# First Skiff Rebuild, 14 Wenzel



## BayStYat (Sep 12, 2012)

*Re: First Skiff Rebuild*

cool man. post em up.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

*Re: First Skiff Rebuild*

Here are some of the original pics from before i did any work to it.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

*Re: First Skiff Rebuild*

Here are a couple pics of some repairs I've done. I fixed some old crappy repairs that had been made years ago using west system epoxy and glass. i used a DA sander on the bottom to remove the old paint layers







Here is some pitting i exposed while sanding. My dad said we can just fill this with some thickened epoxy. Let me know if you think there would be any better solutions.



We are almost done on the bottom. We are both dying to flip it over and start decking it out into a micro poling skiff.
We have already bought 3 sheets of 1/2 inch thick Divinycell, 2 gallons of polyester resin, a roll of 3 inch, and a roll of 6 inch fiberglass tape, and 10 yards of 1708 fiberglass.


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## spahlinger85 (Sep 16, 2013)

Good progress I'm pumped to see the decks. I have a wenzel that def needs a paint job. I'd like to do some other work to it but I fish to much to afford the downtime


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

My dad and I had a very productive day working on the skiff. I sanded the transom and faired a lot of the hull. While sanding the transom, i noticed that the aluminum angle at the bottom was loose. We decided to remove it, it didn't look factory.
     As i was finishing my sanding on the transom, i noticed water seeping out of the holes from the grab handles we removed. after further inspection we decided to drill some test holes on the inboard side to see if the transom was rotting. There were a couple rotted spots, but the whole transom was water-logged.
     We decided it would be best to take care of it now rather than later, so we cult the fiberglass and plan on changing the transom wood. We are trying to leave the outer skin if possible. Any recommendations on how to separate the wood from the outer fiberglass without damaging it.
     The good news about doing this is we have decide to quit beating around the bush and to cut out anything that we have been debating on, such as the false deck and front bench. Go big or go home!


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## Dadvocate (Jun 26, 2011)

I used a wide assortment of tools including flat bar, putty knives, skill saw set to cut through 3/4 of the thickness. My wife bought me a Oscilatting multi-tool after I was finished on the transom. Set up with a shop vac hose near the cutting area this is my 1st choice for cutting through fiberglass. This is probably one of the best tools to tackle removing the last layers of plywood stuck to the fiberglass outer skin. Using a flat blade pushing parallel with ever so slight an angle will peel the glued areas apart. You might get lucky and find not many areas that are still laminated together. Take your time so that no OOPS happen. If you don't already have one I would probably get a little higher grade of tool unless you like making a trip to Harbor Frieght to return things.


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## PG350 (Jan 19, 2012)

I redid my entire boat with a $9.99 Harbor freight grinder and it is still running strong. Best bang for the buck ever.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

> I redid my entire boat with a $9.99 Harbor freight grinder and it is still running strong.   Best bang for the buck ever.


I would have to agree. I havent had any problems with my cheap Harbor Freight Power tools yet. I bought the warranty just in case


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

> I used a wide assortment of tools including flat bar, putty knives, skill saw set to cut through 3/4 of the thickness. My wife bought me a Oscilatting multi-tool after I was finished on the transom. Set up with a shop vac hose near the cutting area this is my 1st choice for cutting through fiberglass. This is probably one of the best tools to tackle removing the last layers of plywood stuck to the fiberglass outer skin. Using a flat blade pushing parallel with ever so slight an angle will peel the glued areas apart. You might get lucky and find not many areas that are still laminated together. Take your time so that no OOPS happen. If you don't already have one I would probably get a little higher grade of tool unless you like making a trip to Harbor Frieght to return things.


Thank you for the input! with the tool suggestions! i was outside last night using a crobar, screwdriver, and an axe trying to seperate the two layers on plywood.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

p.s. the axe was placed in-between the two layers as a wedge. not swung at the boat ;D


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

We are making good progress! We finished taking out the transom wood slowly but surely. We also started cutting out the bench to new deck level. I will post pictures later today when i get home


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## Stormchaser (Feb 10, 2013)

> We are making good progress! We finished taking out the transom wood slowly but surely. We also started cutting out the bench to new deck level. I will post pictures later today when i get home


Jacob, please post pics as you go. I'm modifying a 14' Mitchell, similar skiff, and I am about to hit a stretch where I actually have time to work on it. Looking forward to following your thread.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

Here are the pictures as promised! 


This transom is frightfully thin when there is no wood attached to it. 


We started cutting the front bench out to the height of the future cockpit deck. 



Here we are trying to figure out how long we want our casting deck to be. We also plan on using this foam for some sort of template.


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## spahlinger85 (Sep 16, 2013)

looks like your making progress! first question. where is your fishing buddy going to sit while running? I would also be careful about putting to much weight up front. when im running in my wenzel and im forward heavy my bow likes to dig into the water and scare the $h!T out of you if you are not paying attention. just some thoughts! good job and keep it up. maybe one day ill rip out my middle bench or maybe just paint it!


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

> looks like your making progress! first question. where is your fishing buddy going to sit while running?  I would also be careful about putting to much weight up front.  when im running in my wenzel and im forward heavy my bow likes to dig into the water and scare the $h!T out of you if you are not paying attention.     just some thoughts! good job and keep it up. maybe one day ill rip out my middle bench or maybe just paint it!


I am trying to add some of the weight such as the battery and gas tank up front. Im going to eventually have a larger motor, probably a 25 hp, and a poling platform. I'm trying to balance the weight so the back isn't squatting as you can see from the previous pictures, granted it had a waterlogged transom. My fishing buddy will either sit on the aft end of the casting deck facing aft, or next to myself. The bulkhead for the casting deck is only a couple inches from the original bench.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

My father and I have had a very productive past couple of days. To start things off; The skiff had a crappy deck drain system and there was also no false deck. The drain system was designed to act as a rib going down the center of the bottom of the boat. Draining water would have to fall into the drain and come back up to exit the boat. We hated this flaw because it was constantly full of water. We Filled the drain channel with 2 part, 2 pound, Pourable Urethane Foam.


     After trimming the foam overflow we fiberglassed over the existing holes. Both of the benches have been cut down to future deck level. We have also glassed in 1 inch PVC pipe to pass through the benches for water drainage. These areas will be filled with the same foam as the drain. They were left long to make it a little bit easier to glass them in. They will be trimmed flush with the old bench sides. We are using polyester resin and 3 inch fiberglass tape.


     We also started installing the new transom. We are using a double layer of 3/4 inch marine grade plywood (not salt treated). We used green half inch insulation foam from Lowes to make a rough template for the transom. It is about 12 dollars for a 4x8 sheet if anyone is curious.


We mounted the first layer of plywood to the transom using West System epoxy, thickened with 404 high density adhesive filler.
     We pre-drilled several holes in the transom for us to use screws to pull the plywood to the transom. These screws will be removed when the epoxy is cured(i hope ;D ). The holes will be filled with thickened expoxy. A couple of clamps were added for extra compression.


     The next step in our plan is to bond one more piece of 3/4 inch plywood to the transom using West System and 404 filler. All the excess epoxy will be scraped and the remaining epoxy will be left to set. We will come back with polyester resin, thickened with cabosil, to make our fillets. We will then lay 2 layers of 1708 fiberglass over the transom.


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## spahlinger85 (Sep 16, 2013)

The drain on my wenzel is something I don't like. There must be some debris in mine as the water in front drains very slowly. 

Good work keep it up


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

> The drain on my wenzel is something I don't like.   There must be some debris in mine as the water in front drains very slowly.
> 
> Good work keep it up


When my dad was cutting holes into the drain to pour the foam into, he noticed that there was rotting wood that they had in the drain. When we first got the boat i stuck a pressure washer in the drain and tons of debris came out that looked like mulch.


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## habanalure (Feb 6, 2012)

Nice work! I am planning to do one as well. However mine is a Johnsen made in Groveland Fl.
I wonder how many manufacturers have use that basic mold because I have seen them with several different names.
Keep the pictures coming so that I can learn from you.
Thanks


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

> Nice work! I am planning to do one as well. However mine is a Johnsen made in Groveland Fl.
> I wonder how many manufacturers have use that basic mold because I have seen them with several different names.
> Keep the pictures coming so that I can learn from you.
> Thanks


Ive seen many Johnsens on here. Good luck on your build and i hope mine can help you out!


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## dleary46 (Dec 19, 2014)

I just started overhauling the same skiff!!! You're a little ahead of me.  I just demo'd the transom this past weekend.  I'm still trying to figure out wether I'm going to use nida-core or plywood for the decks and stuff.  once I get a little further into my project, I will start posting picks and stuff.  Good luck with your project!


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

So, This is, in my opinion, a huge update! We Have made a ton of progress on this skiff rebuild. SO lets get started.
1. We put the second layer of marine plywood on the transom and just need one more layer of 1708 for it to be all finished up. All of the fillets for the transom are also done.







2. We installed a piece of marine plywood at the bow of the boat for future mounts, such as trolling motor and flush mounted cleat.


3. We cut and installed the front bulkhead for the casting deck.





Since then We have cut out pieces of Divinycell for the rear deck bulkhead, and the back platform.





This picture shows the radius we are using that will smooth the back deck into the gunwales.


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

I forgot to mention that we used thickened epoxy to attack the transom, and used poliester resin for fillets. On the front bulkhead, we used very thick epoxy to bed it in and also filleted it with the same batch.


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## Brad2048 (Sep 30, 2014)

Very nice progress.. That will be a cool little skiff for sure!


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## jacobhicks112 (Sep 23, 2014)

My father and I haven't had much time to work on the boat lately, and the weather is freezing so we can't fiberglass. here are a few pictures of what we've done since the last post. nothing major, but it is progress.


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## Gators52__20 (Dec 31, 2012)

Lookin sick bud, keep up the good work...


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## jamesbrown (Jun 15, 2015)

any updates on this rebuild.....


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## TRBruce (Aug 24, 2015)

I spoke with your dad about your build. It's looking great, any more progress?

Tyler (from Green Top)


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## Shicks007 (Apr 30, 2014)

Its been a long time since we have updated. Unfortunately the progress has been very slow. At any rate we have been hitting it hard the last couple of weeks trying to get this finished up. As we all know it's hard to find the time to work on these projects. Here are some pics that I took along the way to show a little progression.













We plumbed in and epoxied the drains in today and cut out and glassed another fwd bulkhead. We decided to used some left over 3/4 marine plywood since it was paid for and could use a little weight forward. Once the epoxy is dry we will cut the PVC off flush with the bulkheads.


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## Shicks007 (Apr 30, 2014)

I've a managed to get a few things done lately. Fwd bulkhead installed, rod holders shaped and some 1708 laid up on the underside of the aft casting deck.


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## Shicks007 (Apr 30, 2014)

Time for the springtime push to get this skiff done. We had a couple of productive days drilling holes for the rod tubes and flairing the pcv for the tubes. We also got the top deck core cut out and mocked up. It is exciting to see this thing finally taking shape. We are supposed to have some weather in the 70s this upcoming week so I hope to get some fiberglass laid up. Here are a few pics of the progress.

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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

Why are you using ply and devinylcell? Why not just one or the other?


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## Shicks007 (Apr 30, 2014)

A couple of reasons I suppose, not that it was planned out that way, but figured we could certainly use the weight up forward. At the time it was bought and paid for, with no more divynicell on hand, this kept a little forward progress. That's about it really?


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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

cool, looks good! You hull reminds me of my '67 Johnsen that I'm currently working on. I choose 3/8" marine fir for all the structural parts...


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