Double Ender restoration

Riley Oakes

Riley Oakes

New member
Hoping for some advice on this restoration/ additions I’m doing to this homemade 1950/60’s double ender. It is 13 feet long and 38 inches wide at its widest.

First off, screws vs nails for securing the wood. What do you use? Why?

The wood was planking that ran bow to stern on both top and bottom. Is it appropriate to use plywood to replace the old planking? I plan on fiberglassing with epoxy.

What do you use to fill gaps between planks or fill damaged areas to some of the wood (scrapes, chips)?

This is my first project like this, I will be utilizing the expertise on this page to help me through this great project.


IMG_2799.jpegIMG_3019.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Riley, welcome aboard..... the archives of this site will take up more hours than you have, but there is great info to peruse. Where possible, I would not replace with plywood. The beauty of these vintage craft is their functionality. I mistakenly over engineered my BBSB refurb back in 2009. I had rotted planking, open seams, and missing pieces. I took it upon myself to build a tank, and added so much weight, that while it is indestructible, and breaks ice that aluminum jon boats avoid, it does not pull off the mud easily and displaces more water.

So, I would caution you to think about what you add and does it add more weight than the original, and if so, is there another way?

If you are going to glass the hull, then I assume you will be using epoxy. I do everything with SS screws, and depending on application, I often use them only as gluing clamps, removing them and filling the holes after the epoxy cures. If you want to use nails, ring shank, bronze, predrilled, and set is your best option. Working with old wood, even with screws I would be predrilling to prevent too much splitting. Especially on plank edging.

A bandsaw, planner, and drill/drivers should be in your shop for this project. Hand planes, bevels, orbital and belt sanders are also great tools. I have a power hand plane, but usually reach for the hand plane as it takes less material and I can better see where I am shaving.
 
I'm no wood working expert--I'm just a guy who re-glassed one old sculling boat-- so pay more attention to comments that follow from those who are actual experts.

Screws vs. nails: what did the original builder use. If nails, you'll probably need to get a clench nail.

Plywood vs planking: Do you want to maintain the historic integrity of the boat, or just get something you can use. Go with planking if you want to keep it historic. If you go with plywood, you may have trouble bending around the curves. If you go with planking--how were the original planks laid on? Overlapping? Butted against each other?

Glass with Epoxy: Definitely the way to go if you glass. Was the original boat glassed? Painted? Canvased? See above about maintaining historic.

Gaps between planks. If you do the wood working right, these should be very small--and will not matter much when you glass so long as you fill with thickened epoxy to get a smooth surface before you glass. Traditional wood boats that were not canvased or glassed probably would have used caulking between the planks--and not the caulking you use in your bathroom. If this is going to be a working boat that moves from wet to dry on car top or a trailer, this is probably not what you want to do. But it you do--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6R81SiKgA--and expect the boat to leak a little every time it's been out of the water to dry and you put it back in.

Filler for damaged areas. I'd suggest thickened epoxy. Basically, you will want to mix your resin and hardner, than add any of a variety of fillers that will thicken it so that can use it to fill low spots. Along joints, you will want to put in epoxy fillets to get a smooth surface that your glass cloth (if you go that route) can lay on smoothly.

For damaged areas or to fill small gaps, you can use thickened epoxy to build them up. Same idea as the fillets, except you'll be using a squeegee or putty knife to apply thin layers to bring the surface up to smooth rather than a fillet to turn a share angle into a curve. You'll need to sand these smooth, so use one of the fillers designed to be sanded. Lots of choices--and what you want for bonding or filleting is different from what you want for filling and fairing. Here's the layout from West System--many alternatives out there. I've used West System fillers in Raka rezin/hardener and other epoxies with no problems. https://eu.westsystem.com/selection-guides/filler-selection-guide/
 
Jeff Reardon said:
I'm no wood working expert--I'm just a guy who re-glassed one old sculling boat-- so pay more attention to comments that follow from those who are actual experts.

Screws vs. nails: what did the original builder use. If nails, you'll probably need to get a clench nail.

Plywood vs planking: Do you want to maintain the historic integrity of the boat, or just get something you can use. Go with planking if you want to keep it historic. If you go with plywood, you may have trouble bending around the curves. If you go with planking--how were the original planks laid on? Overlapping? Butted against each other?

Glass with Epoxy: Definitely the way to go if you glass. Was the original boat glassed? Painted? Canvased? See above about maintaining historic.

Gaps between planks. If you do the wood working right, these should be very small--and will not matter much when you glass so long as you fill with thickened epoxy to get a smooth surface before you glass. Traditional wood boats that were not canvased or glassed probably would have used caulking between the planks--and not the caulking you use in your bathroom. If this is going to be a working boat that moves from wet to dry on car top or a trailer, this is probably not what you want to do. But it you do--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6R81SiKgA--and expect the boat to leak a little every time it's been out of the water to dry and you put it back in.

Filler for damaged areas. I'd suggest thickened epoxy. Basically, you will want to mix your resin and hardner, than add any of a variety of fillers that will thicken it so that can use it to fill low spots. Along joints, you will want to put in epoxy fillets to get a smooth surface that your glass cloth (if you go that route) can lay on smoothly.

For damaged areas or to fill small gaps, you can use thickened epoxy to build them up. Same idea as the fillets, except you'll be using a squeegee or putty knife to apply thin layers to bring the surface up to smooth rather than a fillet to turn a share angle into a curve. You'll need to sand these smooth, so use one of the fillers designed to be sanded. Lots of choices--and what you want for bonding or filleting is different from what you want for filling and fairing. Here's the layout from West System--many alternatives out there. I've used West System fillers in Raka rezin/hardener and other epoxies with no problems. https://eu.westsystem.com/selection-guides/filler-selection-guide/
Click to expand...
Looking like plywood is going to be my choice. I am not too concerned over keeping it original. Just need it repaired.

The planking was "butted up" next to each other, although there were about 1/8 gaps between the planks on the the top and the planks on the bottom have a little less than 1/4 inch gaps between them. The wood on the bottom is in good shape and dont want to have to replace just because of the gaps between the planks. Wood on top was done for, hence it being removed. There was cotton packed inbetween the gaps that was glassed over with resin. We have removed all the resin and old glass and will be doing epoxy glass this time. Should I pack with cotton and expoxy over the gaps again? Should I use thickened epoxy? Hmmmmm....

Learning that the epoxy and glass is really what adds the strength tells me that using nails will be just fine.
 
Last edited:
Cotton caulking (oakum) is an older technique before epoxy existed. I suspect the glass work was done years after the cotton caulking. I think I would use epoxy thickened with wood filler and then get on with the re-glassing.
 
Last edited:
Riley Oakes said:
This is a great pointer. Thank you
Click to expand...
If you do decide to plank, you can use a flexible sealant such a Sika flex in place of cotton batting for your seams. It has some give and stretch which is what you want as the wood moves. I used it on my cedar plank scull restoration last year and It has held up well. You can tape your inside planks and then epoxy and sheath the outside. Afterwards remove the tape and Sika flex any remaining voids on the inside.
 
Last edited:
Riley~

Jode said it before I could. I have used 3M 5200 for the same purpose on planked vessels prior to 'glassing. The flexibility is important. Once the 5200 cures fully - often several days - it can be sanded and faired.

All the best,

SJS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top