Outer stem repair on 37 Egg Harbor, a short section

So, if you want to reuse your old otherwise good condition planks, gluing in little, short sections of wood dowels from Lowes works great.
I think it is Poplar, I know it is a hard wood dowel. It has a smooth yellow green color and buttery like feel to the wood.

I have filled a lot of old bung holes.
First thing I do is clean up the holes with a drill bit and a drill stop.
Make a bunch of dowel pieces.
Use a stick and swab some PL poly glue in the hole
Put a dowel piece on a putty knife with glob of glue on the blade and roll the dowel in glue
Grab dowel with needle nose lock pliers
Place beveled end on plank hole
Hammer on in

After it is cured next day, sand flush, board is now like new.

This PL poly glue is very strong and 100% waterproof. It won't slip even if the plug was full board thickness. Of course, for this, it is not.

Advantage is a stronger full board thickness for the screw and no having to fill a recessed screw hole with a bung that will leak in water anyway into the head and threads.

See I will also overcoat entire hull with a layer of 5200. Too bad was not originally made like this.

 

Pics today. 4 more planks to go on.
I found using a short boat stand under the plank center is a great way to hold it up there to line it up then press into place using a small floor jack.

The center blue frame is inline with the original frame.
Frames on each side are sisters.
They bridge underneath at the bilge clamp.
Using a hammer, I was able to slip the sisters under the bilge clamp

I cut the old frames about at the bilge clamp, sister slide under the clamp up as high as they could go.
They are also doubled in thickness below the bilge clamp enough to keep the 3: screws from poking thru the sisters.
I also screwed a short section of 2x6 across the tops to help line everything up.

It is very strong, seems stronger than new.



The screws heads flush with the planks, no burying under a plug.
The poplar dowels glued into the old plug holes, these screws self recess flush and they are tougher than the mahogany wood.
I drill a 2.5" hole through plank and framing, press hard into place using floor jack and the screws hold well
Everything is lining up well and bottom is smooth.



All the plank edge gaps and any screw bun holes, I will fill with great stuff closed cell foam.
Then the entire surface will get an overlay of 3M 5200
Means it should be dry, no leaks when it goes back in

 

For the butt blocks, I dried out the old deck board pine blocks, then cut 2x6 matching blocks and glued them together to make one very thick but block.
That way I reuse the old butt block, why waste the wood, and the new 2x6 wood underneath strengthens them and the 3 inch screws don't poke through.
This way it does not even matter if they are not totally flat. Glued onto a 2x6, they flatten out. Does not even matter if they are cracked. Had one that cracked but I don't need it.
The butt blocks fit between frames and secure plank ends edge to edge. Each block typically gets 10 screws.

The old butt blocks are mostly spacers glued on to keep screws poking through a new 2x6 but block.
Using 3" screws puts almost an inch of screw into the bottom of the oak frames. It is stronger than the way OEM made the hull.

I paint all the new framing, seal every surface. Figure that can only help.
I am using an epoxy modified garage floor paint made by Behr. it as no 'epoxy' like you would add hardener. That is how the label on the can reads.
I picked it up last year as an Opps paint for $9. When they mix a color and customer does not like it, they sell it very cheap.

 

I decided to buy 1500 more screws just in case.

I'm a little worried that the China tariffs might make these screws unbuyable. Be awful if I need screws and cannot buy any.

These are 316 Simpson
I had a 10% off coupon

Simpson Strong-Tie 10 x 3-in Stainless Steel Exterior Wood Screws (1500-Per Box) T10300DTB at Lowes.com

They are the same size #10 as the Eagle Claw. Same #25 driver bit.
The thread pitch is coarser.
Eagle claw has finer threads closer together.
Not sure which is better.

 

All planks are on. I spline 3 seams. One gap was 3/8", 1/4", 1/8"
The one at the garboard was 15' long, I did it in one piece, grinding the tapering profile and fitting it.
I did not touch the plank edges. I ground the spline to fit. The glue is an expanding glue.
Use a rug remnant I found on the curb. Makes it very comfy underneath.

Perspectives




3 glued splines





A long spline to be fit next to garboard and this nice free rug
Splines are all knot free PT SYP

 

When I reinstalled planks, first one screwed on was the garboard.
The working down from the chine, attached planks tightly butted together, well, as tight as they could naturally fit. Some are curved. Don't know if they at OEM construction were straight or cut on a slight curve.
Meaning the last couple planks had a looser fit. Splining is better than finding out the last plank can't fit in its original spot.
And it keeps this area in decent tight fit.

 

Took just 2 hours to caulk 95% of the seams and bungholes, including sanding smooth with the grinder.
Worked fantastic! Happy!

Front bolt heads


In process of filling with Great Stuff foam.
Can has to be shaken, then sprayed upside down.
I filled a seam, then immediately took a plastic 3" knife and scraped down the seam section, maybe 3 feet at a time.
And do not touch it again.
The excess I put into the bung holes.
It will drop some down on you, you need to throttle the valve.
All of it was hardened in at most 45 minutes.





I tried orbit sanding but it was too slow.
I simply used my grinder with 24 grit and it took it smooth to the plank fast and easy.
I gave it a quick look over after grinding and it looks very good.
I will buy 2 more cans. The cans are $5 a can, it is cheap.

 

I plan to fill every seam over the entire hull.

When grinding it cuts it off fast and very smooth, easier than using a knife,
It did not pull out of the seams, this stuff is very sticky and dries quick as a resilient foam.
Meaning you can squeeze it and it comes back to it's shape without tearing.
These planks can shrink and expand and this foam will still keep out the water.
You could probably use this foam on a very dried out hull to seal all seams.

I figure any small typical plank movements, and the seal will hold up fine.
I will still overcoat with a layer of 5200.
I got some on my hands, neither alcohol or gasoline will dissolve this stuff.
Water does not absorb into it, I cut a chunk open and submerged it in water for a week, and it stayed dry. It is closed cell foam.
I know there is a similar spray foam product that is structural grade for adhesive gluing of wood, which might be better.

This is closed cell foam
It has an almost invisible air sac structure when cut into.
There is some technique, like directing the nose end into the seam, pressing, then dragging down a seam.
No matter what you will likely overfill the seams, was not an issue. Immediately drag a plastic putty knife down the filled seam and use the excess into more seams or holes.
Or don't bother trying to save any, this stuff is very cheap. But I do think dragging the knife down a seam is good idea to keep it from falling down.

 

I did not look on the inside yet, and I think it will show up on the inside of the hull too. Which for me is fine. Oil, gasoline, alcohol, water will not harm this stuff.
After 8 months of drying out, most all the seams have opened up.

For example, all the bung and bolt holes, I had this Great Stuff foam flush, flat with the wood, and you can see how much it expands. I want it to do that as that is a good thing.
The foam will expand as much as it can into every nook, cranny and crevice.

 

I made up my mind to fix more of the skeg keel
After it sat for months, it got compressed as there is worm damage in the lower part of the skeg wood.

I moved the support block forward. Now this block is the center of the boat. I jacked on the new skeg keel and of course it performed beautifully, it lifted and also lifted the hull off front block at the bow. I did not want to shift the blocks till I had the planks back on and caulked.



Removed the 5 bronze bolts.
I cut around the bolts, but found out I could pound them out with a 1/2" smooth steel rod.
I thought they would be stuck after 53 years, but they moved. And they look ok.
Cut off skeg about 6 foot 3" up.
Will clean up the cut and make it flat for the new wood.
I still need to remove one bolt, the nut is under the fridge.


The other block does show a slight compression, will think about fixing more skeg later. But it is not as bad there.

 

It is not an especially difficult repair, yet it is bothersome to need to do it.
It takes time and some effort.
I am wearing those face googles with 4 plastic vents, and I am under keel cutting crosswise with a circular saw.
And those face goggles still let in wood chips and dust. Gets in my eyes.

These do not work well enough to protect eyes.

 

I put tape over the vents and it helps keep out the dust, but still some drifts in.

The bolts, for this section of skeg, are 53 years in salty water and are in good shape.
I am adding one more. SS all thread bolt on the far right to hold the new wood as it did not exist
Plan to JB weld a nut and washer to the bottom end. Coat threads with maybe RTV, then heat shrink tubing over whole bolt.
I found the SS parts in the junk pile at the marina.
To remove used 3lb sledge and 1/2 solid steel rod and hit them out from the inside of boat. They moved with some effort. To get them moving, I also used a heavy wrecking bar with a flat end and hit down onto them with bar vertical, highly effective.
DEWALT 42 in. Wrecking Bar DWHT55132 - The Home Depot
I had to clean them up.


These skeg bolts get longer than this as you move aft

 

Got the skeg piece fitted. Not bolted in

Needs a tapering shim cut. This was not easy to fit.
I clamped it against the skeg, then traced where the wood needed to be shaped.


Back half is not pressed up yet, it closes the gap, but you can see where I need the filler piece. Middle going back 15"

 

Wood piece clamped along the side for tracing the pattern

In the process of fitting it, it fell onto my shin and caused a bad bruise, the sharp edge of the wood also scraped off some skin below the bruise.
Then while grinding a different filler piece, not this one, my hand was tired and the last knuckle of my middle finger fell onto the 7'' inch spinning 24 grit grinder disk and skinned off a bit of skin. So yesterday I got bloodied a little.

 

Tracing picture up closer. Even this is not perfect as it is tracing the opposite side, but it helps to get a better fit,

The glued in wood above it is a new piece of that 2.5 PT SYP made for marine docks.


aft end