20' Cruisers Inc. Seacamper Restoration

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:02 am

I came across this boat in August of 2005 and have documented it's complete restoration. I am going to post it's progress as I restored her to completion.

After having owned several Cruisers Incs that had been restored by others I felt the need to do a keel up restoration on one myself. I began to search around for a candidate. Having owned a 1962 370 Seacamper that I really enjoyed, I looked around for it's bigger brother a 20' 570 Seacamper. I asked around and posted an inquiry on my Yahoo group Classicoutboards. I received a response from a member in Kansas City who had bought a 570 on e-bay but did not have the time to finish it. We talked a bit and came to an agreed price and away to Kansas I went to get her.
Towing her back to Texas....

She had come from the Door country of Wisconsin several years earlier and had been barned ever since. She had all original chrome and fittings, there was a large Chrysler that had been on her but I declined to haul it back to Texas. My friend had jacked her up and reset her on 4x4s to get the hull off the rollers. With a little extra strapping and tie downs back to Texas she headed.

My initial survey found the interior ribs and laps to be in overall good solid shape there was a hole on the starboard side where she had rubbed a dock during a storm. The bottom shape was true to form excepting a couple small divots near the transom from rollers. All hardware was there including seats and brackets, the original wooden wheel was in cabin and all glass in good shape. I located a small hole in lower lap at starboard transom indicating the ends of the laps were in poor shape on the starboard side only. The plywood decks were in poor shape with several soft spots both forward and aft. The transom seemed to be very solid but showed some damage on the inside and cross brace. There was some de-lamination in cabin roof and a broken place on rubrail at hull damage.

Wow, what had I gotten into, be careful what you ask for. She seemed pretty solid but needed lots of areas attended to. But this 1965 570 was one of the last big wooden Seacampers ever built and this along with the great lines of this boat drew me to her.

The day I arrived home with her my wife looked her over and said " hey you have ants on your boat", and pealing back some bad deck I uncovered a host of carpenter ants/ termites that had been feeding on the deck plywood and oak cross brace on transom, they didn't seem to care for the mahogany, thank God. So my first project was to spray the entire hull down with insecticide, problem solved.

Next up closer inspection and disassembly......

2qwk4u442 · Post by **2qwk4u442** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:10 am

She's Beautiful !
That'll be a sweet boat once done.
Looks like it had a single outboard, but that would be a nice place to hang TWIN Vintage V-4's !!! Something I always thought would be cool!

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:26 am

Thats exactly why this transom is cut so wide, for twins. I have an old 60's Popular Mechanix that their outdoor writer had one of these boats with twin 90's!
And was equipped with multiple fuel tanks Ha ha

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:51 am

After exterminating the hull the first thing was to clean her out. I removed all floor panels and interior cushions/ panels and seats. I got out my pressure washer and blasted everything to wash away loose varnish, which there was a lot!. Amazingly water just ran out of drains and a little out of the keel, the rest of the hull was fairly tight.

By txcaptdan

By txcaptdan

The bilge area had been flooded at one time or another and most surfaces there had peeling varnish everywhere. My pressure washer striped the ribs and keelsons and blew away 10 years of leaves and dirt.

I tilted hull up to drain and gave her a few days in the Texas sun to dry out.

My icepick came next, I crawled all over the hull finding places to be repaired, the ribs all seemed hard and strong as did keel and keelsons.

By txcaptdan

I found soft places inside transom especially on starboard, area on the lower half of cabin at forward windshield were soft and the upper combing on the starboard aft was rotten about 2' from transom.

By txcaptdan

The plywood decks were junk but would make good patterns. A hole in one of the lower laps at the starboard transom opened up upon inspection. A hole as big as your fist was on top lap at starboard cabin and rub rail damage at that spot also.

Most all of the main mahogany pieces were in good condition beyond needing complete refinishing. This hull had been flooded as I said earlier as evident by the stains on the seat bases and lower door.

By txcaptdan

The main keel was separated but solid wood, probably ice damage. The garboard planks were solid in lieu of lacking varnish.

By txcaptdan

Stripping hardware, uncovering the decks and splash well come next.

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:09 am

Dan - is this a new project? Or is this your current boat, and you'll be posting the history of it's restoration - in either case, looking forward to it!

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:03 pm

Peter-
This is the boat that I spent 2 yrs restoring. I have a complete photo history of it's restoration , so I just wanted to start a thread like on my 16' that I will add to as I get to it.
I will keep this updated if everyone is interested.
Here she is finished.

By txcaptdan

By txcaptdan

As of Jan 2008 she awaits some interior cabin finishing but beyond that she is complete.

Dan

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:39 am

I for one would really enjoy seeing the pictures along with commentary. I notice that in the shots of the original conditon (upon arrival) that there is a large splash well built in, and at least from the "finished" shots, the splash well is gone - or at least reduced?

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:47 pm

There was a splash well when I got boat as you can see in original shots, That was one of the first things disassembled so that I could better survey condition of hull and transom. I did not get any pictures of that stage. But I did discover that the floor of splash well was in poor shape as was oak cross brace on transom. Other pieces of well were solid but in need of refinish, all was saved for refinishing or for patterns.
Once I had well out I also found rot and a crack in combing board at starboard transom behind splash well mount.

I removed and saved for pattern what was left of cross brace, most of the bolts were also broken, the transom oak corner braces were also in poor condition and several interior vertical planks on the starboard were bad. several other verticals had surface damage to them from my termite friends.

But the good news was that most all lower wood and hull under splash well was in very good shape. The aft starboard section seemed to carry most of the rot damage on this hull as the port side was very tight and firm.

This had been done before pressure washing so now I could probe and poke all I wanted to with my ice pick to survey for damaged wood.

2qwk4u442 · Post by **2qwk4u442** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:18 pm

Shes a dam* good looking girl!
WoW

(I still want twins back there) hahaha

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:30 pm

The first repair I decided to make was damage to the starboard side just below the cabin window. There was a hole in the top lap about the size of your fist from a dock during a storm. The gunnell strip just above this damage was also broken and had some rot.

After a lot of inspection and probing I determined that all the surrounding wood and ribs were in very good shape. So I removed the gunnell strip from under the deck plywood and off the lap surface, which exposed the upper edge of the lap. I carefully cut laps where they overlapped lower laps to minimize damage to lower laps. I then cut lap back a couple of ribs either side of the damage and used a small belt sander to grind a scarf into existing hull planks.

I had my local boat shop make me a piece of lap to patch with, I took it and scarfed it to match cutout. After some handfitting it slid right in. I epoxyed the scarf surfaces, 5200ed the lap seams and screwed to ribs and bolted laps together with silicon bronze screws and nuts. I clamped pieces together until epoxy set up.

I then sanded excess epoxy smooth and faired with Formula 27 a marine type bondo and sanded. I had to do this a couple of times to get a smooth finish.

I then primed the surface with a sanding primer to await a later date for hull finishing.

HalcyonDays · Post by **HalcyonDays** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:27 pm

Txcaptdan that is the same Johnson Motor that came on the 19' Grady White I just acquired. Is it a 1965 90HP? I am in need of a fuel pump would you mind taking a few photos of the inside of the engine so that I will know what I am looking for. Also are there any web sites that sell parts. I also have a 75HP 1964 Evinrude and on that motor there is a control box outside the motor that attaches to the boat, this Johnson does not seem to have one is that correct? Thanks

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:08 pm

I realize that this thread is pretty old, I'm hopeful that Capt.Dan still looks in on it.
First as the new guy, I should introduce myself, Bob Vehring, live in Milw. Wi. I've owned a boat just like this for close to 30 years, my kids grew up on it.
8 or so years ago we started to redo the hull. Not a big deal, had done it several times before. My problem area was the cabin sides, specifically the area where the cabin windows slide in. Basically rotted to the point where the windows could fall out.
My point here is to thank Dan, and the people behind this site for after having let it sit for the last 8 years, last week after reading this, The power washer came out, the tarps came off, buckets of dirt, crap, yes really crap, several small mammals that I cant identify from their bones, and enough bird feathers for a really big bird are all gone. Ready to start working.
I'm a fairly mechanical guy, we build small race engines for a living, have alot of tools, milling machines, lathes, unfortunately, I know little about wood or woodworking. I hope someone is still watching this thread because I'm sure I will have alot of really dumb questions to ask.
Thanks everyone for a great site and renewing my interest in this boat. Bob

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:03 am

Welcome aboard Bob,

Ask away!

Andreas

john · Post by **john** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:43 pm

Halc.................

Your fuel pump is common to 35 and 50 Johnson and Evinrude for 1958 and 59 and all J&E from 28 hp and up from 1960 to at least 1968. The repair lit is 379777 is is still availble from your local dealer. You can get it in Houston at North Shore marine, talk to margret 713 453 6341.

If your is missing should be very easy to find. Try www.aomci.org