D
i began by fitting the plywood... tracing the contour to trim them to fit... and i bedded them in a bedding puttty.. the existing stringer had 3 layers of CSM wetted out to build the surfae up.. and the new wood was laid against it and drawn down with screws and clamps... |
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| 1Bad16 |
i let this kick off and setup for about a week before removing the screws... i then took the ole sawzall and trimmed the new wood to match the existing stringer contour... i also laid resin in the gap and let it fill anywhere that might have had air pockets... it also built up the joint.
I then cut gussets to help stiffen the stringers and fit them... shallow grooves were placed in the hull and bedding compound laid in them.. the gussets were then put into the grooves... they aren't very deep... maybe 1/8th inch.
they were also glued to the stringers themselves...
The bulkhead seperating the fuel tank compartement and the center storage locker had been previously removed when 3 owners back replaced the fuel tank... instead of removing the deck (THE PROPER WAY TO DO IT) he cut the ski locker off, cut the bulkhead out and took the tank out.. and stuffed some round mickey mouse POS up in there...
i took this opportunity to measure up and maximize my fuel tank area... the bulkhead is as far aft as i can go and still have use of my center storage locker without intruding into the hatch area fo the locker. this allowed me to add 12 inches to the tank length... going from 25 (stock capacity) to 34 gallons... i did all of the design, modeling and layout of the tank... Florida Marine Tanks built to my print... |
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| 1Bad16 |
i added bedding compound around all gussets (transverses) and the hull to stringer joint.. creating fillets... then glassed over with 24 oz 45/45 biaxial stitchmat (Knytex).
i also took this opportunity to close up the transom hole.. that i had made square... for ease of glass fitting... using the formica, waxed and glued ./ taped to the outside... 3 layers of kyntex to build to thickness...
btw, when laminating you must lay a matte / weave / matte / weave layup for bonding... witha stitchmat you have a weave and a matte "stitched" together.. so it makes things quick and easy... |
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| 1Bad16 |
then a few friends showed up... (the preivous owner and a few other donzi aficianados) to give me a hand with the transom....
i began by cutting 2 pieces of 3/4 marine plywood to size... then i laminated together by mixing microballoons with resin... and then drew the whole mess together with screws and clamps and weight on top for good measure... this is where vacuum bagging would be nice...
it sat this way for a week or so... it is the dead of winter afterall and it is all the wood burner can do to keep the shop at 75 F on a 0F february night in michigan...
the transom went in on the 2nd weekend in March... noitice how we ingeniously pulled the wood to the glass to get rid of bubbles... there are a couple of layers of CSM and resin and microballoon resin in between the glass and wood...
btw, the original transom was totally inside of the stringers... my transom wood straddles and encases the stringers... 40 inches wide... enough width to add backing for hydraulic steering cylinders, etc... the wood alone is about 40 lbs...
101 uses for a trailer leaf spring :) |
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| 1Bad16 |
| we also took this opportunity to begin making a buck to recreate the missing portion of the foot well / ski locker that had been removed... not "exactly'" how it was but more functional... the original was shallow and things would fallout... this is a but more to my liking... although i am awaiting my full ski locker footwell... which is still in florida... just hasn't had an opportunity to migrate to michigan yet... (friends are good to have btw). hopefully it arrives before it is time to paint... :rolleyes: |
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| 1Bad16 |
| transom wood in place without all of the clutter... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| and after some cleanup and a bit of glass... 2 layers of 24 oz Knytex... |
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| 1Bad16 |
then back to the ski locker.... had a bit of a FUBAR on this whole thing... in my stupidity (maybe it was too much beer that night)... after spraying on the gelcoat and letting it go off... i laid STITCHMAT against the gel.. instead of a layer of wetted out CSM... and then roven then more CSM and roven before backing with 2 layers of stitchmat...
what this did.... the stitchmat requires a lot of resin to wetout properly... the weave was wet... the matte underneath looked loaded.. but in areas it was not... it needed more resin.. well you guessed it... it caused the gelcoat to lift off of the gelcoated surface on the buck (the buck was gelcoated and coated with mold release)... so 20 hours of my time went down the crapper... what i ended up with was a porous and pitted surface... which i can fill and fair.. but it is still the premise... i screwed up... dang it... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| the bottom of the ski locker has balsa coring for added rigidity... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| with the hull glasswork finished we applied 3 coats of white bilgekote... this stuff is tough as nails.. slick as crap when wet and not all that cheap... |
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| 1Bad16 |
then we moved onto rigging before doing any bodywork... assembled it, take it apart then paint it... no need to destroy a lot of money fumble farting with something that doesn't fit after you've done all of the body work and paint...
this is the end result... all of the lighting (dash, gauges, anchor, navigation), electric fuel pump relay, wiring for kill switch, key switch, push button ignition, bilge, blower, gauges, etc....
i bought 2 merc wiring harnesses from ebay... 15 dollars each.. one was sacraficial for wiring nd the other runs front to engine... all of the accessories (bilge, blower, fuel pump, etc) terminate at the rear seat.. and will have water tight connectors so that they are plug and play...
i have a U-Flex roto helm fo rthe boat that has to get installed yet... before i paint anything in case i need to redrill the dash, etc... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| i also picked up a 2004 bravo transom assy... with a broken U-bolt in the upper pin.. 900 bucks.. SCORE.... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| actually we have a whole crapload of parts :) |
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| 1Bad16 |
| my fuel tank.... gosh i love solidworks :) |
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| 1Bad16 |
and the finished product... after priming with PPG DPLF Epoxy Primer...
the tank sits on 12 rubber supports bonded to the hull and the tank with 3M 5200... the tabs are thru-bolted to the stringers and the spacers are oak, encased in resin and a thin layer of rubber sandwiched in between and sealed on either side with 3M 5200... minimum clearance around the perimeter is 1 inch... and the bottom has anywhere from one inch (fore and aft) to 4 inches in the center...
yes i know the bolts are "too long" they'll be trimmed to fit... kinda hard to find exactly what oyu need in BFE southern michigan on a sunday afternoon... in STAINLESS STEEL :rolleyes: |
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| 1Bad16 |
| we also bilgekoted the rear of the deck... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| dash panel and gauges test fit... while finishing wiring... |
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| 1Bad16 |
| stand alone wiring harness for gauge panel... |
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| 1Bad16 |
I sold my 16 w/o engine because, frankly, no one wanted a "modified" engine, especially in a 16 donzi.. guess folks are a bit "frightened" when i show them photos of the gps...
so i kept it... and it'll go into the 18... i don't need to get too crazy... so stock stroke and open the bores up.. good parts through-out and it'll motivate the 18 well... hopefully into the 82 - 84 mph range if we are very lucky....
this could turn into a thread all by itself... :rolleyes: |
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| 1Bad16 |
| but it all begins with coooool toys :) |
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| 1Bad16 |
powdercoating is the name of the game... exceptional results... do it yourself in your shop with an old oven :) sure beats $100 / qt for DPLF + DCC Concept.. and it looks just as good.. and stays that way... color choices are nearly endless as are treatements such as candies, translucents, pearls, iridescents, wrinkles, clears, etc etc etc.
the whole powdercoating kit was less than a C-note from Caswell Plating.... the oven was free...i am still getting to know it but thus far as i've only done a couple of parts quick to fill in some time and make sure my wiring skills were up to par on the oven... the results have exceeded my expectations 10 fold... 5 minutes to put powder on... 25 minutes in the oven.. and whala... |
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