Shell Lake Mallard Queen Renovation-LSB-Start to Finish

Lou Tisch

Lou Tisch

Well-known member
This is the Mallard Queen we renovated last Fall for Mark Davenport. He acquired it from Tom Wilkins and it needed some work so it would be usable again. Fortunately, it wasn't as "in need of repair" as Bob Welsh's is but it needed some TLC of it's own.
It appears that the canvas had been removed and then the boat painted. After painting (no idea on time frame), the exterior hull & deck were fiberglassed. The glass stuck to the paint but the paint didn't stick well to the hull. :)
First steps needed were removal of the fiberglass and keel to assess the damage and lay out a plan for repairs.
More to come.


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Rather than try to stem bend wood (as air dried wood can be hard to find and kiln dried wood can act badly), we decided to laminate the piece we needed.
We wrapped the opposing end (works nicely on a double ender) in stretch wrap and then made a sandwich of 6 layers of Mahogany veneer (alternating grain)and West Epoxy and
set it onto the wrap. The veneer contoured well for forming and then held it's shape well once cured.


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We then wrapped the veneer sandwich in stretch wrap to lock it down to shape.


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We used some wedges to compress the sandwich where needed for full contact of veneer/adhesive and contouring to the hull.


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Once the epoxy cured, we unwrapped the veneer sandwich (above) and cut the contoured piece needed (below).

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Thanks Lou the pics help very much. That one is in pretty nice shape. I am curious to your fiberglass work. What steps did you use. Mat? Cloth size ? Did you thicken some resin to fair out the hull getting in bewteen plank edges? What FME color did you paint it? Bob
 


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We have removed the inner combing (more on laminating thst up later) and cleaned things up around the new deck plank and planning a course of action. ;0


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Mike Andros is working at removing all the old material between the planks...tedious work but necessary if you want a bond later.


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We made a slurry/paste (we call it Gorilla Snot) and filled in some screw holes/etc where the keel was installed/etc. This GS is merely catalyzed West Epoxy
with fine saw dust blended in until we get a paste that will hang on a vertical surface. It cures very hard and bonds very well. We then fair it off with 36 grit paper.

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Thanks Lou the pics help very much. That one is in pretty nice shape. I am curious to your fiberglass work. What steps did you use. Mat? Cloth size ? Did you thicken some resin to fair out the hull getting in bewteen plank edges? What FME color did you paint it? Bob
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Hi Bob,
I figured it was time to get these pics posted and maybe help you along a bit though your work is looking great. I'm impressed.
For fiberglassing, we used cloth and West System Epoxy. I don't recall the weight though some was around 8 oz and the other was a very fine weave and I will have to check on the weights. I'll get back to you on that.
We used Gorilla Snot (West epoxy and saw dust as well as West Epoxy and Cabosil). It's strong and bonds well and the initial sanding after cure is with 36 grit disc sanders. ;)
The final painting was with FME #28.
I'll have more pics to post (got about 80 to post) and it'll answer some questions and then just holler with questions as we go.
Later partner, keep up the work on that MQ of yours...very cool.
Lou
 



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We made up some Gorilla Snot (GS) with activated West Epoxy (slow cure) and fine saw dust to a thick paste and formed it around the stem area where we had
removed some splintered wood. Pretty much all these GS repairs are non-structural and merely some areas where small amounts of wood had pulled away and
needed to be filled and faired in.


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You can see where we GS'd the stem/stern (can't tell which on a double ender) and down along the sides (area under the
bull nosed area.


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More areas filled in with GS and allowed to cure slowly.


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GS has been faired and we have begun sealing the gaps between planks. These planks are about 3/16" thick so there's not a lot of surface area for bonding so we
needed something that will grab and hold...yet remain flexible. We used a 3M urethane product used for Windshield installation. We've used a lot of this over the years.
It bonds very well, cures fast and can be sliced with a razor knife and sanded.
 



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All gaps between planks were filled with the 3M Urethane Windshield Adhesive (can't recall the stock number). You can find this at fiberglass shops, auto glass places,
Auto Zone, Murray's, etc. It's not cheap but it's great stuff.
Make sure you are putting enough material into the gap to squeeze out inside as well as outside.
We let it set and cure for several hours and then trim it off with a sharp box cutter/razor knife. You must have a new/sharp blade to trim it well.
Another reason for this is to prevent it from "raining" resin into the boat when the boat is upside down being laminated.

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All the 3M Urethane has been trimmed and the hull sanded, vacuumed and tack ragged prior to laminating.


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This was one area that was slightly concaved so we made up a batch of GS and filled it in. You will see this area faired in as we're ready to laminate the hull.
 
Lou I have not seen the windshield adhesive used for that with epoxy and cloth covering. How is the bond. I was going to go the route of thickend epoxy in the plank gaps backed by painters tape to avoid the drips.
 

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Sanded, vacuumed, tack ragged and ready for laminating. We had 4 of us involved so we could stay ahead of everything. In the picture, left to right, Mike Andros,
Ken, Jerry Stateler. Yup, I'm there, taking the picture. ;) You can see the filled and faired area to the right/stem.


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We catalyzed the resin and squeegeed it into the cloth and wood...making sure to saturate the wood for proper bonding. Once the first layer
was squeegeed down and fitted, we laminated another layer immediately to be sure to get good bonding between layers. We used a fine
enough cloth that the weave was easy to wet out, squeegee down and fill enough to make for good sanding prior to painting.

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Merely cleaned these us, sanded and painted and reinstalled.


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All the resin/cloth was allowed to fully cure (over night) and then trimmed off so as not to disturb any bonding.
 


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If you look closely you can see that we used two different weights and weaves of cloth on the hull with the finer weave on the outside for a nicer finish.


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Laminate is cured and ready for trimming. The two layers are easy to trim with a sharp knife/razor cutter/box cutter.


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Boat is right side up to make it easy to trim off the excess laminate.


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Hull laminate trimmed and deck is now ready for laminating. We covered the entire inside with tape/paper & cardboard so
as not to drip resin inside the boat.
 
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Lou I have not seen the windshield adhesive used for that with epoxy and cloth covering. How is the bond. I was going to go the route of thickend epoxy in the plank gaps backed by painters tape to avoid the drips.
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Bob,
The 3M for this application is kindof "off airport" usage (like off-airport landings-.....not typical). I have been using this for over 13 years for bonding/fairing our motor box into the Brant IIX. The bond holds very well and it seems to hold paint well also but I've only tested the stuff or 13 years. ;) ok.........seems to do fine.

The problem with the epoxy is that it will cure HARD in that gap and not allow for any expansion/contraction. We considered it also but seemed like a ton of work/grinding without the flexibility I wanted in that gap.
Lou
 
Lou that pic of the oar locks is what i need to make a new set. do you have overall measurements?
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I will get ahold of Mark and see if I can trace them for you and get the dimensions. We did not reinstall them as he hadn't decided just what he wanted to do in that regard.

I'll also post up the jig we made to laminate new cockpit combing. It worked extremely well as the old combing was completely rotted.
I'll get back to you.
Lou
 
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Also I was looking for the size of the half round rub rail. It looks pretty wide in the pics but cant tell for sure
 
Also I was looking for the size of the half round rub rail. It looks pretty wide in the pics but cant tell for sure
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I'll measure up the rub rail when I get to the shop. I had Jerry machine it out of mahogany and it's more of a bull nose than 1/2 round. That gives it more wearing ability and it will hold countersunk screws better. When installing the rub rail, we used trim head s/s screws. I have the size and length at the shop.
Lou
 
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