Anyone here ever restore a mahogany runabout?
 

I visited a professional boat/aircraft restorer friend of mine last weekend and he was finishing up a rare late 20's or early 30's Dart runabout. He then showed me a finished 26' triple cockpit Chris Craft and partially finished rarer 28' triple cockpit Chris Craft.

This guy was also working on a Howard airplane project in his spare time along with completing a friends old T-craft (which most certainly will win an award at Oshkosh when finished.

The last time I looked at his boat projects I almost pulled the trigger on a completely rotted 22' Dart that he had out back and now I have the urge again and have been surfing the classifieds looking for a pre-war Chris Craft, Garwood ETC project boat.

Anyone know of one sitting on blocks rotting away somewhere? I am only interested in OLD "runabouts" in about any condition.
(My wife is going to kill me!)

Boat carpentry is different than home carpentry in many techniques used.

Best to be retired and in need of a passion to keep busy.

Maybe start with a subscription to Wooden Boat. Good luck.

Tim,

My grandfather built those Chris Crafts after WWII right here in Holland Michigan. I LOVE them, but they are waayyyyyy too much dough anymore. I've seen your skills, why don't you just whittle one from a mahogany stump?:D

I hear ya, but I am not the average joe:)

I have built some wood row boats, a violin and aircraft with wood construction plus I have access to the friend entioned above who does this professionally. :cool:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148347312.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148347342.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148347532.jpg

The last time I was on this "kick", I almost ordered plans to build a copy using modern engine etc, but my friend rightfully convinced me that I would be better off restoring an old somewhat rare boat that in the end would be nearly the same amount of work and money, but would at least be worth something in the end.

I guess I was just hoping someone here might know of one sitting in a barn somewhere:) . You know, the classic "barn find".
Even an old ratty one that has sit outside can be "restored" you just use the old planks as patterns and make from all new wood.
It is a huge job, but so is building an airplane from scratch:) . I can't help myself, it is a disease.:D

Well, there are tons of them up here around Holland, I'll see what I can come up with as far as steals. I still think you could whittle one.

Seriously Lendaddy, if you see any, I would be interested. I am not looking to buy a "finished boat" as part of my fun with these projects ias knowing I built or restored it myself. The best scenario would be one that still has all the Chromed bits and window frames etc as this stuff depending on the brand can be difficult to come by allthough if at least one of each part is present, one can get them duplicated in bronze and then chromed. The condition of most parts including the engine is not that important to me but if it all there, it would be beneficial.

What years did your grandpa build boats? It would be interesting to hear stories from those days!

I'll ask him tomorrow, as I'm not sure what years. He's the kind of guy that would gladly sit for hours and tell you stories though:)

I'll let you know.

maybe no help but

the listing of boats for sale in S Fla is super huge.. kinda like make a low offer then walk away and wait for the phone call next week.

These are the boats from Last Crusade, right?

If so, very nice lookin boat

"Go between them? Are you crazy?"

scratch build a west system boat [epoxy soaked]
or glue verniers on a glass hull
why bother with the old rotten stuff
the hull form suck and their SLOW but look neat

try craigslist if you must have an oldie
but I would still use the west system
wood prices these days are nuts
they act like it never grew on a tree

If you restore something old, my hats off to you. I love these rigs, especially the CC utility runabout. I have a place at a lake that is dying for one of these but the maintenance of keeping it nice will last a lifetime and when I'm at the lake I just want to relax. There is a gorgeous Century runabout in my marina to die for but the owner is a retired fanatic. I think this what these boats require.

There is alot of debate about epoxy encapsulation on the old boats, some claim that eventually (on the old boats) some minor cracking will occur, allowing water to enter the wood which will then stay there and cause rot. A few years back, many were epoxying the bottoms, but some now are advising against it. Alot of the high end shops use 5200 (or somthing like that) sealer instead. I love West System epoxy and have used it exclusively on my airplane projects, but if I end up restoring an old boat, I will have to make a tough decision on which way to go. If the boat is rare, I do not think I would go the epoxy encapsulation route. My friend who does this, can still get wood from a couple sources, it is not cheap, but in the overall scope of things it is not too big of a deal when talking about runabout size boats.

To me, the cool part about these boats is how rare, old and beautiful they are (they are like art to me), not how practical or fast they are. If I wanted a boat to just knock around in, I would buy an inexpensive fiberglass boat and go have fun.

The "prewar" Barrelback Chris Crafts are just absolutely gorgeous.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148385146.jpg

Tim, check out this site. Every once in a while some interesting stuff pops up.

http://www.boneyardboats.com/

Anyone have a good restoring website? I have a old 60's kit boat 13.5". The previous owner covered in fiberglass which is in need of a few repairs. Should I repair or strip it to the wood and use something else?

What type of hull is it? If the fiberglass isnt bonded well to the wood i would take the glass off. but that might do more harm than good.

Cool site! Thanks Vinny!

Tim,

I spoke with him this morning and it was actually '44 and he left when he was drafted.

But his father, my great grand father worked there for years before.

The 13.5" 60's kit I would guess is a runabout. The back is pretty flat and then it tapers nicely into a Vee in the front. I'm not sure if the fiberglass is bonded. There are a few spots where I see threads.

Found a couple of actual pics of the 22' Dart project I thought about buying
a couple years ago. It is still there, but it would be a huge undertaking (approx 20k worth of matls plus years of work). I also found a couple of pics showing what they look like restored. These two restored boats are worth at least 100K due to how rare the Darts are. (Rutherford B Hayes's grandson ran the Toledo based Co. in the late 20's/early30's)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148397395.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148397664.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148397728.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148397758.jpg