1978 Kachina 454BBC hull resto

[burn504]

I am just going to copy/paste this from my car forum over to here. I had it in our project logs forum there so it is vague and maybe a bit dumbed down for the car crowd that dont know boats or jet boats. So im not going to go through and edit it to make it a new post here. If you have any questions or advice let me know.


Ok so i bought this boat back in 2004 i think when living in TX. I drove out to AZ to pick it up. Thats another great story of its own. The boat is a 1978 made by Kachina boats whom is still in business still making custom boats. Although they make much larger boats now. Had a lot of fun in the boat until one of the fuel tanks started to leak due to the adding of ethanol to our fuel and fiberglass gas tanks. ******* regulations on fuel. After cutting out the tanks one thing lead to another and eventually i got the boat back to CA for some major work. So here was the boat basically when i bought it.

Leaking tanks.. coming through crack where tanks are tabbed in to hull. Means the actual tank is leaking and the fuel is making its way out of where they were glassed in. There are one tank on each side. Like 70 gallons of fuel +

flushing them heavily...

 

[burn504]

Then after getting the tanks out I figured I might as well keep going and took the floor out and all wet soaked foam from 40yrs ago.

Then started to look at the stringers and we decided to sister them up and fix some stress cracks in the hull and other places.

So the boat came off the trailer so that the stringers could be fixed and everything would be relaxed while glassing in the new:

 

[burn504]

hundreds of hours in glass work grinding away cracks from the inside and outside to fix them properly. Had some cracks where my bimini top hit the fiberglass and where some douche bag jumped on the front of the boat while tied up partying one day on the lake. All getting fixed.

Also fixing some stress cracks in the gel coat below water line.

Here are some pics of that

Old stringers treated, shaved down and getting read for new stringers next to them. wait and see.

New stringers.... Now thats a nice piece of support

New bulk head being worked on which will have drain going through it later

 

[burn504]

Here was a spot on the right side that had a bunch of spider webbing i wanted to deal with... here is start to finish. Besides paint obviously.

this is ground down then fiber glassed over with a heave weave and feathered in and then sanded down and filled.

anything more to that area will be done by the body shop before paint.

 

[burn504]

SO here is where some douche jumped on the boat from another higher boat while tied up in a group. Not structural but needed to be fixed. Looks worse in pics as always

start to finish  as the other. That is not bondo but a thick fiberglass then resin over with fiberglass filler. Little bit of bondo type stuff is ok but you cant fill large areas.

had these cracks on either side of the windshield area. you can see the other side in the above pic

 

[burn504]

Also took care of a crack that was all the way through the hull basically due to the floor being weak and the stringers taking the brunt of it.

The crack was probably done while on the trailer because it wasnt fitting like it should and its been towed thousand of miles in its life. So that is being fixed too

Anyways. Wish i had pics of it before. Maybe i do somewhere and ill update if i find it

and one of on the edge from the bimini top. both sides again

So then it got ready for new floor. Due to the boats shape and getting everything perfect this was a job. When cutting you have to account for the glass and resin width. so plan ahead

So here are the floor boards cut and resin applied to each side a few coats to keep it all sealed. Gotta keep the water out of the wood on everything. all screw holes sealed with 5200. Notice the grain on the edge. That is because it is sanded to fit perfecting in the boat. Lots of shaving.

Then the foam gets poured in with the drains in place

Wish i had pics of that but its a rush rush kind of job

Floor glassed in. Simply beautiful

up in the front there is a drain but you cant see its soo dark. I will get better pics later.

here is where it comes out into the bilge.

 

[burn504]

Had some Custom aluminum gas tanks on either side. Made by this guy

http://www.americantanks.net/products.htm

He will measure and draw them out. Then weld them up with pickup tubes, baffles, fuel sender units and plenty of fittings for me to hook up my AN lines.

Should take a week to get them welded up and it will go back in for the bulkheads to be glassed in so the tanks can be mounted. At that same time we will be glassing in a plate on top of the floor to hold the hot foot throttle pedal down and start on custom interior structure.

After glass work is done everything will be taken out and the boat will be painted inside and out.

I am also working on a way to have the tower detachable.

 

[burn504]

Here are some crappy pics of the beautiful tanks that were made. Each is a bit over 30 gallons.

 

[burn504]

so i have been hearing from a few people that there are some people in the area that may be able to give some good advice.

Im trying to figure out the best way to attach these fuel tanks to the boat. From the above pictures you can see the general location where they sit in the boat.

And below is some close up pictures of the brackets/tabs I had welded on to potentially bolt them down. After some grinding and glass work the tanks fit flush against the hull and back to the transom(where one of the brackets is as you can see in pictures, the 90degree ones). I figure I will put rubber on the bottom, back and transom side of the tanks to absorb vibration and give me the space needed to glass something in to bolt to. so what do i glass in?

So how is this normally done? Any ideas?


am i wrong in thinking to buy or make a plate with multiple threaded studs and then drill the brackets on the tanks and use some nuts and lock washers to bolt the tanks in?

 

[duanehydro]

Someone chime in and help this guy out. DAMN! over 60 gallons of fuel......hope it'll plane out...lol

 

[Blender Man]

The rogers had 8 blots hangen out the bottom of the boat I did not like that and I thought that would be 8 places to slow me down not good.. I filled the holes and made plates that I welded blots too and glassed them in at the right place.. two for each tank. These are 11 gal tanks and round.. you might need to add some more tabs for that much fuel.. As far as putting them up aganist the inside of the boat, I would leave a small gap so they will not rub. I forgot which boat I worked on boat one of the tanks was rubing the inside pretty good..I hope that helps you..If you need to call for help you can reach me @281-354-8809.. good luck.. :smile15:

 

[KONA77]

I can tell you what i did,  and see if it helps.... my tank was mounted in the front of boat first of all....  it did have the tabs welded to the tank to bolt or screw to the floor which on one side they were and the other side was glassed over the tabs,  it held very well,  i removed the tank to replace the floor,  upon putting the tank back in the tank had a concaved bottom and would not sit flush on the floor,  so i got some plywood and cut two rails for the tabs to sit on and glassed the plywood rails to the floor and then screwed the tank in place, 

do not know if this will help you,  but an idea.... everyones situation is different

 

[burn504]

Someone chime in and help this guy out. DAMN! over 60 gallons of fuel......hope it'll plane out...lol

shouldnt be a problem as the old tanks shown above were actually longer. I remember many times putting in over 30gallons in each side. I think this will be the same if not less fuel than I had before.

 

[burn504]

The rogers had 8 blots hangen out the bottom of the boat I did not like that and I thought that would be 8 places to slow me down not good.. I filled the holes and made plates that I welded blots too and glassed them in at the right place.. two for each tank. These are 11 gal tanks and round.. you might need to add some more tabs for that much fuel.. As far as putting them up aganist the inside of the boat, I would leave a small gap so they will not rub. I forgot which boat I worked on boat one of the tanks was rubing the inside pretty good..I hope that helps you..If you need to call for help you can reach me @281-354-8809.. good luck.. :smile15:

I dont know where I could add more tabs but maybe on the front side of each tank. I will definitely be leaving a gap with rubber on all sides of the tank that touch the boat. I am thinking I will need to just to get the gap needed to glass in something.

I dont want to just glass over the tabs because I want this to be able to be removed if needed to get to something.

So is it ok to just glass in a metal plate with bolts/studs? and drill out the brackets to match the studs and thread a nut on them?


who is local with a machine shop to help me come up with a way to make my tower detachable?

 

[KONA77]

i am not a perfesional with glass work, but do not see why not

 

[burn504]

any tips for weight of cloth and layers/thickness to hold something this massive in place?


should i glass them in with carbon fiber? :angel:

 

[KONA77]

any tips for weight of cloth and layers/thickness to hold something this massive in place?


should i glass them in with carbon fiber? :angel:

blenderman is the one to ask,

 

[burn504]

OK... Finally got another job and got some other projects out of the way (dont worry plenty more on jackstands in the garage lol).

So now that I have time to work on this boat it seems like every weekend is raining, windy, or dare I say snowing  :smile26:

So I am looking to enlist some help. Is there anyone else in DFW other than North Texas Fiberglass?

I need probably another layer of glass on the new floors and thinking about doing the transom since I did find some rot around the thru hull exhaust.

 

[burn504]

or any other recommendations for fiberglass work in DFW?  you would think with all these boats someone gets work done that isnt by the insurance company

 

[Devilman]

Haven't heard of the ones you've mentioned, so I really can't say... Try PMing Greg(oldbuck40), he is in the Dallas area & may have some info for you. He is usually on & off here during the daytime...