Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout Helm Seating Fabrication Update

1957 lyman runabout helm fabrication

Under John’s eye and steady hands, sheets of half-inch ribbon-cut marine plywood are slowly being transformed into what will be a commodious helm station, complete with a flat floor from the forward end of the engine to the firewall.

That John is in his element, muttering measurements and angles to himself is evident. That he needs his space and wants to be left alone is even more evident. “Helpful” kibitzing is verboten. Prior to launch this slow, exacting process, John and RJ finished fabricating and installing the balance of her new ceilings. With the ceilings in place, John knows precisely the arcs and spaces before him.

It will likely take him the better part of a week to complete the new seating configuring, at which time we must release all of it, including all of the ceilings so they can be finish sanded, bleached, stained and sealed with three coats of Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES). (The lockers will likely be assembled ahead of time so that we can attend to plugging countersinks ahead of bleaching, staining and sealing.

We will apply fifteen coats of Pettit Hi-Build varnish before installing everything for good. We received the final batch of hardware and hinges back from D & S Custom Metal Restoration yesterday.

Shauna Lawrence, Kocian Instruments, expects to ship the preserved gauge cluster in a few weeks. Weather is our major frustration at present. We sourced some beautiful, air-dried Honduran mahogany, which will be transported on an open flatbed trailer. Given the good things that multiple years of air drying has done for the lumber, transporting it through the driving monsoon-like rains we are now suffering is not OK and will not happen.

Looks like a dry window is opening the first half of tomorrow. Guess who will be on the road well before the first glimmer of sunrise emerges over the Green Mountains?

Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout How to Mock Up Helm Station Seating

1957 lyman runabout helm station seating mockup

Our 1957 23’ Lyman Runabout’s owners asked us to replace the unworkable, basic helm station seating and storage she was originally fitted out with in Sandusky, OH, with the optional center pass-through alternative.

It will offer a flat floor from the engine box to the firewall, two storage lockers, one behind each “bucket” seat, and additional storage beneath them.

Where to begin? Fortunately the two seating configurations share interior seating pedestals. John began there, shaping and fitting each seat and locker, including the shelves within and the door he will fabricate and install. That door will be fitted out with the traditional Lyman anchor cutout.

John’s ability to imagine and then translate his ideas into a concrete, three-dimensional reality is at least inspiring, if not just a bit intimidating!

Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout: How to Fabricate and Install Ceilings

1957 lyman runabout how to fabricate ceilings

Ceilings – hull-side mahogany planking – and helm seating with a center pass-through and storage lockers fixed to the aft side of the forward seatbacks were available options on the 1957 23-foot Lyman Runabouts.

Her original owners opted for the stripped-down configuration, no ceilings and basic seating. The latter included a wide, solid seatback centered in the helm station with two short hinged wings at each end.

Her owners are opting for the upgrades, including a pair of lockers, complete with silhouetted anchors in the doors. Even better, once finished, our optional seating configuration will include a flat floor from stern to firewall, and a small step-up to each helm station seat.

We will fabricate and install the ceilings and mock-up the seating and lockers while her owners are on the east coast. Presenting our concept to them in person helps us reach a joint decision, which must translate into a superior results for all.

Posted on

1959 Chris Craft 17′ Sportsman Engine Install Alignment is Cricital!!!

1959 chris craft sportsman engine install align

Frustration dominates the shop this afternoon. Why? Whoever last stuffed this 283 into her bilge failed to align the engine and driveline properly, or even at all.

As is clearly evident in the video, we now understand why her original prop shaft was so badly scored and had actual, almost inch-wide grooves worn into it. The shaft log is worn completely out of round as well.

The shaft log can be used, but the prop shaft will be replaced with a stainless one.

You simply cannot just drop the engine onto its mounting wedges, crank down the mounting bolts and then bolt the mating faces of the transmission and prop shaft couplers together with a long ratchet handle. Yes, you can force – distort – them until they appear to mate by reefing on the coupler bolts.

But all you have really accomplished is initiating destruction of the strut bushing, the prop shaft, and the shaft log, while also visiting potentially high-wear forces onto the transmission and engine.

Once properly aligned, and before any bolting begins, alignment is a hands-only process, with the wedges being tapped this way and that, and the engine being teased laterally back and forth until it is impossible to insert a 4 mm feeler gauge between the coupler plate faces when the latter are held in place by hand.

Repeat all the way around 360 degrees while holding the plates in place. If the feeler gauge can be inserted anywhere, the engine is not properly aligned.

Spin the prop shaft and its coupler. When correctly aligned, inserting that gauge remains impossible.

That the original prop shaft was polished along the section passing through the shaft bore as well tells us the latter was bored slightly too small, so we cleaned it out using a Forstner bit on the drilling shaft John fabricated to open the bore until the prop runs without touching any wood once the engine is aligned.

Yes, alignment is a slow and at times incredibly frustrating process, but oh is executing it properly critical to achieving rated horsepower output as well as to the long run viability of your engine and driveline.

John, who spent decades building high-performance engines for mud racers, knows of what he speaks on this front.

Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout Bleach & Stain Part II

1957 lyman runabout bleach stain

Here is Part II of the crew blasting through the bleach-stain milestones as we apply Wood Kote Products Jel’d Wood Stain on our 1957 23-foot Old Style Lyman Runabout.

Part I’s narrative focused on the how, why and advantages of jel’d over filler stain in these applications. Yes, it is far easier to apply and delivers an incredibly uniform color. It, goes an incredibly long way; we used about 12 ounces to stain everything we stained today. But it is not a filler stain, which translates into a surface that retains most of its cross-sectional declivities – hills and valleys – post staining, especially compared to a filler stain, which is designed, well, to fill these selfsame valleys.

Bottom line even following three full coats of Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, filling these valleys and thereby achieving the truly flat surface we thirst for requires at least 3-5 additional coats of varnish.

We are not ready to jettison our Interlux Interstain Wood Filler Stain yet, but the ease with which we achieved an absolutely uniform color across all these surfaces makes it truly difficult to hide the Wood Kote in a deep corner of a dark cabinet!

Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout: Bleach & Stain Part I

1957 lyman runabout bleach stain

Our 1957 23-foot Lyman Runabout conservation project blasted through two milestones today. We bleached her decks covering boards, toe rails, king planks and helm station bulkhead earlier this week. Today we stained all of the same surfaces and components.

We have long standardized on Interlux Interstain Wood Filler Stain, but have recently been seeing dramatic and superior results using Wood Kote Products Inc.’s Jel’d stains – dark and red mahogany mixed in equal proportions for our Lyman products, and a bit more red relative to dark mahogany for Chris-Craft.

Jel’d stain is not a filler stain and it is not meant to be applied and let sit until it flashes. Instead, it is applied in a circular motion using a terrycloth or old T-shirt rag and then wiped – not scrubbed – off immediately with strokes that follow the grain.

The uniformity of the result is dramatic and easily attained compared to the sweat and blood required to achieve a similar result with a filler stain.

One of the advantages of jel’d over filler stain is that those nasty, light “Oops!!” events we all experience when sanding too aggressively after the first few coats of varnish are easily repaired with a rag and a bit of the jel’d stain. That offending light spot or area disappears, at least in our experience with it thus far.

Part II follows John and RJ as they stain the balance of these surfaces.

Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout Paint & Stain Update

1957 lyman runabout paint stain

What a difference a bit of attention makes!

  • She is sporting her red boot stripe.
  • Her topsides were sanded to 80 grit, faired with 3M Marine Premium Filler, final sanded with 80 grit, and then received two coats of Interlux PreKote primer.
  • Her transom received two Dutchman repairs, was sanded fair using 40-, 6- and 80-grit paper, stained and sealed with three coats of CPES.
  • Her remaining mechanical components were released and readied for preservation.
  • All interior hull surfaces and all framing were cleaned, sealed with CPES and received an initial initial coat of Sandusky Lyman Sand Tan Bilge paint.
  • Her new foredeck and aft deck panels and her king plank were fabricated using correct ribbon-cut mahogany marine plywood.
  • Most of her hardware was packed and sent to chrome.
  • Her Iva-Lite returned fully preserved.

Once John reaches for surface putty and repairs a series of dings that the primer revealed, we will be applying Interlux Premium Yacht Enamel to her topsides.

We will shortly seal her deck and gunwale framing with CPES, and then we can move to installing her decks and covering boards bedded in 3M5200.

This update affords us an opportunity to remind one and all of us to take great care when we tighten lifting ring assemblies. You fail to do so at your peril, as is clear from this clip. Someone must have trotted out a long bar to have extra leverage while securing the assembly. The result is a concavity around the deck’s center rather than Lyman’s characteristic and elegant crown.

We will address the issue using vertical bracing between the keel and the two deck frame members just forward and aft of the lifting assembly. Carefully applying upward pressure removes the hollow, but we will go slightly beyond fair so that the deck is properly convex once the panels are installed, the bracing is removed and the surface settles slightly.

From now to her post-conservation review sometime in May, she will blossom, becoming ever so much more elegant day-by-day and week-by-week. Yes!

Posted on

1957 Lyman Runabout Foredeck Off!

1957 lyman runabout foredeck removal

With only applying SANPACO Lyman Copper Bronze Antifouling paint to the jack stand paddle areas ahead of us, RJ and I lowered the 1957 23’ Old Style Lyman Runabout onto a pair of boat dollies this morning.

He’s totally cleaned the interior of the topsides and bilge of all old paint, varnish and what have you. Now it is time to attack replacing the foredeck, toe rails and aft deck, and to release and refinish the covering boards between them.

The starboard foredeck panel was replaced at some time, along with the toe rails on both sides. Rather than use ribbon cut mahogany plywood, which is correct, the new panel is what we call totally incorrect swirl-grain plywood. That it is thicker than the portside panel does not help at all. I express the hope that we can save the toe rail material in the video, but, having released both of rails now, it is clear that major plywood delamination has assaulted both of them. I quickly stripped a section of the king plank, only to discover that it too is fabricated from swirl-grain plywood. The one positive is that whoever did this work was super lazy, or just did not know. Nothing is sealed on the back sides. Nowhere is there any evidence of adhesive having been applied between the decking material and the frames. All of the delamination we have discovered is the “reward” for taking such shortcuts. We will seal aggressively, and will set everything bedded in adhesive. We have no choice but to replace the king plank and both toe rails using correct, and likely slightly thicker ribbon cut plywood.

The aft deck plywood panels will be replaced as well thereby allowing her to present uniformly from stem to stern.

Once the deck and gunwale framing is exposed, it will be cleaned and then sealed on all sides with three coats of CPES. Why?

We spend incredible money and time staining, sealing and varnishing exterior surfaces, but so many of the boats arriving in our shop present completely raw interior surfaces. That raw wood is like a sponge that continually takes on and releases moisture, causing the wood to expand and contract beneath the wonderful varnish we have so lovingly applied.

For a while the varnish is elastic enough to expand and contract with the wood, but as it continues curing, it also loses elasticity, begins breaking down and ultimately fails.

We seal every piece of wood on every side we can get to. Bilges receive three coats of CPES and then three coats of the best bilge paint we can buy. If the boat is outfitted with ceilings, that bilge paint is applied from keel to gunwales.

The framing is doused with CPES, as are the underside surfaces of all deck and covering boards. Once sealed, the wood becomes very stable and finishes survive much, much longer.

Yes, all this sealing costs money and time, but once again, price and cost diverge. Just think of how much you save if your woody’s varnish fails in 3-5 years instead of 5 – 8 years!

Posted on

1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender Staining & Sealing Topsides

1940 lyman yacht tender staining sealing topsides

Obliterating milestone becomes more and more gratifying once a conservation project moves past repairing and sanding, and into applying stains, sealer and finishes!

And, with her topsides stained with Sandusky Natural Filler Stain 9805, and sealed with three applications of CPES, our 1940 Lyman Custom yacht Tender just crossed that Rubicon.

Once we complete the transom’s final niggling repairs and sand it flat, we will stain it with a 2:1 mixture of Wood Kote Products Inc.’s red and brown mahogany Jel’d stain.

Yes, after being urged to do so, and following extensive testing on scrap wood, this Lyman will serve as our first time staining with other than Interlux or Sandusky filler stain. While we will sacrifice the positive effects of filler stain and thereby likely need additional coats of varnish to achieve a flat surface, our research and testing suggest strongly that we gain a much more uniform result.

Time will tell.

Once finish “bodywork” and final sanding is behind us, we will stain her transom later today. We will apply CPES on Thursday, and be ready for varnishing soonest thereafter.

Now that is a major milestone indeed!

Posted on

1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender Interior Stripping & Finishing

1940 lyman yacht tender interior stripping finishing

What a “wonderful” work environment! Not! I have enjoyed two weeks “down under” the flipped 1940 Lyman Custom Yacht Tender hull removing all traces of paint and varnish and then sanding all surfaces smooth.

Finally all surfaces have received at least one CPES application, and the bilge and transom have received three. I will next apply a second coat of CPES to the interior topsides, and all of it will be ready for finishing.

The bilge will receive three coats of Sandusky Lyman Sand Tan bilge paint up to the floor level. How the interior topsides are finished remains TBD at this point.

As is evident in previous videos, she arrived painted – blue, green and finally tan – up to and including the stiffening rail that runs longitudinally about halfway up the topsides inner face, and varnished from that rail to the gunwales.

Thanks to the New England Lyman Group, and the 1941 catalog a member shared, we know that Lyman offered a base configuration that buyers were invited to customize. The aft seat could face forward or, in very few cases, aft. The exterior could be finished bright or painted white. The interior was offered completely varnished from gunwale to keel, but owners could specify various combinations of bilge paint and varnish according to their wishes.

Susan’s original owner chose the completely-bright option based on what I found when stripping the paint. After an informative dialog with the NELG membership, and with the help of Ryan Koroknay, I confirmed that the inner-most, oldest layer, a bilious robin’s egg blue, had been applied directly over varnish. Very careful scraping yielded several paint chips with strong evidence of varnish on their inner sides.

Susan sports cypress topside strakes from her waterline to her gunwales, or so I thought. However, once I had everything clean inside, the strakes running between the stiffening rail and floor level are noticeably darker than those from the rail to the gunwale. And there is evidence of the speckled grain that we often see in early mahogany planking.

So … what to do? Finishing everything bright down to the floor is my preference, and my research, which informs me that bright is how she left the Sandusky factory.

We will do some test varnishing early next week once the final CPES applications have cured, and make a final decision then.

Any ideas or preferences you wish to share will be most appreciated!
Time to go down under again, armed with a 3” chip brush, respirator, fan for fresh air and a pail of CPES!