Garboards secured with phillips/flat screws? Fir/mohogany?

240sxguy · Post by **240sxguy** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:41 am

Alright, laying under my boat last night admiring the dent in the garboard planks I noticed some paint had flaked off a screw head or two. I picked at them with a pick tool for some reason and saw some were phillips heads!?

Whassup with that?

Also, I am going to replace the rear 4' of my garboards. Is this fir plywood or mohogany? If I can save some money by using fir and the original was fir... that is what I will do!

Thanks.

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:46 am

Slotted flat head wood screws are what I have seen in 1950s and 1960s lapstrake boats by Thompson of Peshtigo. Don't recall ever seeing phillips head.screws. Maybe someone did some repair work in the past?

Hull planking is Douglas fir plywood. Today's Douglas fir marine plywood is junk. I would not use it for hull planking. I use Meranti or Okume. I have used Douglas fir marine plywood for replacing floor boards and maybe for a splash well, but never for hull planking.

It might be possible that your boat has hull planking with the paper overlay on it. Not sure off the top of my head when Thompson of Peshtigo started using that stuff.

Andreas

240sxguy · Post by **240sxguy** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:49 am

Maybe some repairs have been done in the past. They appear to be silicon bronze phillips head screws/nuts. You would never know by looking inside the boat. Very odd.

Ill just plan on using the meranti to fix the garboard planks then. Thanks Andreas.

Evan

JoeCB · Post by **JoeCB** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:25 am

Not trying to be picky, but those brass / bronze screws are 99% likley to be Frearson head not Phillips. there is a slight difference, the frearson slots are much narrower and have little taper. A Phillips bit will not fit well.
Check pix at Jamestown Distributors to understand the difference.
Joe B

240sxguy · Post by **240sxguy** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:31 am

Thanks Joe, I think you are right. I have a feeling I won't be able to get the paint cleaned out of them anyway. Hopefully they are tight. I remember reading about the different head type. Ill keep that in mind if I need to disturb them.

Evan

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:21 pm

Phillips heads are easily cleaned out with a sharp ice pick, I have done hundreds that way. My 65 Cruisers Inc had lots of phillips style screws.

240sxguy · Post by **240sxguy** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:22 pm

Dan, interesting to know your boat had some too. Reassuring!

Thanks guys, I am going to suck it up and buy some marine ply in the next few weeks. Progress will be slow, but still progress right?!

Evan

Cruiser Bob · Post by **Cruiser Bob** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:49 am

I've been experimenting on the screw removal as well. I've been dobbing the screw head w/ paint stripper to soften it up. 20 or so at a time................

62cruiserinc · Post by **62cruiserinc** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:57 am

I had to remove about 1200 Frearson head screws (wood screws and machine screws w/ nuts) when I disassembled my 62 Cruiser Inc. I removed the "putty plug" with a punch that had an ID a little bigger than the screw head OD. Then I cleaned out the head using a pick, like txcaptdan said. It was pretty easy to do.

Steve

txcaptdan · Post by **txcaptdan** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 1:13 pm

The other tool I used to remove putty from bunged holes was a flat blade screw tip in a battery powered drill. This reamed out that top layer of putty quickly then I used an ice pick to clean out screw heads.