Shell Lake Mallard Queen Renovation-LSB-Start to Finish



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Deck laminated with 2 layers of fine weave cloth but I don't recall the weight. Everything was wetted, smoothed and squeegeed for a nice finish and strength. The
outer edge was rolled around the deck, onto the top edge of the hull and smoothed in (fine weave made that easy). This whole overlap is covered by the Rub Rail later.


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Painters tape was run along the edge where I wanted glass to stop on the overlap and the paper kept resin drips off the hull. We peeled the tape, trimmed with a
razor knife and then sanded smooth when cured.


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Excess glass was trimmed from the cockpit opening and you can see the steps we took to keep drips out of the inside of the boat


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Paper removed and ready to move on to the cockpit combing.


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I've done a bunch of steam bending before and it's easy to have that process get ahead of you. As a result, we decided to make a jig and laminate up our combing pieces. Each combing piece is 3/8" thick. I had Jerry mill up 15 strips of mahogany, all 1/8" thick. Three of them will give us the desired thickness. More on that in a minute.

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We made a jig for laminate/bending 1/8" thick Mahogany. The jig is from a couple solid door cores and spacers....all glued and screwed together.
Cleats are nailed to the underside and hanging over the edge to give a shelf for leveling the pieces around the form. The form and cleats were also wrapped with
stretch wrap to keep the combing pieces from gluing themselves to the jig.
The jig is just longer than 8' around so that 8' pieces of wood will wrap around.


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Our jig and layout/wet out table are close to each other with nothing in the way and tools close at hand.



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This is an 11' table. We covered it with cardboard so we could easily spread epoxy on the pieces.
We made a sandwich:
layer of release paper
3 layers of 1/8" veneer with epoxy between each layer for bonding.
layer of release paper to keep epoxy off the helper/clamping strips
3 layers of 1/8" veneer to serve as clamping aides to hold all the veneer in place while curing
This was all held together with one horizontal belt strap/clamp and several strap clamps vertically to keep things pulled into the jig. (pics to come).
 




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Couple truck band clamps going horizontally to hold the contour and straps going around to help hold the overall shape and sides in.
Couple bar clamps to keep laminates lined up.
On the bench, we stacked 6 layers of wood (as outlined above) with release paper against the mold and between the combing pieces and the 3 clamping pieces. All this was
stacked on the bench (with epoxy in place) and then wrapped a couple times with stretch wrap in a couple areas to maintain handling alignment. Then, Jerry placed
and pressed all the pieces onto the jig and Mike and I aligned and tightened the horizontal clamp then we could do the vertical/wrap bands.


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Shot of the 6 layers of wood....3 for the combing and 3 for "shaping band".


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Here's one piece cured and off the mold. 2 other pieces are sitting in the boat. We needed a front piece, back piece and then
made the center pieces our of the 2 sides of the 3rd molded piece.
 


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Jerry & Mike sanding the combing pieces.


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Front and rear cockpit combing pieces are fitted in place and held with clamps. The current open section will be filled with pieces from the 3rd curve. This has also
given us a chance to make sure we have good contact and fit around the deck/combing joint.




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Mid section of the combing has been fit into place and everything has been drilled, countersunk and screwed down. We used #8 coarse thread, high performance exterior screws
that are guaranteed lifetime against rust. All countersunk holes were filled with marine putty and sanded flush.


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This is a doubler piece that covers over the mid-section joint and adds a lot of strength to that area. It's also the area where the oar locks will be installed. The doubler
has been epoxied/clamped & screwed into place. I think it's there to stay.
 

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There's no such thing as too many clamps. This makes sure the epoxy makes full contact between the first course of wood and the doubler.
We have also installed the rub rails...Mahogany..........1" x 5/8" By going a little "deeper" and thicker, we get better edge protection and just
a bit more bit for the trim screws. We predrilled and countersunk the trim screws....all are s/s #7 trim screws.


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Clamps removed, heading for the home stretch. You can see where the trim screws are installed all along the rub rails.


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This was our solution to the rub rail fit. The original was impossible to figure from as it was rotted and glassed/gunked over.
So...we fit the rub rails around each end with best fit we could get. We then put tape under to seal and made a slurry (more GS) with catalyzed epoxy and Cabosil.
This bonded extremely well to the wood and hull and is sacrificial anyhow and can be repaired in the future the same way. Rub rails are basically sacrificial materials
and protect the primary structure from damage.
 


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The trim screw holes have been filled and we have sealed the combing/deck joint with the same 3M Urethane. It gives a waterproof seal along the combing and cleans
up the edge nicely.


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We ran painters tape all around the deck/coming and then caulked with the 3M. Right after that we removed the tape and squeegee everything with a gloved finger
wetted in solvent.


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We had already installed the keel with screws going from the inside down into the keel. We save the keel for last so we could get a nicely laminated hull without
having the keel as an obstacle. The keel was machined in one piece and fitted to the curvature of the hull prior to attaching. The keel is sealed but can be removed
at anytime if replacement is necessary. You would remove the screws and work a wire under the keel to release the adhesive and install a new keel. As with the rub rail,
I consider the keel to be a sacrificial piece.


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Following a final sanding.......vacuuming........and tack ragging (very important to a nice finish) we draped the hull and painted the inside and deck. We did a couple
coats here prior to flipping to do the hull. Everything got 3 coats of FME #28 & everything is still wet.


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Excellent Lou, thanks for the tutorial. Anyone would be proud to hunt out of that boat after what you put in her.
Click to expand...

Thanks Pete. We had a bunch of fun doing the work but it did take way longer than expected/planned. :) We should have seen that coming.
Lou
 
Wow, I mean, damn, WOW!!!!

Incredible transformation, great job to you & your crew!
 
Fantastic job Lou!!! What a cool boat to restore. Now I need a bigger shop and a boat to restore, LOL! Thanks for sharing the story.
 
Lou~

Spectacular job!

Great info re the 3M windshield adhesive.

Looks like you sprayed the paint - correct?

I think my next boat will get some FME 28....

All the best,

SJS
 
Lou~

Spectacular job!

Great info re the 3M windshield adhesive.

Looks like you sprayed the paint - correct?

I think my next boat will get some FME 28....

All the best,

SJS
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, much appreciated.
Yes...sprayed. If I can't spray it, I don't paint it. ;) I use a top cup/gravity feed gun and thin it between 10% & 20% depending upon application.
We have a 3000 sf barn out at the lake house and I've painted it twice with a commercial airless and it consumed 25 gallons each time. The Wagner airless cranks to 3000 psi and will spray a gallon in 4 minutes. I had my cousins filling the hopper and moving the scaffold and it was all they could do to keep up. Almost takes long to clean up than it does to spray. ;)
Lou
 
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