Luger Leeward Restoration Thread

[Dave Custer]

The isn't anything new going on really. I'm backed up with smithing work and reorganizing the interior of my work trailer.

The current condition of things is as follows.

The fiberglass, resin, roller, and brushes all arrived.
I procured a 2 quart CPES kit from a semi local wooden boat restoration company.
I removed most of the cleats and blocks.
I sanded the forward area where the forestry attachment is to determine the extent of the damage there. Apparently the laminate cracked in this area so someone poured epoxy resin over the crack as a "fix." It just cracked right through the epoxy of course. I've ground back though the epoxy and gel coat to original laminate. The crack(s) will get ground out, tapered, and relaminated from topside. From the underside the will be a new layer of reinforcing 1708 cloth plus a new breasthook and stringer. (The originals are rotted due to deck hardware being dry fitted.)
I also picked up some bondo for filling some areas, acetone for cleaning, gloves, and some. 3M 5200 for the centerboard bedding and for future deck hardware.

The next step is to mark, measure and coat the stringers in preparation for installation.

That's all for now!

[miken2em]

Sorry I'm late to this forum, but I just joined.
I built my own Lugar Leeward around 1975, and it's time to do some renovation work. Since I built mine myself, I can give fairly authoritative answers to some of your questions.

1) Yes, the plastic is styrene resin, not epoxy.

2) The stringers along the hull bottom are to strengthen the hull, not for the convenience of adding a floor.

The stringers were made of plywood which was Isoceles-trapezoidal in section. The bottom was about two inches wide and the top about one inch wide. This makes a rather not-very-strong material, so I believe that it was the two layers of fiberglass cloth that I covered them with, and the shape of the cloth draping over the plywood, that actually provided the strength.

My problem is that my boat's bottom has been warped from its sitting on the trailer filled with water for excessive amounts of time, so I need to replace the stringers. I don't remember whether there were saw kerfs at intervals along the stringers to allow them easily to conform to the shape of the hull.

Were you just grinding the stringers away, or did you find a better way to do it? I'm thinking of using an oscillating tool.

3) The standard motor mount was advertised as being adjustable, but it was just two shaped pieces of thick, painted sheet steel, and some kind of wedge was needed to be fabricated to make the motor mount board be perpendicular to the water. You can probably find a better motor mount than the standard one.

One thing I came across in my searching was the idea to use swimmers' noodles instead of polystyrene foam for the flotation. It certainly will be a lot less messy--many foam pebbles have escaped over the lifetime of my boat, and they're annoying because they have static cling.

--Mike

[SkiprJohn]

I assume you are going to soak the stringer material with CPES and that's why you bought it.

You could have used foam trapazoidal pieces easily shaped with a box cutter if you were going to use regular epoxy resins to attach your stringers but we didn't go into that early enough to save you the money for CPES.

What kind of resin did you buy? 5 gallons seems like an awfully lot for your project but if you don't use it all you can start another boatbuilding project.

Keep us informed. I'm working on the breasthook for my 42 footer right now. It'll be 3 pieces of marine ply laminated together in a triangular shape. Two sides about 22 inches and the aft side about 20. With this project I've only used epoxy resins and most have been a 4 to 1 mix and sometimes a West Systems 5 to 1 mix.

[Dave Custer]

Thanks for the added input. One of my stringers that was in tact enough to actually tell what it was, did have a cut in the middle to allow for the curvature of the hull.
I am probably going to stick with solid stringers and contour the bottom with a 28 grit get-r-done disk on an angle grinder. I think four of the six stringers will need work to fit.
This is my day's suggestion. I'm still for cutting the stingers in half and laying them in.

I removed my old stringers using a chisel and rubber mallet to cut the base of the fiberglass around the stringers. This worked well and dust free. I then used a regular metal grinding disk to grind out the mass of the material, finishing things out with an 80 grit angle grinder sanding disk. Areas that will be visible and painted will be smoothed with a random orbital.

My fiberglass was laid differently than what you mentioned. There was a layer of CSM layer underneath each stringer, and then a layer going over each stringer. It seems to me that using two layers, both on top would be the more sensible route to go.

I am going to be reusing some of the old foam up forward, but I am going to adopt the swimmers noodles for underneath the seat. I found that in my research as well and it seemed smart and cheap.

I am going to roll the CPES on the oak stringers once they are cut and fitted.

I read in my books about using the foam or cardboard for stringer forms, but I need something that I can screw deck fasteners too. It did not seem that hollow formed fiberglass stringers would fill the purpose very well. Being that my experience with the structural and fastener holding ability of fiberglass is still bellow zero, I am sure this is just lack of understanding on my part!

I'm not sure of the name brand right off on the resin. I bought all of my fiberglass from Merton's fiberglass, online. The guy on the phone recommended the five gallons for the amount of glass I bought. I am enjoying the project though, and will probably do it again later on, so extra resin isn't the end of the world.

I did get the CB housing cleaned up but that is all. I'm leaving for an art show this today and have spent couple weeks working like mad to get products made.

I'm hoping to get the stringers cut and installed next week. Updates as they come.

[atoll]

self tapping stainless screws work fine into hollow glass mouldings,pre drill with a 3mm drill for a 3.4mm diam screw

[SkiprJohn]

"What kind of resin did you buy?"

My question was meant to find out if you got polyester or epoxy?

Have a great art show.

kind regards,

[Dave Custer]

Oh huh polyester resin! I'm a little slow!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Mike.

[miken2em]

Gord--I appreciate the welcome.

Everyone: As my first message indicated, I have a warped bottom with cracked stringers and fiberglass. The hull needs to be re- reinforced. I was thinking of removing the stringers, which would be messy and a lot of work, even if I use Dave's chisel method. (Thanks, Dave.) What if I just return the hull to its proper shape, then put two new layers of fiberglass over the existing stringers? According to both Dave and my memory, there are notches across the tops of the stringers anyway, so it's not the stringer itself that provides the stiffness, right?

--Mike

[Dave Custer]

Originally Posted by miken2em

Gord--I appreciate the welcome.

Everyone: As my first message indicated, I have a warped bottom with cracked stringers and fiberglass. The hull needs to be re- reinforced. I was thinking of removing the stringers, which would be messy and a lot of work, even if I use Dave's chisel method. (Thanks, Dave.) What if I just return the hull to its proper shape, then put two new layers of fiberglass over the existing stringers? According to both Dave and my memory, there are notches across the tops of the stringers anyway, so it's not the stringer itself that provides the stiffness, right?

--Mike

Even using the chisel method, I still had to grind out the base layer of glass. Mine was put together a bit differently than you described yours. A 6-inch wide base layer of CSM was placed beneath each stringer and then the stringer was covered with a single layer, 12-inch strip of CSM to attach it to the hull.

I cannot provide any suggestions for you as far as whether it would be best to redo the stringers or just glass over them more. I have no experience and I'm learning as I go.


I've been really busy with work and other than taking out some hardware, I haven't done anything on the boat.
Today though, I got the stringers all cut out....or rather dad did. He does wood working and he needed some metal working done. So, he cut out the stringers and I fixed up his metal stuff.

I am going to leave my stringers solid, instead of cutting them. I'm going to use a 30 grit grinder and hand planer to shape the stringers that need a bit of curvature.
The worst stringer will only need about 1/4-inch of material removed. It will be slow, but so was grinding the glass!
I also laminated the forward keel board that runs from the forward end of the CB housing to the front of the boat.
Pictures later!

[Dave Custer]

Pictures as promised. I spent most of today working at our church. However, it gave me a good excuse to stop by Woodies Restorations which is in the same town as our church.......30 minutes away from home. (Woodies Restorations is a wooden boat restoration and marine supply company. He's got three Chris Craft boats in the shop right now, and a 50 foot motor cruiser parked out front.)

Anyway, I picked up the SS screws for assembling the CB housing and mast support members.

This evening I spent a little more than an hour working on the boat. Most of the time was spent locating all of the newly cut stringers. I figured out where I wanted all of them and used a sharpie to mark their exact location and also mark each one with letters so I know what goes where. Tomorrow I'm going to start tweaking their shape to match the hull. I'm hoping to get this done early enough to put two coats of CPES on so that I can start glassing them in on Saturday. I've got to recheck the redcoats time on the CPES first though.

Pictures!





I think I am going to stop the decking at the two straight stringers on the forward end of the CB slot. This will be just inside the forward cabin cuddy. That area is just storage anyway, and it will gain me a few pounds in wooden decking. (Hopefully to help offset the added fiberglass reinforcements.)
I have opted to keep the last two angled stringers in this area as I don't know how structural they are, and I don't want the hull to be weak there.

More later on!

[SkiprJohn]

If you need to bend them you could kerf or rip them to thinner pieces. The glass should be your strength and the wood just to provide something to provide a bedding for the screws you'll use in your sole to hold it in place. If you keep the same size for your stringers then taper them on the ends so they don't give a hard spot on the corners.

Were you going to shape each one with a sander? Don't bother answering that. I just saw that you'll be using a grinder and hand plane. Good.

The CSM under each stringer was to help adhesion to the hull. If you were using epoxy then you wouldn't worry too much about it but polyester does not have the same adhesive quality so I'd use a strip of CSM under each of the stringers as well as one over the top with a layer of cloth on top of that.

Take care after the CSM cures because they have little pieces of glass that can really poke you good if you don't sand them down in a hurry.

[Dave Custer]

The original set up only had one layer of CSM on top of the stringers with no cloth. Do you really think I should use cloth?

[Dave Custer]

This is the best picture I have of the old stringers.
You can kind of see what I'm talking about.

[Dave Custer]

First run of fiberglassing done today!

Here are some quick pics before I head back out to finish it up.
Here are the stringers on top of the freshly laid CSM base.



Here are the stringers just after the CPES was applied yesterday.


Here are some other pieces that need some CPES soon.