EMCBC 1965 Thompson Seamate Restoration

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:41 pm

The Eagle Mountain Classic Boat Club based on Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth Texas has acquired a 1965 Thompson Seamate as it's winter project. This boat is in a little better shape than our last project, see http://www.thompsondockside.com/views/v ... php?t=3216 She had been uncovered for a while and weathered the varnish off the interior laps and had once been a vinyl covered boat.

We jumped on her the other evening and began striping the hull and decks. The windshield had been replaced at some time with a good copy but made from bad wood (pine)and was growing mushrooms and rot. We had to dig out old caulk around windows to expose screws.

The decks had two layers of ply with the top being a bead board, we have decided to re-deck with mahogany faced marine plywood. all structure beneath seems to be in good shape.

We removed the splash rails for striping and re-finishing. We are removing all chrome, stainless, and interior so we can strip and bleach the interior laps and ribs.
More to come.....

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:51 pm

Excellent Dan - I've been waiting for your clubs next project - will be checking back often!

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:30 am

We have been discussing what to do for seats. We would like to go to wooden seats instead of the ones shown. Doeas anyone out there have a seat set from an old hull?
We would love to find a set, but if not we probably will manufacture one from photos or similar to one of our boats.

Any lost front / rear seat sets???

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:42 pm

My cortland sea lancer has wooden flip seats - pretty cool and I have never seen another set. Pic below. I am building a driver seat to match (well, started last winter, set it aside for the summer, and am now just getting restarted)

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:15 pm

We are working on her Satuday am. We have stripped the inside and bleached to try and clean but stains. We are testing using some stains so that we can match up older varnished areas from under dash and bilge. The sides were so stained that we will try and give them an older patina to match rest of interior.
I will post some images later.

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:47 am

After we had stripped the hull of all hardware, steering gear, engine, windshield and decks what we saw was good news. All laps ribs and keelsons were in good shape and just in need of refinishing.
The exposed inside laps had turned gray from years of exposure to the elements. The varnish was for the most part gone with just patches left. Andy trailered her home on a day off and applied chemical stripper to the affected areas to dissolve what varnish remained. We did not strip laps under front deck as they still had a solid finish on them, they will be sanded later for new varnish.
When Andy brought her back she was in need of a good power wash to remove any left over finish and crude left from stripping. A warm January day worked out well and she was allowed to sit out in the sun for several days to dry.

Several members showed up the next Saturday to start sanding, this is usually the worst part of restoring one of these hulls but with 5 or 6 guys at once it goes pretty fast.
After a lot of sanding we realized that the laps would never come completely clean after many years of staining without a varnish protecting coat. We opted to stain the laps to try and match the patinaed laps from beneath the covered bow. We tested a couple of light oak stains and settled with a mix of Minwax light oak and pecan mix, all sanded laps and ribs received a quick coat of stain, they look much better and go with the forward laps.

The transom was stripped and sanded then stained with a different Mahogany stain, except for the oak cross brace that got the light oak/pecan stain.

We wanted to add several coats of Captains Varnish to the newly stained areas before flipping the hull for bottom finishing. After letting the stain dry fro several days we added a thinned coat of varnish which the wood quickly soaked up. Two more coats were added before we started to see some build up. After the bottom is done we will add 2-3 more coats.

Our next project after the initial varnish coats will be flipping her to begin bottom refinishing. More to come.

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:21 am

We are progressing quickly on this little boat.
Our project received three coats of varnish to the side laps and was starting to gloss.

The next step was flipping the hull for bottom work. We decided to turn her over and put back on trailer for ease of moving around. Two side bunks were removed as well as the winch tower and spare. We added doubled up 2x4s for support on trailer when upside down.

We backed her up on the lawn and tilted trailer until transom touched ground and raised the bow so the trailer could be pulled out. She was gently rolled over on the grass then bow raised and trailer pushed back under her. The supports we added lined up right on the fenders. perfect.

The bottom was in good shape but someone had epoxied the keel cap at one time. We decided to replace keel cap, this is usually a must with this type of restoration if you expect to have a dry boat when done. This is the only way to inspect the joint at bottom of boat and truly seal it. After all it is only a piece of wood. The keel cap on this boat looked good but as we pried it from the hull it broke up into multiple pieces. The cap looked like it had been banged up over time and someone ground it down until smooth, it as about half the dimensions it should have been. Our plan was to replace it with one that will be just a little wider to give a little more lap over bottom sheets.

Whatever this hull was painted with is tough and took some serious sanding to fair down. Al exposed wood was soaked with a thinned mixture of West System epoxy, especially the exposed bottom sheet seam that was under keel cap. Raymond showed up with a piece of white oak and custom fitted a new keel cap. We gave the inner side of the cap a coat of epoxy also.

The hull is now ready for some fairing on spots that need some fill, several laps had edge damage and there is a small hog at the stern from rollers. After that she is ready for a coat of sanding primer.

Its amazing how much work can be done with 6 or 7 motivated restorers and a little dog.
Check out our web site at http://www.emcbc.com/ for more photos and membership info.

More to come....

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 2:06 pm

Sorry, I have not updated this restoration, But she is done and is now on Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1965-Tho ... 58884ff3b0

You can see more photos on our website at http://www.emcbc.com/

She turned out beautiful, one of our members built the windshield from Ribbon Mahogany and it is a piece of art. Part of the proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society in the memory of our friend Dennis Maye.

Check her out!

Thanks EMCBC

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 6:26 am

Thats awesome work Dan......Well Done. Congrats to the team!