Hello all! New member here...I'm Mike, 30 years old, from Buffalo, NY doing a restoration to a 1959 hand built 14' plywood boat. I acquired this back in October and spent a month or so stripping it down to bare wood. I spent the winter remodeling my kitchen, and am now getting back to the boat. I'll fill you in with the progress so far...mind you these photos date back to October-December or so, and from here on out these are copy/pastes from another forum I had posted this project up on
The boat had been in barn storage the past few years where a leaky roof filled the boat and caused some damage. Here's the last good picture of it in the water from a few years ago...
The barn where it was stored.
In it's new winter home.
The gorgeous Art Deco era inspired 55 HP Mercury outboard. Apparently this boat was capable of about 30mph and could pull skiers quite well.
Interior shot...before cleaning. The seat cushions were destroyed and thrown in the trash before I picked her up.
After a little cleanup, with the front seat bottom removed and the rear seat folded up. It's pretty cool to see how this was constructed once I start removing bits and pieces, amazing that it was built by hand.
And getting started with scraping the paint away...this was maybe 1.5 hours or so of putzing around.
Currently, my plans for the project look like this:
*Read up on as much literature as I can and learn, learn, learn about the right way to fix these things up.
*Remove bad paint on hull, prep, repaint in possibly a gloss black or navy blue finish to really set off the woodwork on top.
*Possibly a new wood top (depending on the condition of it once I start cleaning it up).
*Find a nice wood steering wheel.
*Rip out the front wood seat and replace with swiveling captain chairs.
*Upholster a new rear bench seat.
*Possibly chop the windshield down a few inches.
*Stereo
*Remove paint from all stainless trimware and polish that up.
End goal is to have a comfy little 4 person cruiser to putt around with on calm days. I've never been involved in a project like this, so I have a lot to learn...but I'm excited to revive this beauty and hit the water come spring!