My 1977 Albin 25 Deluxe rebuild thread

[ssrig]

Yup, do easy first and get into the water!

My boat came with a fishing seat that has an adjustable leg, seems like it would be a good application for yours.

[hetek]

Well, my brother sat in the helm seat and promptly hit his head on the top arch. Looks like the pedestal will have to be shortened some. ...Or else, don't let brother drive!

WIndows are going in! Mostly all done. Just have to lock in one side cabin window and the windshield.

Helpful hint to any that attempt window replacement:

1. A 50' roll will not do all the glass in an Albin 25. It will do all the cabin windows - barely, but not the windshield too. I had less that a 1' piece left over after the cabin windows. Do not be wasteful here.

2. Same for the locking strip that goes with the weatherstrip. A 50' roll will do for the cabin windows but do not be wasteful. I was a bit too generous with my cuts and ran short by 6"! Good new/bad news is that I needed more for the windshield anyway so no harm, no foul. Lesson learned.

More weatherstrip and locking strip arrive UPS tomorrow. Bank account already debited. UGH!

Here's my first one:

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I figured I'd start small in case I messed up and had to do over. Small? Yes... Easier than big? No. Tight turns are not easy, even with the special insertion tool.

I cut the long sides of the Plexiglass with my table saw and used a fancy Diablo Plexiglass blade (86 teeth, I think). It doesn't make sawdust, it makes cotton candy. See the self portrait. For the curves, I wasn't happy using a saber saw so I just got close with the table saw and sanded to the line with a vertical disk sander. Worked much better.

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And... My new Albin 25 Sapele interior arrived! OK, it's now just a palletized crate of three sheets of Sapele Marine grade plywood (from Boulter Plywood, just north of Boston). "Some assembly required" as they say.

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[Keviom]

You have done fantastic ...this is yet another job I need to tackle on mine

[hetek]

Still at it. Slow but ... steady? My wife keeps interrupting my Albin progress with silly yard work. Anyway, this is this week's project.

Wood! Or more specifically, I'm re-skinning the head door.

So here it is. Rough shape. The head was used as a storage facility once and it shows. I removed the hardware and the round mirror.

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Next, I attacked it with a chisel, scraper and Sureform tool. Here it is with one side removed...

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I swear Albin used epoxy to apply the 1/8" Sapele veneer plywood to the frame. No fasteners at all, except for a single staple at each "ladder rung" intersection.

Wish me luck. I hope the next picture I post is of a gleaming shiny newly rebuilt head door. Yes, that is exciting for me.

And have a nice 4th of July everyone!

[WillieC]

Very cool. I re-lawned my yard waiting for my engine work to be done. Enough with the honey-dos! We own a BOAT!

It will sure look nice when you are done, but don't try to do it all this year. Good work.

[hetek]

Head door project update!

First, to recap...

The "before":

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And here's the "after":

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And here's one of the "in progress". Frame gluing to the first skin:

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Actually, I may give it a light sanding and one more coat, but then just reattach the hardware and reinstall.

IKEA!

[WillieC]

There is at least a tank's worth of fuel in those clamps!

IKEA!

Looking good.

[hetek]

Ha! Never thought of it that way!

$2 each at Home Depot. I bought them years ago for a 30' Pacemaker cabin window project (what the heck is it with me and all these boat projects?!).

They have paid for themselves many times since. And as Norm Abram says: "You can never have too many clamps".

He did say that, didn't he?

[WillieC]

Well, if he didn't say that, he should have, HA!
Only kidding. Use them one time and they have paid for themselves. After that they are free. I have a whole shop full of sh... like that! Including a press for installing welch plugs on the MD17C.

[ssrig]

That looks really nice! Did you say that was sappele? Looks like zebra wood but very nice.

[hetek]

Yes, it is Sapele. Or at least that what I ordered!

I do believe it is. I ordered "ribbon-striped" Sapele veneer marine-grade plywood, from Boulter Plywood in MA. The Sapele is quarter-sawn, giving it the zebra/ribbon stripe look and then the veneer is booked when applied to the plywood core.

You can see the repeating pattern that's the result of the booking.

Funny, but I find myself just staring at it sometimes. It's real pretty stuff and looks like the 4th of July fireworks when you start to apply the finish! I expected it to be "impressive" but not "IMPRESSIVE"!

[hetek]

I'm back with an update.

Actually, there has been much progress but no one wants to see an update on each and every coat of Interlux Schooner varnish, now do you? So, without further ado...

The "Before", in all its weathered BC Exterior grade plywood... er... beauty? Ugh!

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And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... "After"!

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Please, no pushing and shoving!

I replace the "no clue why" inspection ports with genuine opening port lights. Much more correct, if something has to go there. I'm pretty sure the inspection ports shouldn't have.

It took me the best chunk of this Summer getting this done, along with other projects. The "other projects" are still getting finished up.

...Soon!

[tribologist]

Looks awesome! Makes way more sense than the hatches. Would be interesting to know what the idea of them were?? We took the easy way out for now and painted the doors. (Actually, my wife did, Im terrible at painting unless its with a spray gun) When it get to borrow a Round tuit i might swap the skins. The cushions are sunbrella with self draining foam. Sailrite has great videos on how to make them. We use a basic singer heavy duty. Does fine on 2-4 layers of sunbrella.

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[DesertAlbin736]

Jon B,

Very nice! I have some similar interior joinery projects on tap for this coming fall/winter "overhaul" & this is inspiring. Would like to be able to match the OEM woodwork as close as possible & will have to look into ordering some of that Sapele from Boulder Plywood, or other vendors closer by. Back in the early 2000s I got some marine grade teak veneer Okeume ply from Harbor Sales on the eastern shore of Maryland for a project on a small sailboat I owned at the time & had it shipped here. They had to ship it as a pair 4x4 half sheets. Still have a few small pieces left, but too small to do projects like yours. Always inspirational to see what others are doing. The great thing about classic boats like these is there's as much satisfaction & enjoyment (mostly) in restoring & maintaining them as cruising in them. Folks may ask, "So you're retired? What to you do to keep yourself busy?" Answer, "That's easy, just buy an old boat to work on. That'll keep you busy half the time. The other half you go cruising". And of course the way toward acquiring a small fortune is start with a large fortune & buy a boat.

[hetek]

Thanks! Can't say it wasn't a PITA though. You would not believe how a simple thing could be so complicated when you go about to replicate it. Then throw in the Dutch door factor and it now becomes a PITA x2. And then "just" add 6 coats of varnish? Yup. Glutton for punishment!

I seriously thought about painting the crapo doors and be done with it, except they were just too far gone to be worth an ounce of effort. At least tribologist had a much better starting point than I did!

DA - If you ever go the Boulter Plywood route, they do cuts upon request. Might save some on shipping if you are OK with it being half sheets. They say 90% of their business is with out of state customers. I'm sure AZ qualifies!