Fixing up my old boat

[Dave.E]

For a fun project to work on after work for a week or two I want to fix up my old sequel. Here's what I want to do to it:

- Pop off the old gunwales and replace em with wooden ones
- Fill in any dents with plastic weld epoxy and sand it smooth
- Paint the entire hull with black ABS paint

Being a student with no money I would like to make my own gunwales for it. Any advice on doing this or for any of the other points would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Dave

[woro90]

Long and precise scarf joints, lots of sanding, then good coat of varnish. Forget the black paint, it might get very hot in summer sun and deform easily. And every scratch will be visible. And since when do students waste money on unnecesary paint?

[Dave.E]

Forget the black paint, it might get very hot in summer sun and deform easily. And every scratch will be visible. And since when do students waste money on unnecesary paint?

Haha yea I was thinking that too. The reasoning is that the previous owner put a bunch of it where the vinyl was showing through. So now there are black blobs all over the red hull. More vinyl is showing through now in some other spots so I was thinking it wouldn't hurt to just make the whole bottom the same. The paint wouldn't cost much. Just a can of acetone and some ABS pipe It doesn't scratch too easily which is nice. With a good sand it will pretty much fuse to the existing layer ... Thoughts?

[Todhunter]

Do you have access to at least a tablesaw and router? A joiner is nice to have as well, to remove the saw marks and smooth the cut surface. If you have these, you can easily make your own gunwales once you get a hold of an ash board. I paid $30 for a 1x6x144 ash board from a cabinet shop, and $50 for the guy to rip the board into 4 gunwales and a piece I could make thwarts from.