1956 15ft Crestliner Voyager

Restored by Mark Browne

Viewer Photos 
Send photos!  Before,  in progress, & completed Crestliner restoration photos welcome. 
Add photo captions, your story & your email (if you want it listed).

Email  or mail photos to:  Pamela Matson  6198 McQuade Rd  Duluth, MN  55804   [email protected]

    1956 15'  Crestliner 
Voyager Convertible
Restored by Mark Browne

September 21, 2002 - gluing the transom

While I was waiting for my paint to dry I had a little time on my hands.

The wooden transom on my crestliner had rotted to the point where it
crumbles in my fingers.

When this boat was made floors in houses were 1" plywood over 2"x6" lumber.
This made one inch plywood was a very common material. Times have changed
this situation. Now most housed are made from glued sawdust. I cruised the
building supplies stores looking for a sheet - no joy. If I was willing to
pay major cash I could have bought some specialty marine plywood. Mostly
what you get for marine plywood is a great selection of materials and a
better finish on the outside plies. There was a time when marine grade was
needed to get waterproof glue but all plywood is made with waterproof glue
now.

This spring I bought a sheet of 1/2" pressure treated plywood for my
transom.  It was wet and not all that straight. Pressure treating drives a
nasty copper solution into the wood, making it hard for things like fungus
and bugs to eat it. The bad thing is that this wood is deliberately soaks
through and through. It takes a long time to dry out and usually warps as it
dries. The wood has a perceptible greenish tint.

I had the store cut it into strips so I could load it into my econo box car.
This is a free service offered by many stores. If you know what sizes you
need you can get the wood cut in the store so it is a little easier to
handle. When I got to the garage I alternated the direction of warping of
the sheets and clamped them together. This has been drying all summer. Every
few weeks I have been releasing the clamps and shuffling the wood around to
reduce warping as the wood has dried. If you look back on some of the
pictures you can see a bundle of wood sitting by the bow most of the time.

Now the wood has dried and I am ready to make a transom out of it. I
selected the best pairs for the inside and outside. I selected two slabs
(1") for the inside and 3 (1.5") for the outside. I arrange for the
knotholes to be inside the wood. Then I joined the wood using a liquid nails
product. I covered one slab with most of a tube of the stuff, then slapped
on another slab. I placed the wood so that the center bowed out. Te plan
here is to keep the edges from splitting and separating as it ages.

I used two strips of angle iron for stiffeners. Then I put on every clamp in
the garage.  The next day I have a nice looking, straight chunk of one inch
ply ready to cut to shape.

Mark Browne

September 21, 2002 - It's orange!

September 21, 2002 - It's orange!

I shot the top again. This time I followed instructions as to thinning and
coverage.  Naturally, there was the usual preparation work - blow down with
compressed air, tack cloth wipe, filtering paint.

I pulled the masking off while the paint was still wet. This is a risky way
to do things. The good part is that the edges "heal" and form a very nice
edge. The bad part is if you mess up and touch the paint will leave marks in
the paint. I did not mess up and the wet paint closed in where the tape
would normally leave a "groove" next to the masked right angle edges.

Some paint mist had gotten through the paper and had fogged a spot on the
inside starboard side. While the paint was still wet I hustled inside the
boat and wiped it off with paint thinner.  The paint had gotten in down by
the seats. I had guessed that this was very far from where I was shooting
and that it would not be a problem. WRONG! This drives home for me how
important it is to make sure EVERY seam in the paper is sealed with tape.

The paint has a little "orange skin" to the finish but it looks good
otherwise.
It seems I am about done painting - I still have to do the engine
compartment.

Mark Browne

September 21, 2002 - The final coat of primer

I shot a coat of primer over the repair work. I started with spot shots over
each of the sanded areas and went around the hull several times and built up
a fairly thick layer of primer. A good rule with any solvent based paint is
lots of thin coats is better than one thick coat. I like to spray my paints
pretty thin so the bulk solvent flashes of in a short time. When my primer
was built up over the repairs I shot a coat over the entire deck.

After it dried I cleaned up the imperfections around the rivet heads. For
close in work like this I like to wrap 220 grit sandpaper around gum
erasers. This allows fine detail work. A wedge style pink eraser lets you
get into really tight spots.    Looking at the pictures I see I need to get
a camera that works better in close-up shots.

I think I am ready to try the orange paint again.

Mark Browne

September 21, 2002 - Repairing the primer

I have a close-up of one gunnels. You can see that the gummy orange paint is
gone. So is the primer on the rivet heads. Bummer. Paint *will* stick to
bare metal, but not as well as it will stick to primer. For large areas or
highly stressed spots it is best to have primer under the paint.

I put  masking back on the boat. I don't want any primer splattered on my
nice white hull. For fine detail work I like to guide the tape with a small
screwdriver. The quality of the edge of a painted area is totally dependant
on the tape placement. Put another way - If you have a crooked tape line you
will have a crooked paint line. Even the best edge will have a small jagged
edge. In each area where you are following a natural seam think of what part
of the seam will hide the edge best.

I feathered in the scrapes with sandpaper. On each defect I sanded until
there was no sharp edge. In a few areas I had to go all the way down to
metal, as a scratch exposed the hull. This may be a little over the top -
but I can do this as it is my own boat. If you are pressed for time you can
just fill the scratch with primer and sand down the excess. This *should* be
good enough. I have been experimenting with a method of spot sanding - I put
my finger over the area to be sanded and slide a strip of emery cloth under
my finger. Sort of like a mini-belt sander. It seems to work pretty well but
it is hard on the finger. Perhaps with a glove of some sort?

The next step was to daub on some etching primer on the shiny rivet heads
and exposed metal patches. . I used the shop cloth version of  paper towels.
I tried to limit the contact to the metal areas, but got a fair amount over
the existing primer. Next time, I will try a small foam brush.

When this dried it left dried splotches that needed sanding to blend in with
the rest of the paint - around each and ever rivet head. I am beginning to
wish that this was a welded boat.

Mark Browne

September 8, 2002

September 8, 2002 - Sanding my newly painted deck

I surveyed the carnage on Sunday. I had at least 2 dozen defects in the
paint. Fifteen hour had passed since I had shot the paint.  I expect paint
to be dry to the touch in eight hours, and ready to sand in twenty-four
hours. This was a little tight but I decided to try it. This is a problem
with working on the weekends. If I passed on this I would not get much done
until next week and I was  running out of summer.

The paint was dry to the touch but it kept rolling up on the sandpaper.
Under the surface the paint was still gummy.   Nothing for it, I will have
to wait another day before sanding.

September 10, 2002. - Sanding my newly painted deck, take two.

 I scuffed everything and then started to work on feathering the defects.
The plan with a defect is to sand out the defect with a gradual slope in the
surrounding paint. The next layer of paint will follow the contours so the
sanded area must be smooth enough to prevent drawing attention. The paint
was STILL not setting up hard. I suspect that there was enough trapped
solvent that the paint will require extra time to harden.

September 12, 2002 - Stripping the new paint.

The paint is still gummy. Time to face facts. The thinner must have ruined
the paint. It came off easily with a plastic scraper. The paint was sticking
to itself pretty well - it was coming of in long orange ribbons as I
scraped it. A thin ring of harder paint surrounded each place where I had
feathered a defect but it was still much softer than I expect for properly
hardened paint. A wipe with thinner removed most of the remaining paint
film. I had dug into the primer were the paint had started to harden and I
had to scrape a bit. The rivet heads showed shiny aluminum in many places.
This is not good.

After many hours I had pulled all traces of gummy orange paint off my boats
deck. Now it was time to repair the primer and shoot the deck again.

Note to self:  Read and follow the instructions on the paint can.

Mark Browne

September 7, 2002

September 7, 2002 Painting the deck
It was late in the day and the primer looked great. It was about an hour
before sunset and I had the hots to shoot the orange paint. I was planning
to shoot the next day during the heat of the day, but my good judgment lost
to my impatience. Big Mistake.

I suspect that most debacles start out something like this.

I had planned to stick with Valspar products but they did not have an orange
paint in the marine lineup. A co-worker told me about the Mautz orange paint
. This is the "official" color they use on their store signs so it is a very                      
bright, eye catching paint - just what I was looking for! Sure enough, when
I opened the can I fell in love with the color.

I have never worked with this brand before but was in a hurry so I skipped
reading the label before dumping it in the gun. I cut it with thinner to get
the consistency I like spraying. Another Big Mistake.

I pushed the boat out and started shooting. The coat was looking pretty good
on the first pass but it was really thin. On the second pass I saw that the
density was not going to work out. With a good second coat I could still see
right through it. Not good. At first I thought that the gun had clogged and
I was not getting any material, but a moments glance at the stream killed
that thought - I should see that the paint was flowing great. I dashed back
to the mixing table  and grabbed the paint can. The first words that jumped
out of the instructions (in bold text) were "Do not thin this paint". I have
seen this on paint before but usually thinning has not a problem. The Mautz
brand *means* it. Rats.

Now what? The boat was covered with a rapidly drying coat of translucent
paint. Whatever I was going to do had to happen pretty fast. I dumped the
batch of thinned paint and refilled with the rest of the quart. A test shot
showed that the paint would cover in a single pass. A half quart of paint
just covered the deck. This was a big relief. When I pushed it back into the
light in the garage the paint looked good. Nice coverage and a great color.

By now it was getting dark. As I cleaned the gun *every* bug in the
neighborhood decided that it had to land on my new paint. I think the orange
color attracted them. Just to make things interesting a huge moth flopped
all over the paint right next to the forward handle. The dying insect left a
track was 3 inches wide and 8 inches long. I guess I will be sanding this
coat and repainting. I wont be able to get another quart of this paint until
next week.

And things were going so well this morning. Sigh.

Mark Browne

September 01, 2002

September 01, 2002 - some last details before painting the deck

I have two little sheet metal tasks that have been hanging around. I wanted
to get these parts done so I can paint them at the same time as I do the
deck.

I did not like the cable clamps used to hold the engine control cable. Also,
the original center front seat support is missing. I sketched up both parts
and fabricated them in much the same way as described in the creation of the seat boxes.  You can see what they look like in the photos.

I made up some parts hangers out of old clothes hangers. I strung the
finished parts out over some Stanley sawhorses covered with newspaper.

Wipe everything with solvent to get rid of the finger prints - and I am
ready to sling some paint!

Mark Browne

September 07, 2002

September 07, 2002 - Prime the deck

I pushed the boat out and shot the acid wash and two coats of primer. This
was a textbook application, and there was not much that had to be done to
get things to work right. I did not include any detail pictures of paint
application as it would look just about the same as painting the bottom of
the hull.
In this case, the splash rails and forward handle are the details that are
shot prior to the flat surface. I did sand lightly between the coats.

After I shot the deck I moved on to my glove box, seat support, and cable
clamps. The big parts went pretty well but the clamps were a dismal failure.
The parts rocked around in the air stream and I could not get even coverage.
In the end I grabbed some coat hangers and made up a drying rack and a
dipping hook. I plunked each of the parts in a bottle of primer and left
them on the rack to dry. I used a plastic glove to move the parts from the
dipping hook to the drying rack. There are some downsides to this method -
you must paint the parts while you have enough paint to dip in, and a drip
forms on the "bottom" of the part.

A few random points come to mind:

I am taller than most people so it was not at all hard to hold the gun high
enough for a good angle to the surface being painted. If you run on the
short side you may have to lower the boat or provide a raised surface to
walk on.

I elected to leave the forward handle on the bow. This leave a shaded area
underneath that prevents good coverage. In a situation such as this you must
come at the area from the side. This causes the closest part of the paint
pattern to run thick and the parts farthest from you to be too thin for good
coverage. Get around to the other side quickly to build up the thin parts
before they dry. Even with primer you must maintain a wet film for the paint
to form a good skin.

Likewise, the nooks and crannies of the engine compartment are hard to hit.
As you look at the forward part of the engine compartment you can see that I
did not get good coverage in some small areas. If you feel you must cover
these types of areas be prepared to deal with runs in the surrounding
areas -  by the time you get enough paint for coverage everything else will
be soaked. If you look closely, you can see that I got runs on either side
of the little tray in the center of the engine compartment for just this
reason.

When you look at the pictures look at how little paint goes on the masking
paper. If your distance and feed are right most of the paint goes on the
surface being painted.

When spraying into a closed area you must expect a certain amount of paint
will come back at you in the escaping air. You can control this to a certain
degree by spraying at a slight angle to the surface being painted, say 10
degrees from directly perpendicular.  The air stream will "bounce" and flow
away from you. I know better, but I still have a fine mist of paint on my
glasses. To make things worse, I let it set up - I suspect I will not be
able to get it off without fogging the plastic lenses. Rats.

Mark Browne

Recent updates are listed first....see the rest of Mark's photos & stories on the next pages.

Continued on next page

 Email: Mark Browne if you have any questions or info re:  his 15' Crestliner Voyager Convertible