After fishing a pretty windy sunday at Pueblo with my sons, Bryan decided he, like Jim, wanted spot lock. So..we had to buy a boat. Like his kayak, he still wanted to be able to slide it in his Tundra, so this is what we found. Perfect! What a beautiful boat.
It's a 1947 Aero Craft. 12 footer. Aero Craft corp was formed in 1946. Now, just a little work and he'll be ready to find an ipilot motor to install. It's going to be one cool boat...Ah, maybe, I'm just a little Dingy. Can't wait to get started.
Stripped off all of the decking, transom plates, degreased and wire wheeled all seams and rivets to get rid of silicone and other sealants. Will buck the rivets and then seal all rivets and seams from the inside with gluvix. Started sanding the aluminum that won't get painted. Started with 100 grit to remove 71 years of gouges and scratches...went up to 2500 grit. still need to polish. But before polish, you can now see blue sky and a cloud in the reflection.
100 grit sanding upper right corner. 2000 grit..lower left corner
Polished with Mom's Aluminum polish
Haha...Bryan getting ahead of himself shopping my Grandson Conner into the pic.
In the first pic of the last post, you can see two rails on each side of the boat. New, in 1947, the boat sold for $195. If you wanted a runabout, you could purchase a console for an additional $10.
No, the polish I used protects it. Also, he will strip and wax with an aluminum wax once a year. Or, I might just shoot it with a couple coats of clear.
This was the first boat I ever owned. Told my wife a guy wanted to give me a free boat. He had been using it as a sand box for years. It's a 1958 13 foot Glastron. The year I was born. I had to cut the transom completely off and then replaced it. Replaced all of the stringers. The top half had separated from the bottom half, So, I drilled out and replaced all of the rivets and put the top back on. Found twin 1958 90 horse Mercs ..neither ran, but I made one good motor out of the two. Added a lot of fiberglass, a deck, steering wheel, seats, carpet, paint, windshield, horn, lights and trailer. My wife didn't realize just how "free" that boat really was. It sure was fast. A year later, I sold it and bought a bigger boat for the family.
Thanks. It was 15 to 20 hours of work to get it sanded and polished. I'll be adding a clear coat of Everbright when it's done. The Everbright Protectaclear is supposed to be the best product for preserving the metal's shine. You don't shoot it on. It's self leveling and you brush it on. It's supposed to last for several years and can be reapplied. The rivets are all bucked and gluvixed. Doesn't leak a drop. Hopefully, this afternoon I'll cut the plywood for the interior. To keep it light, I'm using 1/4 inch and 11/32nds inch ply.
Great project!
Thanks for taking the time to post pics/progress.
Think I might get a boat next spring, but not sure I want to put so much work into it
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