Arthur Armstrong Broadbill Rebuild

[trey]

A few months ago I picked up an AA Broadbill for a great price. Here are pictures when I first got it. You can see it has been sitting for a while and is pretty rough, but it is exactly what I wanted, a fixer upper. Also, it had a pretty cool flip over blind and had a dog hole cut out in the front.

 

[trey]

When I got it home I removed the cap and started cleaning her out to see what I had to work with. You can see the transom is trashed and the makeshift combing around the dog hole was rotten. The hull has a few spots that are cracked that will need repaired also. I now have the hull ground out and ready to start working on it. I will take some updated pictures and post them soon.

http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b588/gtlegs/IMG_20130316_140415_509_zpse2b98e9b.jpg[img]
[img]http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b588/gtlegs/1591_zpsd53c81cd.jpg

 

[Mark Spolarich]

nice find!

 

[trey]

Thanks Mark! I am super excited to be able to do this. I have wanted a boat like this for a while, but down here in Arkansas they are rare. I was out one afternoon taking my mom to lunch and drove past a gas well rig and saw it tucked in the corner and after a few phone calls and a little cash it made its way to my house. It is an 84 model and was the guy's father's boat. He had all the original paperwork which made the deal even better.

 

[trey]

Well doesn't look like I will be getting anything done this week, just found out I have to travel to NJ tomorrow. Any suggestions on things to do/see in the evenings?

 

[CAnderson]

Despite us being a smaller state we are quite varied by region. There are many fine offerings to do while here. Let us know what area you will be in. I am sure several can chime in with some things to do while you visit.

 

[trey]

Thanks, I will be staying in Hamilton, and working at the Trane plant in Trenton. I will be free tomorrow afternoon and Friday morning. Thursday evening I plan on going into NY to see the WTC and maybe the Statue of Liberty. My wife's cousin lives in Manhattan and he is going to take me around. So what should I do tomorrow? Oh and I am flying into Philadephia.

 

[Tony H]

Trey very nice work, It appears this model has a full transom installed and then a motor board. What is the full transom made of? doesn't look like wood.

It amazes me to see these older boats coming apart and being restored and seeing that none of them ever have an ounce of floatation foam in them. We just got done building a liner for this very boat so that we can incorporate floatation foam and meet uscg regulations to bring it back to market. Its a shame because we loose so much usable space by having to do so but regulations must be followed.

Great to see this one being rebuilt. Great work so far and if ya need any pointers let me know.

 

[trey]

Actually the full transom is the same type of plywood as the motor board. And all was covered with fiberglass I plan on putting back two full pieces of plywood across the transom and maybe add in a couple of braces because I plan on running a small mud motor. The boat actually does have flotation, it is all attached to the bottom of the cap though. I will put some pictures of it up when I get back in town.

 

[Tony H]

Actually the full transom is the same type of plywood as the motor board. And all was covered with fiberglass I plan on putting back two full pieces of plywood across the transom and maybe add in a couple of braces because I plan on running a small mud motor. The boat actually does have flotation, it is all attached to the bottom of the cap though. I will put some pictures of it up when I get back in town.

Kool lets see the under side of the deck when you get back. Surprised to see a full transom in wood. That's way over kill. when you put it back use composite for the transom and then 4 layers of 2408 biaxial over it and it will never need to be checked again!

 

[Gene R.]

Trey very nice work, It appears this model has a full transom installed and then a motor board. What is the full transom made of? doesn't look like wood.

It amazes me to see these older boats coming apart and being restored and seeing that none of them ever have an ounce of floatation foam in them. We just got done building a liner for this very boat so that we can incorporate floatation foam and meet uscg regulations to bring it back to market. Its a shame because we loose so much usable space by having to do so but regulations must be followed.

Great to see this one being rebuilt. Great work so far and if ya need any pointers let me know.

Tony, I was surprised how and lack of foam in mine when I rebuilt my transom and resealed the deck to hull. Maybe 2'x2'x 2" square screwed to the plywood that is fiberglassed to the underside of the front deck. In the back there might be 8"x 8" x 12" attached to the underside of stern deck area in both corners of transom. For as little as there is in the boat I doubt it would help if swamped. Hey how are your molds and builds going?

Trey, If ya search my posts from acouple years ago I did a pictoral of AA BB rebuild and Its the same hull basiclly. My floor is different and I dont have dog hatch up front cut in. I don't think I would like that because of chances to take on water in rough conditions. At least on the water I hunt.

Gene

Gene

 

[trey]

Well I had planned on using what I had on hand. Nice 3/4 exterior plywood glued together with titebond then wrapped with CSM. Will glass it to the boat with more CSM and thickened resin.

 

[Tony H]

Trey very nice work, It appears this model has a full transom installed and then a motor board. What is the full transom made of? doesn't look like wood.

It amazes me to see these older boats coming apart and being restored and seeing that none of them ever have an ounce of floatation foam in them. We just got done building a liner for this very boat so that we can incorporate floatation foam and meet uscg regulations to bring it back to market. Its a shame because we loose so much usable space by having to do so but regulations must be followed.

Great to see this one being rebuilt. Great work so far and if ya need any pointers let me know.

Tony, I was surprised how and lack of foam in mine when I rebuilt my transom and resealed the deck to hull. Maybe 2'x2'x 2" square screwed to the plywood that is fiberglassed to the underside of the front deck. In the back there might be 8"x 8" x 12" attached to the underside of stern deck area in both corners of transom. For as little as there is in the boat I doubt it would help if swamped. Hey how are your molds and builds going?

Trey, If ya search my posts from acouple years ago I did a pictoral of AA BB rebuild and Its the same hull basiclly. My floor is different and I dont have dog hatch up front cut in. I don't think I would like that because of chances to take on water in rough conditions. At least on the water I hunt.

Gene

Gene

Gene your are very correct. it would take aprox 3cubic feet of foam just to support a 25hp motor which these were rated for. We plan to put over 7cu ft of foam in the Broadbill to meet USCG regulation and as you know that's a lot of space losts.

Molds are coming along. Update coming soon. We had to take a weeks vacation and clear the dust if ya know what I mean.

Great to see these boats being brought back to life. Love seeing them here and the guys rebuilding them if I can ever help anyway give me a shout!

 

[Tony H]

Well I had planned on using what I had on hand. Nice 3/4 exterior plywood glued together with titebond then wrapped with CSM. Will glass it to the boat with more CSM and thickened resin.

That will work too and if ya already got it and glass it well it will still last a long time. Coat the plywood in epoxy before installing it. Then put a couple players of csm on the glass transom and then attach the wood. Cut the ply at angles so that glassing it will be easy and wont create air bubbles that can bust and allow water to enter.

Your doing a wonderful job so far. Keep the pics coming.

 

[Gene R.]

Well I had planned on using what I had on hand. Nice 3/4 exterior plywood glued together with titebond then wrapped with CSM. Will glass it to the boat with more CSM and thickened resin.

Trey, sounds about like my process. I used wood screw(brass) to pull wood tight with 5200 between and ground screw tips off before glassing. I glassed and fillet angled supports in as well. I was wanting to make sure transom was extra stout. Also make sure you glass the top of transom to seal water from leaching in at lip of motor well. On mine after I cut the transmon out i could peel the glass off the exterior of transom. This showed me where the weak link was in the transom. It's the raised motor mounting area that loses seal from enviroment. At idle or beached this section will have water rolling up to top/bottom joint. Seal (chalking or adhesive) the living hell out of top (deck) to bottom (hull) seam. Good luck there great lil boats and just fun to zip around in.

Gene

 

[trey]

I plan on completely glassing the wood before ever installing it. I plan on using some 2x4s to clamp the wood together while gluing and to clamp the transom in the boat while tabbing in. My boat has quite a bit of foam under the cap, not sure how much but I'm sure it's several cubic feet because it goes from the back corners up the sides quite a ways. I've checked out your build Gene, looks great. Sorry if my post is kind of rambling, I'm getting pretty bored on the plane to Philadelphia right now.

 

[trey]

Made a little progress this weekend, but didn't work on it as much as I should have because the darn crappie wouldn't stay off my hook! You can see where I hit the transom with a thin coat of resin and some thin CSM just to stiffen it up a tad because it was real floppy. I also repaired the bottom right at the transom where I got a little crazy with the grinder. I repaired two cracks at the front of the boat and one down the side. Then patched up a couple rough spots that I didn't like. You can see my transom template laying in a couple pics as well. Plan on getting the wood cut and glued together tomorrow night hopefully. Enjoy my pics!

 

[trey]

Got a little more done last night. I got the transom cut and glued together. After seeing how stout just one piece of the 3/4" plywood was I decide to just do it like the factory. I cut out one piece the full size of the transom and just a motor board for the center. I used Titebond 2 to glue it together and got it clamped up with some homemade clamps to hold it together for the night. Hopefully tonight I can get it wrapped in fiberglass.

 

[Steve Sanford]

Trey~

Nice workmanship and pics!

Another alternative to your clever clamps - and one that would be esp. useful had you doubled the entire transom -would be to use deck screws as clamps. Just back them out and fill the holes once the glue has cured.

Not sure yet how motorboard fits into rest of framing. Could you have beveled sides (45 degrees) on table saw before glueing - to make 'glassing simpler? (Just a thought...)

Keep up the fine work!

SJS

 

[trey]

Thanks Steve. I could have just used screws to clamp it, but had the all-thread and nuts plus some 2x4 scraps so it was a simple and effective solution. Beveling the motorboard would have been smart, but I do not have a table saw and the last time I borrowed my buddy's I lost the end of my right index finger... I plan on taking my belt sander to all the edges tonight and rounding them for a smooth transition for all the CSM. Will get pictures up when I get done.