= 1966 Batman Batboat =

New York Times article, slideshow and video on finned boats.

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:12:00 +0000

The New York Times' website devoted a space in the cars section to finned boats.

Here is the article. On the right side of the page, half way down is a short video.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/automobiles/collectibles/16finboat.html

The slide show.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/08/16/automobiles/collectibles/0816-finboats_index.html?ref=automobiles

I see some Manta Rays, Meteors, Glass Slippers, and a few more rare gems in there. Less than 10 of some models are known to have survived.

Funny boat launching blooper.

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:28:00 +0000

Trailer repairs and Batboat rebuild is on coming.

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:36:00 +0000

Several have emailed wondering if the Batboat rebuild is still oncoming so here is a small update.

UPS delivered the stainless steel safety chains a while back, I bought the new trailer coupler over the weekend and got one of the three through-bolts today in hope to have the coupler bolted on the trailer by early December.

Depending on the weather and finding free time, the cleaning and painting of the new coupler will take a few days to finish.

After the trailer is fixed, the current plan is to go to Michigan Lumber in Flint for the plywood to make the fins and laser eyes. They sell the finer quality Douglas Fir plywood there and it is stored on flat shelves, not on forks like the warped plywood is at all big box retailers here.

First, mock-ups and patterns of the new Batboat details will be made of some type of low cost fiberboard. It all depends on how much funds I have and the weather.

These large 4' by 8' sheets of board will be hauled home in the Batboat; the most important reason to fix the trailer first. Stay tuned.

Batboat Rebuild: trailer and fiberglass cloth, November 11, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:28:00 +0000

Those following this blog know there are problems with the Batboat's trailer. I now suspect that at one point it was in a fender bender evidenced by the bent coupler and several small twists and dents in the frame.

Its getting too cold to do fiberglassing and woodwork outside so I will put the focus on making the trailer safe. It WILL be boring to most of you but I hope that those who are working on their own Batboat will find time saving information here.

On this day I took off the coupler and safety chains. The work lasted less than an hour.

The old chains were zinc plated and mostly rusted plus I never trusted their hook connectors. A new set enroute from iboats.com are made of stainless steel and have better connectors.

click this link to view --> SeaSense Stainless Steel Trailer Safety Chains for 2000 lb loads.

Above is the coupler. It connects to the car's trailer hitch. The yellow lines represent the correct level position of the trailer. As you can see this thing is bent out of wack!

It was welded to the tongue (the forward beam tip of the trailer) in three spots and I freed it off with the grinder and a hand vice clamp.

Two spots were cut through...

... and the coupler was bent and twisted off.

The rest of the attached coupler and welding was smoothed out with a grinder flapper disc. I wacked the beam back into shape with a hammer and coated the bare metal with spray primer to help prevent rust.

I'll get a new coupler after the chains get here.

Sundown was arriving meaning it was time to cut the lawn before it became too dark. When I opened the shed there was a nice surprise waiting for me. The rolls of remaining 1.5 Chopped Strand Mat and 6 oz Hexel fiberglass cloth fell from where they were shelved, unrolled on the floor and absorbed at least a month's worth of rain water, mud and all were well spotted with mildew! Totally ruined!

I kept these rolls and all of the scraps for nothing. About 2 yards combined of uncut cloth and a bunch of odd pieces were worthless. Oh well, at least the really expensive stuff, the 1708 biaxial, seemed okay. I'll check for mildew tomorrow! (checked it and it's fine but moved to the dry basement now.)

Can't use this for fiberglassing because the dirt and mold will promote rot! >:(

Batboat Rebuild: Day 50 November 8, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:35:00 +0000

On this day I started refurbishing the Batboat's trailer turn signals. The wiring was a twisted mess and the lights stopped working while I was using the Batboat to move my things from the old house. Had to leave it parked until I found time to fix them.

Later, somehow the plug got squashed while the boat was in the drive way!

The trailer lights had two sets of cables spliced together at the end with crimps and electrical tape, each with their own plug. It all had to go.

As you can see over time this became a tangled mess hanging under the trailer with too much length.

Ripped it all out but I kept the lights, which were perfectly reusable.

A new set of lights was something over $35. To save a few bucks I rebuilt them. The lights would be rewired with this new harness I found at WalMart for $12+.

There was trouble running the wires through the trailer's main beam. Wouldn't go in more than a few feet before getting stuck. Looking round the yard I found a simple solution. Take a garden hose and run it through the beam out to the other side, stick the wires into the hose a few inches, wrap them together with tape, and pull the house back out; A quick way to thread wires through a hollow beam.

It was getting dark and I continued two days later by taking apart and rewiring the signals.

I got the lights into the house and worked on them with the soldering iron for a few minutes, put them back on the trailer, connected the harness ends, put in new bulbs, and they worked perfectly.

BEFORE

AFTER

I never did anything like this before and probably spent two hours over the two evenings reverse engineering and working on it. They are now as good as new and I had lots of fun.

BEFORE

AFTER

The next job is to replace the trailer coupler. It is bent all to heck! I could never back the Batboat into the water without it veering in strange angles.

Batboat Rebuild: Seat Mystery Solved Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:25:00 +0000

The 1966 Glastron fiberglass boat catalog that I mentioned here three weeks ago came in the mail a while back. (I paid $13.89 for mine and another recently sold for $26, he he he.)

The pointed seat design shown in a '66 Jetflite V-143 Super Sport appears, from the back, to be a closer match for the ones used in the original Batboat than the '67 Jetflite V-143 mentioned in another blog post.

'66 Jetflite V-143 Super Sport

1966 Batboat

'67 Jetflite V-143 Super Sport

It looks like when it comes to having my own seats made I'll need to get hold of one of those seats and interpolate the dimensions of the Batboat's to base the new pattern on.

The Jetflites in the Glastron '66 and '67 catalogs are the only boats with pointed, turned up seating and are unique to that model.

The Batboat's seats were specially made and upholstered in glitter blue vinyl, as shown above. This is one of the scant close up glimpses of the original seat. It doesn't get much better than this, sadly.

The 1966 Jetflite V-143 Super Sport

The '66 catalog also shows the steering wheel used in original Batboat; a Super Sport in metallic blue.

Batboat Rebuild: Dashboard Aluminum Trim

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:43:00 +0000

I just interpolated the width of the 1966 Batboat dashboard trim against a one inch vinyl pleat. It appears to be the same width as in mine; 5/16th inch.

My vessel was built three years after the TV show boat and, like many other details in the '66 Batboat, that trim was one of Glastron's stock parts.

The above is the glove compartment piece from my 1969 V-145/Batboat. I bet its the same stuff. If so, it will not be hard to find at all. The same aluminum trim was used by Glastron in many of their boats in the 1960s and its the stuff people sometimes throw out when fixing their boats up.

Here is how it was upholstered to most of the vinyl in my boat. Looks nice and neat from the front...

... but the back is different.

The back of the channel in the aluminum was cut to make it easier to bend into curves and then stapled through the vinyl to the plywood.

The channel is 3/8 inch and ply 1/4 inch.

The metal is rounded at the end and the upholstery foam under the vinyl looks about 1/4 inch. Not too slim and not too puffy. That is how I am going to upholster my craft, just like Glastron did in '69.

Batboat Rebuild: Seat Mystery Solved.

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:58:00 +0000

Color Photo From The 1967 Glastron Boats Brochure

Researching how the original 1966 Batboat was built is sometimes kind of tough. It was one of the least used Bat-vehicles in the show (once in the movie and twice breifly on the show. The show appearances were filmed during the movie) and there are only a scant 2 or 4 original photos showing detail.

Sorry for the bad screen capture! One of the rare shots of the interior.

One of the last items that had left me stumped were the seats. There are maybe two or three photos that show them clearly but from behind. The BATMAN movie dvd shows them from above but for a split second.

I posted a quirey with images at the Classic Glastron Owners Association forum and one of the historians, 69 JETFLITE, came up with the answer the next day.

It is possible they are the seats used in Glastron's Jetflite models. I looked through my 1967 Glastron brochure and sure enough, there they are!

The Classic Glastron Owners Association site has a scan of the 1966 brochure showing the top of the seats and they are better dead ringers for those in the Batboat. A 1966 brochure is on the way here from eBay so I can take a better look.

Above: 1967 Jetflite Super Sport V-143
Below: The Batboat In 1966 Before Delivery To Hollywood.

The post '66 Jetflite chairs seem to have the same turned up/ pointed appearance on the top but are narrower in the middle pleated area. The above photo shows a reupolstered pair.

The 1966 Batboat had both tops and bottoms pointed, however. If I can get a pattern off a top, the bottoms can be made the same way. Just need to find a junker '66 seat. That will have to wait for next year, delivery of the '66 brochure and more photos to verify. :)

Glastron forum member FergusonPooleInc says the 1967 seats were blue metallic, the 1968 red metallic, and the 1969 were gold metallic.

Cool.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 50 October 10th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:08:00 +0000

I worked on the new dashboard today. This modified Glastron V-145 craft needs a new dash because it and the seats need to be moved back one foot to be in the correct proportion to the 1966 original Batboat.

When Glastron built their Batboat for the BATMAN movie they did the same thing to a V-174 Super Sport.

The "lap" of the seats should be about dead center of the length of the craft.

1/2 inch plywood makes up the dash of my boat with about 1/4 inch of fiberglass on top for strength. I'll be using 3/4 inch marine grade ply and a couple layers of 1.5 oz chopped strand mat fiberglass.

The Original Dashboard

On top of that will be some kind of satin polished aluminum or stainless steel, as seen in the original.

I'll figure out what size the metal trim is when I find out the diameter of those Mercruiser gages. I have a hunch, however, that it could be the same trim Glastron used in many of their boats at that time, including mine; 5/16 inch polished, rounded aluminum. (shown in the below pix of the glove compartment.)

A pattern for the new ply was made with "dollar store" package wrapping paper.

I've got a lot of mileage out of that roll over the past two years!

The paper was scored with open scissors along the top.

The glove compartment doesn't have a top to trace on...

... so a rough cut was made, paper taken off the dash, folded in half and the compartment area was cut the shape of the driver's side.

Pattern was clamped back on and after few adjustments the steering hole was marked.

Many of the angles of this '69 V-145 boat are 15 degrees. The dash is no exception so the ply will be cut at 15 degree angles.

This used to be quite a nice looking sport boat at one time. Hard to see it now but the dash had a modern style to it.

Glove compartment featured aluminum lined, padded "Glacier Blue" Naugahyde vinyl...

... the rest of the dash surface was covered with wood grain vinyl, as seen from under the dash.

Padded "Glacier Blue" Naugahyde vinyl was under the windshield, the steering column was chromed and the steering wheel was black with a chrome hub. The Glastron logo in the center of the hub with a wood grain background.

The hull and topside was originally white with "Glacier Blue" details.

The longest ply I have left is 4 foot. The new dash needs to be 4 foot 2 inches as the Batboat gets wider a foot back. A solution has been figured out.

Top and bottom are cut at a 15 degree angle...

... and with a few adjustments, its uniform to the original.

The dash, windshield area and laser eyes are all connected. The cold is averaging 45 degrees now but I'll work on it when able.

Batboat - Whizzwheels Blister Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:33:00 +0000

http://www.thebatmobile.nl/ provides images for hobbyists to make reproduction packaging for their old Batman toys.

Here's one for the 1967 Corgi Juniors #1003 Batboat Whizzwheels Blister Pack.

They have several more cool '60s Batboat toy boxes but they are too big to post here. Go to http://www.thebatmobile.nl/ to check them out.

Vintage photo of my boat.

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:08:00 +0000

I found this pix in a flicker account while Googling.

Its of the Batboat before I owned it on display at the Motor City Comic Convention, held at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, MI, May 19-21, 2006. The miniature Man-O-War was built for this convention celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Batman TV show.

I understand the autograph tables of Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Yvonne Craig, and Lee Meriweather were facing the Batboat the entire weekend but I have yet to find any photos showing it.

It will be cool to put together a scrapbook. Most images that have been given to me and found were shot at this convention.

I'd like to have some other shots taken at other meets and conventions where this appeared from 2006 to 2007, like the one at the bottom of this blog.

Have you any photos of my Batboat on display? Or with cast members? There are two shots of Yvonne Craig autographing the fin.

I'd sure like to have some more. :) Contact me through this blog or dnemeth01@charter.net.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 49 September 20th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:28:00 +0000

Today I took a few moments to fill in the odd low spots under the bow along where the deck meets the hull.

These will be a mold and dirt traps, especially after the foot board is put back in. When filled in flat it will also be easier to wash out the bow and keep it dry.

Using a great deal of PL Construction Adhesive.

PL caulk spread smooth using fingers.

Next spring I will grind the surface of the PL smooth and fiberglass over it. The weather is cooling off too much to risk buying more resin and I haven't the money to buy one more gallon due to the move to Saginaw.

The last new cartridge of PL Adhesive of the year was opened. Seven 28 oz cartridges used on the Batboat so far! There is still some left over for next year, believe it or not.

There were a few spots on the deck with exposed bare plywood from my grinding bubbles down too far into the chopped strand mat fiberglass a week ago. I waterproofed them by glopping a bit of adhesive on top. Will pop them off and fiberglass over those next year.

Winter may be here but there is more to come to the 1966 Batboat Blog! Stay tuned!

Batboat Rebuild: Day 48 September 13th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:01:00 +0000

A couple hours was spent today grinding down the bubbles in the 6 oz woven hexal fiberglass.

There were too many but there were no bubbles in the 1.5 chopped strand mat, however, so not many areas need to be patched.

I did this wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt. For weeks I had a rash on my upper arms from contact with the tacky fiberglass surface. Wear long sleeves, folks! lol!

Weeks ago, when the plywood was measured and cut for the deck it was a snug fit, however, after fiberglassing the underside and grinding off the excess I dug into the wood a little. Not a good fit any more. After installed, most places where the deck sections met the hull had a half inch or more gap.

Rolling fiberglass over the deck to meet the hull creates a slouch in the cloth were these gaps are. Today I filled these dips in with PL Construction Adhesive and intend to glass over it next summer with 1.5 CSM, otherwise, they will be dirt and mold traps.

The caulk makes the surface smooth and even for fiberglassing.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 47 September 7th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:22:00 +0000

Moved into the new house now. Feel more calm and much more rested. No more muscle spasms. No more nuisance. lol!
There was exactly 40 oz left of resin in the can and it was exactly enough to finish glassing in the last two and a half feet of deck under the bow. Everything turned out perfect!

I finished up the bilge by grinding off the excess 6 oz hexal. With what little mixed resin I had left in the bucket was used to glass on small strips of 1.5 along the edge of the bowl to fix rough spots left from grinding.

The hard parts of rebuilding my Batboat are finally over.

Looking over what was accomplished I placed some of the old Glastron sport details back in the Batboat get an idea on what can be done next.

The dash and foot stop will have to be moved back one foot and the splash well needs to be fixed. I can't wait to get started.

The above shows a large fragment of the original blue deck covering, stamped "1969" on the back, laying next to gray "Deco-Dot" vinyl flooring made by Nautolex.

As of earlier this year, the blue Deco-Dot I wanted was no longer made and unavailable. Instead, I'll be using vinyl looking very close to the boat's original as mentioned a few blogs back, which is also no longer made but I got some days ago. ;)

The area behind the strip of wood will be painted with bilge paint tinted blue. Can't use vinyl because the gas cans go back there and the vinyl will get wrecked.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 46 August 21st, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Burnt the old stringers today. They were dry and went up really fast. Kind of sorry to see them go.

I worked up the bilge area by laminating strips of 1.5 oz CSM to create a bowl. I think there was about 2 to three layers of fiberglass all with much overlap.

The PL I caulked in the gap from days before had set so the rear of the deck got glassed to the transom using 1708 biaxial cloth.

At the same time I finished the last remaining 7 inches of bare deck with 1.5 oz CSM.

The 1708 and 1.5 oz cloth were covered with 6 oz hexel woven fiberglass for added strength and smoother surface.

I kept an eye on the clouds all that day. The wind was blowing hard, and the tarp still roped to the trailer yanked around with the gusts as I worked. There was a couple short periods of light sprinkle. I keep mentioning the weather in this blog to stress that if you make your own Batboat you'll need a garage or someplace out of the elements.

I took a break by heading to the gym before it closed and came back to bed the triangle deck piece to the tip of the deck with PL Adhesive.

I had a problem with gaps around the parameter of the deck where it meets the hull. (More on this later.) The fiberglass cloth slouched into most of it. This was my last day living in Zilwaukee, IIRC, and I put some PL Adhesive on the fiberglass in these areas under the bow to prevent the slouch when finishing it at the new place.

I quit about 7:45 to eat and play a computer game.

After a really bad year and a half my misery in that town is finally over. Bad economy, badgered by cops several times and had worse case senerio bad neighbors. There was still some stuff to move but I was all but gone from that house. The first 4 or 5 years were fine, however, I'll never move back to Zilwaukee.

Worked on the Batboat for about 4 hours that day. :)

Batboat Rebuild: Day 45 August 19th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:55:00 +0000

Took a few days off to move my stuff out of the old house and into the new one as the new gallon of resin was on its way from Florida. 14th gallon ordered so far!

Knowing it was coming in on this day I got the the deck under the bow ready to be fiberglassed.

Newspaper was taped around the parameter to keep sanding dust from getting under the deck as I sanded with a 40 grit pad to remove dust and debris from the surface and make the PL Adhesive over the screw heads level.

Some more fine pop found at Hagerty's of Zilwaukee. The last one for long time.

The sanding dust is cleaned up and the paper outtta there.

I glassed on two more cuts of fiberglass cloth. 1.5 csm and 6 oz woven hexan with 2 to 3 inches of overlap. This time they were 60 inches long by 15 and I found that 20 oz of resin was just enough to glass them in and add a couple more coats on top.

These turned out far more better than my first attempt. Hardly any bubbles at all.

The last remaining two and a half feet of deck under the bow wasn't finished until after I moved.

A bead of PL was injected along the deck / transom gap to prepare it for glassing. I've found the the fiberglass cloths want to dip down into these gaps. Plugging them with PL construction Adhesive solves the problem.

This is a detail of one of the original stringers. Glastron used a woven fiberglass cloth and nothing else on this one. The deck was staple gunned on top while this was still wet with resin. It lasted for years before it went to rot from neglect.

How long will this Batboat last beyond my years? :)

I never thought rotted wood like this would be so valuable. Without retaining these from the demolition of the Batboat I would have been lost on what to do. Invaluable patterns were reconstructed from these and used to rebuild the structural of this anti-crime water cruiser.

Can't take them with me when I move, and I wasn't going to take them, so they and other useful fragments were waiting to be burned.

I started working at around 4 and ended at 9. The neighbors dog was barking nearly all the time. What a nuisance. It was out in the dark and rain into the night yelping away until way past 10:30. The police in Zilwaukee are nonexistent and the department exists out of local politics only. Glad I'm days from moving out.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 44 August 12th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:57:00 +0000

According to my notes, today was another 8 hour day and a great deal was accomplished.

My motivation was the stoner neighbors who chained up a yelping, starving dog along side of my house near my bedroom window. The Batboat was going to be my U-haul out of Zilwaukee and I needed the deck in, pronto!

My car had started to resemble a tribute to the fuzz covered Batmobile that was on tour in the 1970s. Its all from fiberglass cloth which gets everywhere. Don't work on this stuff near your house. It is hard to get rid of.

I had no other flat surfaces to work with so measuring and cutting was done on the hood. lol!

The center part of the deck was fiberglassed and in and it turned out good.

Instead of glassing on 20 inch sections of cloth I did it in 10 to 15 inch increments with two to three inch overlap between layups. It was easier to manage and the result was less bubbles under the 6oz hexel.

Work began on reconstructing the bilge bowl by creating a frame work with strips of 1.5 oz. chopped strand mat. This is all that was done that day. The rest was finished later.

Another hot one outside. Came back from Hagarty's of Zilwaukee with this bottle. I've rarely drank pop in the past 20 years but the sugar gave me a pick up.

This was the best root beer I ever had.

Getting ready to screw the last part of the deck in. I was nearly out of resin again and ordered one more gallon.

This was the 14th gallon ordered! The stuff still went fast despite my using it more sparingly.

Bought another 28 oz. cartridge of the PL before starting out the day. The sixth so far.

The stringers under the bow have a very slight upward curve from the layers of 1708 fiberglass so I used a lot of PL Adhesive and my own weight to get the deck to lay on top of them completely flat as I screwed it down. Couldn't screw into the stringers at the last 4 or 5 inches because they both end at a narrow point.

Everything turned out perfect.

The last of the #10 screws ready to go in. It is best to start in the middle and work outwards.

The caulk will ooze from the seam in the deck. Let it set for 24 hours until hard and sand it smooth.

The #8 1 1/4 inch screws buried themselves in their own adhesive caulk as they drove into the stringers.

I started with 200 stainless steel screws and I ended up using about 120 on the deck.

The new deck is now more square in the hull than the original. You can see were the factory floor was by the black line running below the green, right above the exposed woven fiberglass. This was about 3 inches higher than the other side of the vessel. It didn't take me much effort at all to make it level. No big deal either way because this is under the bow where no one will ever see it.

Glastron was the most well known fiberglass boat maker in the world. Their brand was the best quality around, however, nobody ever guessed these boats would be desirable or even used for more than a decade or so. People at the forums said they built them good but just enough to get the job done.

The triangle is set in place for looks.

I quit for the day because the sun was going down. Another good 8 hour days work!

Batboat Rebuild: Day 43 August 11th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:09:00 +0000

I worked 7 hours with breaks here and there for lunch and water. It was extremely hot out and I worked in the direct sun in shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt.

Not much of a pop drinker but I managed to buy several bottles of John McCain Cola months ago. Made of cane sugar it was probably good to drink before starting because of the sugar and caffeine content. It tasted good, too!

Today I fiberglassed the first ply of deck to the hull, installed the below-deck flotation and bedded in the middle ply.

I wanted to move out of my house badly because of bad neighbors and the Batboat was going to be my U-haul, therefore, I was working on it constantly throughout August. Had to get the deck in and dust cleaned out before my stuff could go in!

The first job for the day was to fiberglass the deck, something I never did before. My first time at it.

The deck surface was cleaned by grinding down the excess PL Adhesive over the screws and sanding the surface of the ply with 40 grit paper. The dust was blown out and then cleaned up with acetone in a rag.

The fiberglassing turned out to be a mess. I screwed up. A matching 60 inch by 20 inch section of 1.5 chopped strand mat and 6 oz. Hexel woven was cut. The mat went on first and the Hexel followed. I got so many bubbles in the 6 oz. Hexel because my hand was fiberglassed into my glove. I could not reposition the 6oz cloth on top of the mat until I got my hand out. By then it was almost too late. I did the best I could but have lots of grinding and patching to do later. :(

This fiberglassing waterproofs the deck plywood and bonds it to the hull by running the cloth up the sides.

The 1.5 oz chopped strand mat bonds to the plywood and the 6 oz. Hexel woven goes on top to create a smooth surface and for strength.

A minimum of 8 oz. of fiberglass cloth is recommended for decks. I came up .5 oz shy but this is not a deck where there will be any foot traffic.

Looking at some scraps of the original deck, it looks like Glastron originally used one layer of woven and put a vinyl floor on top. (!!!)

Here is another attempt at 20 inches of cloth. I rolled this on with a few inches overlap on the first layup.

This turned out much better.

I fiberglassed up to near the cross brace screws. After the middle ply is in, the fiberglass will overlap the previous work by several inches plus over the seam in the deck.

Blah.

It is a good idea to have some kind of floatation under the deck in case something happens out on the water. I went the swimming pool "Fun Noodles" route.

This is closed cell foam, the type used in jet fighter wings, will not disintegrate unless in UV rays, are very buoyant, and cheap!

Got 15 of them last year at WalMart's end of season price drop at $1.50 each. Most stores have them marked down at the end of every summer.

Remember to tear off the tags. They can be moisture and mold traps under the deck!

These are easy to tear into sections and down the middle using only your hands.

The round shape of the foam will not trap water if it ever got under the deck. It will just flow out to the bilge.

Only 14 out of 15 would fit under the deck. My niece and nephew got the one left over.

There is now more foam under the deck than what the factory put in back in 1969 and it cost me only $22.50.

My Batboat is an outboard so there are no worries about the foam being ruined by gas leaks from an under deck tank.

Again, this is closed cell foam and won't soak in water unless exposed to lots of UV rays.

I bonded and screwed the middle section in just like I did to the other the day before and vacuum cleaned up.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 42 August 10th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:05:00 +0000

I worked 5 - 6 hours that day with always the possibility of rain. Clouds came and went. Sky went light and dark a few times, however, nothing came down from the sky and a lot was accomplished.

I got these stainless steel screws solely for screwing the deck plywood to the cross braces. They are also the same sized as the originals used to join the topside, hull and rub rail together.

These are #10 one inch pan heads. I didn't want to use the longer, 1 1/4 inch screws I already had because the thickness of the deck and braces equaled 1 1/4, taking the chance the screw will go through the bottom of the ply allowing moisture into the sealed ply. One inch screws are better. Plus these are thicker.

The 1 1/4 inchers are for the stringers.

Today I started to permanently lay the deck pieces into the hull.

I pre-drilled the holes in the deck plywood and counter sank where the #10 pan heads go. I used a lot of them!

The locations in the deck ply of all the screws going into the stringers were pre-drilled but not counter sank because they were the flat head 1 1/4 inch.

None of the stringers or braces were pre-drilled into. I wanted the screw heads to draw the deck ply down tight and force it down on top. Pre-drilling may cause some holes to get stripped when screwed the second time, I figured.

With the deck ply perfectly set into the hull I checked all the holes with a small drill bit to make sure the screws were not going into thin air or through the sides of the stringers. The bit was moved around at angles feeling for surfaces. Where there wasn't any a new spot was marked and drilled.

The transom end of the deck goes in first.

The ply is perfectly sitting square in the hull. I drilled two screws through this deck through into a stringer and took them out. These points will be used to align the deck back in.

To bed the deck into the boat a generous amount of PL Construction Adhesive is used. This bonds and waterproofs the join of the deck ply to the stringers and braces.

The guys at the iboats.com forum highly recommends this.

Use a lot of PL Adhesive.

Glop it on good so it spreads over the edges when the deck is screwed on top.

Glop it on up to where the deck ends on the cross brace and no further.

This caulk begins to skin in a few minutes so I had to work swiftly.

Putting the two screws back into the deck ply, I lifted the ply over the stringers, aligned them to their holes and dropped the plywood directly on top of the stringers and screwed them in.

Here is a trick they showed me at the iboats.com boat restoration forum. To further waterproof the screw entries, put some PL Adhesive in the holes. In my case, excess from on top of the structurals oozed up from beneath.

Set the screw in the hole and drill it in. The caulk is greasy and the screws go in smoothly with no heads popping off.

The screw will take in some of the caulk down with it into the stringer and bury its self in caulk. Excess will ooze over it.

When PL hardens it expands a little. I waited a day and ground the excess smooth.

This is never coming out and will out live me.

The second deck ply goes in another day. For now, the PL Adhesive will harden and I checked it out the next day.

It was getting almost dusk anyway.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 41 August 7th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:27:00 +0000

Only thing my notes say for this day is that I worked for over 6 hours but the photos bring back all the great memories of that day. Finally, progress!

I was very busy getting the boat ready for the new deck.

The excess fiberglass was ground off the stringers where the cross braces get bedded in.

The slots were adjusted and perfectly sized and fitted to their cross braces.

More white fiberglass dust to clean up and make me itch!

Each stringer is completely bonded to the hull. The surface of the cross brace notches are left bare wood which will help the peanut butter bond the plywood together. (peanut butter = polyester resin mixed with wood flower / fine saw dust). This bare surface will soak it in. :)

It is impossible to rebuild a fiberglass boat without an air compressor to blow the itchy fiberglass dust out. Ruth Uhala of Bay City loaned it for the summer. Thanks, Ruth! :)

The shop vac sucks up the most of it and the air compressor blows the finer particles out. (and sometimes in the direction of my bad "barking dog next to my bedroom window" stoner neighbor's house, too. he he.)

Those stringers took forever to put in! On this day I bonded in the cross braces that join and support the deck pieces. Finally, it was time to begin something with the deck!

To bond in the braces, I used the #8 1 1/2 inch stainless steel screws mentioned in the previous blog and peanut butter. The marine plywood used for the cross braces was 3/4 inch thick. If longer screws were used with the smaller stringers they would go through the hull.

I pre-drilled and counter sank all the holes after making sure everything lined up and was perfect....

...mixed up a small, 16 oz+ batch of peanut butter...

Yum.
...glopped in a liberal amount of it into where the cross braces go....

...And screwed the cross braces down.

Excess oozed out everywhere which is good. When the peanut butter hardens, it and the screws create a permanent bond with the stringers and braces. The only way to break it is to intentionally rip it all out with power tools. Or if the boat is hit by an exploding shark!

Back in '69 when Glastron built this craft they stapled the two inch wide cross braces into the stringers, much like a Walmart garden trellis. The braces I made are overkill at 6 inch wide, but it didn't cost me anything extra to do it that way, plus they are bonded in.

Looks good so far! I took my finger and filled in some of the gaps with the excess peanut butter.

As it started to harden, the "glop" was made smooth using my fingers. Look at the weave in that thick 1708 biaxial fiberglass!

The result is two more perfectly flush surfaces to attach a deck to.

All countersunk screw heads were filled with PL Construction Adhesive and ground smooth after it had hardened.

The deck plywood peices were set in the boat and the locations of the stringers and crossbraces beneath were marked. This lets me know where to put the screws later.

These two deck pieces are butt together with lines showing where the braces and stringers are underneath.

Looking under the deck towards the bow for gaps

With the complete deck temporarily set in place with weights I took a look underneath to see if there were any unlevel gaps between it, the cross braces and the stringers. Where there was, light shown through and I lightly ground those high spots down so the deck lay on top of all completely level.

Perfect. Everything went smoothly.

Looking from the bow toward the transom. No gaps.

Batboat Rebuild: Day 40 August 5th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:48:00 +0000

So much time has passed since I've worked on the Batboat and blogged I needed to read through my blog to figure out what had been accomplished!

Here it goes.

I had a break that lasted a full week while the tooling polyester resin was being shipped from US Composits. These two gallons make a total of 13th gallons ordered. Where did it all go? lol!

At $45+ per gallon, including UPS, it is not cheap!

I also bought two more 28 oz. cartridges of PL Construction Adhesive. Five so far. This caulk will be used up to bond the deck along the top of the stringers.

These are the stainless steel screws I'll used to secure the deck to the stringers when it is laid on on the caulk.

100 screws may seem a lot but I ended up using most. They are #8 1 1/4 inch screws. Different sized screws will be used to lay the deck plywood to the cross braces.

Stainless screws are essential because they don't rust. Glastron used metal staples and by the time I owned the boat nearly all had corroded.

I can't remember exactly what I did on this day but the photos tell me the new roll of 1708 biaxial fiberglass cloth came in. I must have finished up the repairs and fiberglassing in the stringers to the hull.

By now I was working in the Batboat wearing shorts and uneven spots of fiberglass poked into my skin. I bought the knee pads weeks earlier and they came in handy.

The new 1708 and my cutting table.

The repaired and cleaned up sections in the stringers where the cross braces would go were covered over with one last layer of 1.5 chopped stran mat and 1708 was rolled up the sides. The excess got ground down later.

Yet another layer of 1708 biaxial cloth bonds the stringers to the transom. Again, the excess gets ground down later.

1708 is among the strongest fiberglass weaves available. It is 17 ounces of woven material stitched on top of 8 ounces of chopped strand mat, equaling 25 oz. of fiberglass!!

This rebuild is many times more stronger than what the factory built.

A small hole was left in bottom of the stringers where they meet the transom. This lets water drain to the bilge area if it ever got under the deck. Sorry, they are hard to see. More on this later, however.

Floor Vinyl Is Here

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:07:00 +0000

Roll Of New Vinyl Compared To The Original Flooring As Used On The Foot Board

Earlier this week the second roll of vinyl for the Batboat came in.

This time it was the flooring and it is really impressive seeing it in its full size. Exceeded my expectations.

The black leatherette vinyl came in a few days earlier and it is really nice and professional looking, also.

Both are stored in my stairwell waiting for the completion of the Batboat.

Next is to order the Zodiac Blue but that will be done next summer. Unlike the blue flooring, this glitter Zodiac style seems like it will be available for years to come.

I can't wait to get back to work on the Batboat again.

The foot board has four decades of grime on it so its sort of a close match.

A big thank you to Gary and Connie Siliven of Gary's Upholstery. They sent me the samples, helped with my order and provided great, personal service. From now on I'm getting my Batboat upholstery stuff from those guys. They are the only ones I found that would send samples and some of their prices are lower.

Stay tuned! I am uploading some of the backlog of rebuild updates this evening.

"Batman Forever" 1/4 scale Batboat movie prop

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:33:00 +0000

Recently, a slick piece of Dark Knight-era movie memorabilia was offered to me; a 1/4 scale fiberglass Batboat movie prop from "Batman Forever." I'm more into the pre-1980s comic book and TV show vessel and had to pass it up.

It is an unfinished fiberglass kit and supposedly one of four made for the film. I figured some of you who watch the new films may be interested in this.

Another unusual watercraft. A late 1960s "Air Cycle".

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:20:00 +0000

Front

Some photos were recently posted at the Fiberglassics.com forum of a late 1960s hovercraft called the Air Cycle.

I've never seen anything like this in my life! It is 250 pounds, gas powered, and rides over snow, land and water. The propeller is at the FRONT of the craft!

I did a search and found this article with photos in the March 1970 issue of Popular Science at Google books.

There sure was a market for strange and inventive fiberglass vessels in the 1950s through the 1970s!

Rear

Steering wheel

More samples arrived from Gary's Upholstery

noreply@blogger.com (Darren Nemeth) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:55:00 +0000

The original '69 blue Naugahyde (above) and two texture samples.

The matches for my Glastron's four decade old blue Naugahyde came in today.

I need a match, but in black, for the Batboat's side compartments and the areas under the windshields.

The one to the left, Naugaleather MI 2284 Raven, is good but does not have the luster or the thickness of my original.

The other is bu alg coal @ $20.99 yd (this one is not on their website). It almost matches the texture, thickness and shine of the original. The leather grain is not as tight but it looks great.

Strangely, bu alg coal feels like the stuff I saw when I was at JoAnn Fabrics last week. Will check it out tomorrow.

The black vinyl and the floor vinyl mentioned in the previous post will be ordered by Friday.

Stay tuned! Some of the backlog of Batboat rebuild updates will be uploaded here this week.

The best has yet to come!