1956 15ft Crestliner Voyager

Restored by Mark Browne

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

    1956 15'  Crestliner 
Voyager Convertible
Restored by Mark Browne

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5/23/02

I have just returned from a multi-week visit to China. It's time to get back to work on the boat and rebuild the seat supports!

One picture shows the tools needed to do rivet work: a hand grinder, drill, rivet set tool, hammer & punch.
Not shown is any handy chunk of heavy steel to use as a bucking tool. Even the hammer head works well for this.

First I removed the existing rivets; I ground off the "back" of the rivet flush with the metal. A delicate touch is critical here. A tiny slip of the grinder wheel will cut right through the hull. A properly set rivet swells until it completely fill the hole. These rivets were properly set; after grinding them down there is no good way to see what is rivet, and what is hull. Not to worry. A light buzz with the rivet set tool ( on the side away from the head) causes a light circle to outline the rivet shank. A careful mark with a center punch, and you can drill out the rivet shank with an ordinary twist drill.

After removing the cap on the left chine/strake I discovered what the craftsmen at Crestliner had missed!  The rivets for the seat were positioned too far down in relation to the strake. It is clear that they put the seat in first, then covered the rivet heads with the fin.  You can see this in my rather fuzzy picture; there is one more hole inside the fin.  There was just enough room to remove the old head, but there was no room to
buck the forward rivet - DOH!  I *really* don't want to take off the entire fin to place a single rivet! I think I have a plan for this part, but I will hold off on the detailsuntil I see how it turns out.

On with the work.

I finished removing all the steel draw (pop) rivets in the rear seat box.Careful examination of the rear seat boxes shows what happens when you mix steel hardware with aluminum. Notice the bloom of corrosion around the places where a former owner had used steel draw rivets. I believe that even stainless will produce this effect.

Then I formed all the new brackets. I made all the bracket hardware from a single 8' x 2" x 1/8" aluminum strap. I did not want to use an extruded angle. The sharp edge forms a natural stress concentrator against the hull. My dad made up a nifty template to form the lower supports. We formed the rest of the brackets by bending the strap with a hammer and vise. A final smoothing pass with a wire wheel to remove the tools marks, particularly on the outer radius of the bend. This was done to prevent the formation of vibration induced stress cracks. As counter-intuitive as it seems, thinning the metal by buffing out a scratch make it less likely to break. 

A pass with a orbital sander to clean away any corrosion and I am ready to place the brackets. The part was placed by centering on the original position. We started with two holes on each part - one on each end. We marked the hole position with a felt tipped marker through the existing holes. A center punch and drill to shoot holes in the bracket. The bracket was replaced and two tight fitting screws were inserted to check the fit. If the screws had not fitted we would have replaced the part. We were fortunate that every part fitted the first time. One screw was left in place and a rivet was placed on one end. A proper rivet hole is a tight fit. We had to tap the rivets in place with a rubber hammer. Bucking rivets is clearly a two man job. One person drives the head with the set tool, the other bucks the shank from the other side. 

When it is time to set the rivet  you do it in a two step process. At first you just touch the shank with the bucking tool and tickle the head on the call of "set". After confirming that the position of all the parts is good you bear down with the bucking tool and call "drive".  A 1/2 second buzz is usually good enough to produce a good mushrooming of the shank.  A common newbie mistake is overdoing it - all the rivet has to do is swell to fill the hole.

The last photos show the newly installed brackets. I finished up the day by putting rivets in into the modified seat box and rear deck tray.

Now I am ready to make the seat boxes and replace the worn rivets in the hull. It has been a good Saturday.

4/22/02

I Just found your most excellent page!

I am rebuilding my Crestliner. Looking at your online catalogs suggest that this is a 1956 model. I believe it is a 15' Voyager convertible with steering and windshield. That would make it the same age as me.

I was searching for details of how this puppy was built. One of the prior owners cut out the seat supports. Boo, Hiss! I have been able to make out some details examining other boats from your page.  Detailed photos of the seats supports and front shelf would be most welcome.

I bought the boat for 300 bucks; two of the pictures are of a night pickup.You can see that it has been neglected. I did get the frame for the convertible top, but the canvas was trashed.

The original wooden seats seem a little uncomfortable, I don't think that restoration to the original plank seats are in the cards. My wife is a seamstress so I am going to see if she can make me some new seats and rag top.

We are removing the paint with a variety of tools. Most of the heavy lifting has been 80 grit sandpaper on an orbital sander on the flat areas and a cup wire brush on the rivet heads. There was significant corrosion under the transom wood. I suspect this  was from a steel channel added to the top of the transom at  some point.  A careful examination of the pictures shows the location of the original red paint under the cruddy white. As you can see from looking at the pictures, some rivet heads are missing and will have to be replaced. They are circled in red.

I have not selected a new paint scheme yet - I am leaning to international orange or safety yellow.

4/23/02

On the inside, notice that there are some mods.  The rear shelf by the engine has a tray added - I assume to make room for a larger engine. The rear seat has been converted to a walk through. Anyone who has draped themselves over the back of a boat to work on a bulky engine can appreciate the intent. My concern is how much have they weakened the boat?

All the internal supports for the bench seats have been cut out, again, how much did they weaken the boat?

The hull is coated with nasty carpet glue. It seen that the only thing to do is replace the carpet, as the glue will never come off. On the plus side, the carpet does serve to deaden noise. Included are some detail shots of some of the hardware and mounting points.

And finally, the various Valspar products ready for application. Alas, no orange. I am going for a boring white hull and green deck. Ho Hum.

Mark Browne
Osseo, Minnesota.

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