60's Thomboy repair/restoration

[lenthan]

Hello I wanted to post here to get some information to help my father out with restoring his 60's Thompson Thomboy.

For now my question in where I should look for some guides at to where to start. From the little we know about restoring a boat it seems like its in pretty good structural shape. My grandfather bought it new and it has been used just about every year 2-3 weeks a year since it was new. The outside has been painted once and the original motor was replaced with a 4 stroke around 2002.

This biggest structural thing that probably need to be fixed is significant leaking along the keel and some of the metal trim will need to be fixed, some of the screw have stripped. Inside the seats are in pretty bad shape. The eventual plan would be to strip it down to bare wood and work from the ground up. We don't really know what we would be getting into, are there places to order original pars for these boats, can you have a new keel made, and where can you find planking to replace any of the original that may be bad?

I don't think an original restore is the plan just making it structurally sound(maybe a bit less leaky), a new paint job and cleaning up some of the worn finishes.

Thanks for any info

[LancerBoy]

Welcome aboard. Great that you have had the boat in your family for three generations.

This forum is a good place to read some good and not so good advice! Also forums at www.woodenboat.com and www.woodyboater.com and believe it or not, www.fiberglassics.com

There are no "places" to go to purchase a new keel or planking. You will have to have them custom made by someone who knows what they are doing or do it yourself.

The leaking may be as simple as the caulking under the keelson (the outer keel) being dried up and no linger functioning. Someplace in this forum there is a long explanation of how to remove the existing keelson and clean up under it and recaulk and either reattach the old keelson or make a new one.

Brochures of the various "Thompson" boat firms have been scanned and you can purchase them on CD-ROM or flash drive at www.wcha.org and it is a great resource.

Go to antique and classic boat events in your area and also events of the Outboard Motor Club (www.aomci.org) and start to get to know others with similar old boats. These are the best resources. www.acbs.org has chapters all over North America. There are other non-ACBS classic boating groups as well.

Hope this helps and keep asking question. Pictures are appreciated!

Mr. Andreas Jordahl Rhude
President
Thompson Antique & Classic Boat Rally, Inc.
a non-profit corporation

[lenthan]

Thank you for that information. Sorry for the late reply, work on the boat was put off completely until now

We started to get into what needs to be repaired yesterday. One big thing is a pretty significant leak in the transom. The seam where 2 of the boards butt up against each other just below the water line is leaking. We removed the back seats and you can actually see into the boat through the seam. I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions on how to go about sealing this up.

I will try to post some pictures later, the will not attach via the attachment option here

[Phill Blank]

Lenthan,

If the wood is sound and not rotted. You can clean out the gap to be sure any old glue or debris is out of the gap and fill it with "Boat-Life" caulking. Be sure to force the caulking deep into the gap. Allow to cure for a day and refill to bring it above the surface if has shrunk below the surface. Allow to cure for a week or more, then sand and finish as usual.

If the gap is wide you can cut a piece of wood to fit and glue it into gap. Be sure to use a good grade of water proof glue.

Good Luck,

Phill

[lenthan]

Here is a picture of the seem that is leaking. It may be leaking along the whole seem but this is the worst spot. Sorry for the large size, does anyone know a way to resize a the image when posting using the Img option?

[LancerBoy]

Route out a trench and put a new piece of wood in there. Go about 1/2" deep and 1/4" wide or so. Make a "spline" to fit in your trench. Glue it in. Make it a little proud of the surface. Once the glue has cured, sand it flush.

Andreas

[lenthan]

We did a bit more work in the boat. We jacked/hoisted it up in my fathers barn to take the motor off and get to the keel. The keel is pretty rough in the front where the 2 pieces meet. We are going to scrape as much of the old caulk out and recaulk then add a few extra screws. I think at least one is rotted out. We also plan to sand the transom and any other natural wood to refinish it on top of filling the large gap with caulk in the wood. We will also rough up the bottom and paint it since its up in the air now. It's not going to be a perfect restoration but it will leak less and look better

[lenthan]

We are thinking about doing some modifications to the boat. Like I said we are not going for an original restoration and are considering replacing the current seats with some wooden seats that we would build ourselves and installing a fuel tank under the bow. Both of these changes would be to make the boat more user friendly. Putting the tank up front would free up the space in the back where the tanks are now to use for storage and if we custom built some wooden seats we would build in storage under each seat. If we did go this route does anyone know what kind of would would have been used on the boat? Also has anyone ever put a fuel tank in the bow of one of these boats? Is there any reason we shouldn't?

Thanks for any answers or feedback

A picture from a few years back

[lenthan]

A couple pictures of the work being done now

[lenthan]

Is there anywhere to get replacement parts like the compass on the dash?

[lenthan]

One last picture, my fathers other boat

[thegammas]

I would suspect that any seat from the day would be of mahogany. My only thought on a bow tank is the weight, which would of course depend on the size of it (capacity). And the required venting.

[Phill Blank]

lenthan,

Wood type recommended would be Mahogany, as thegammas mentioned, it is rote resistant, light in weight and easy to work with.
As to locating the gas tank in the bow, that was very common and one can always trim the motor to offset the weight. I have seen custom "V" shaped tanks installed on this style of boat many times.

Good Luck,

Phill

[lenthan]

Any tips on cleaning the vinyl that covers the decking of the boat. The Grey does not look bad but the white is a bit stained. I tried soap and water which got some of stains off but not everything. Some of the dirt is down in the texture of the vinyl and will not come out.

[Phill Blank]

You could try some vinyl cleaners and if that does not work the only alternative is replacing it.

Good Luck,

Phill