J D Lewicki
New member
So last fall I bought a boat from Duckboats.net legend Ron Shuna, and we actually worked out a deal where it came with a "second boat".
I'm a huge Alumacraft Ducker fan, and have had a couple of them now over the past few years...this "second boat" is the "DO" model or "Retriever".
The owners before Ron made some "improvements" like swivel seats, and a sand grit bottom with a custom paint job...and removal of the Styrofoam for buoyancy in two of the three benches.
KNOWING HOW RARE THESE ARE, as only 205 were made I decided to take this on as a restoration project.
First thing I did was to contact Alumacraft and asked if they still did boat restorations - which they do, and they were interested in seeing this boat. I still haven't had the time to bring it down to St Peter, but I plan to at some point to have them go over the rivets and seams and make sure its watertight before I continue the rest of the restoration.
I also asked them for the Serial # location, which I was told could be in any number of locations on the boat, but I have yet to actually find that. The only number I can find anywhere is a "70" cast into the
transom.
Here are some pics of the project.
...bringing them home.
Some of the images were not posting correctly, so here goes again...
Assessment of the boat, it is complete with all three benches in original configuration and original hardware. Two of the three benches are missing the Styrofoam for keeping the boat from sinking if capsized. The two also have grooves worn in them from the swivel seats that I should be able to fill in with bondo and sand down and paint. I also have the wood from the transom to pattern new pieces as they are rotten.
Pics of stripping with chemicals...which by the way worked great if you have 12 hours to wait between application and removal. The paint just peels / falls off at that point.
After some time, I was getting impatient with snails pace of progress and decided drastic measures were in order. I took the boat to Brighton Sandblasting up in Blaine MN, crossed my fingers and hoped that they knew what they were talking about... and believing in them telling me that the boat would be just fine. FOR THE RECORD, the blasting worked, and it worked extremely well, I could not be happier!!!
One final marking I found after it was sandblasted
The only other number I can find anywhere on the boat, the "70" cast into the transom.
Here's a shot of the underside of one of the benches, these would take some time to recreate as the amount of detail in making these were rather impressive.
That is all the progress I have made so far, I do not have a heated garage, so its essentially just a showroom right now...that and the fact that my wife is thrilled beyond measure that I currently have two boats in various states of repair/restoration in the garage over the winter here in the Twin Cities...
I'm a huge Alumacraft Ducker fan, and have had a couple of them now over the past few years...this "second boat" is the "DO" model or "Retriever".
The owners before Ron made some "improvements" like swivel seats, and a sand grit bottom with a custom paint job...and removal of the Styrofoam for buoyancy in two of the three benches.
KNOWING HOW RARE THESE ARE, as only 205 were made I decided to take this on as a restoration project.
First thing I did was to contact Alumacraft and asked if they still did boat restorations - which they do, and they were interested in seeing this boat. I still haven't had the time to bring it down to St Peter, but I plan to at some point to have them go over the rivets and seams and make sure its watertight before I continue the rest of the restoration.
I also asked them for the Serial # location, which I was told could be in any number of locations on the boat, but I have yet to actually find that. The only number I can find anywhere is a "70" cast into the
transom.
Here are some pics of the project.
...bringing them home.
Some of the images were not posting correctly, so here goes again...
Assessment of the boat, it is complete with all three benches in original configuration and original hardware. Two of the three benches are missing the Styrofoam for keeping the boat from sinking if capsized. The two also have grooves worn in them from the swivel seats that I should be able to fill in with bondo and sand down and paint. I also have the wood from the transom to pattern new pieces as they are rotten.
Pics of stripping with chemicals...which by the way worked great if you have 12 hours to wait between application and removal. The paint just peels / falls off at that point.
After some time, I was getting impatient with snails pace of progress and decided drastic measures were in order. I took the boat to Brighton Sandblasting up in Blaine MN, crossed my fingers and hoped that they knew what they were talking about... and believing in them telling me that the boat would be just fine. FOR THE RECORD, the blasting worked, and it worked extremely well, I could not be happier!!!
One final marking I found after it was sandblasted
The only other number I can find anywhere on the boat, the "70" cast into the transom.
Here's a shot of the underside of one of the benches, these would take some time to recreate as the amount of detail in making these were rather impressive.
That is all the progress I have made so far, I do not have a heated garage, so its essentially just a showroom right now...that and the fact that my wife is thrilled beyond measure that I currently have two boats in various states of repair/restoration in the garage over the winter here in the Twin Cities...
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