1960 hydrodyne 1600 floor restoration

Here are some pics of what i have found beneath the deck. :smash:

 

I have been working regularly for a month to get to this point and i still have a long way to go!

 

Keep up the good work, it will be worth it when you finish and thank you for keeping a piece of great history alive.
Tim

 

Hi there,

I own my dad's 1961 Hydrodyne and have begun restoration. I live in Butler, PA (not too far from Sandusky). I was wondering where you found the long grain balsa to redoo the core. Also, how much did it cost you to do the new core and how much did it cost for the overall project?

Any help would greatly be appreciated

Thanks, Todd Wentworth

 

Oh yeah,

I forgot to ask...What are the two boards you used down the center of the hull? Although my core is rotted, these two center boards seem pretty solid in my boat.

 

http://www.nida-core.com/english/nidaprod_balsalite.htm Copy and paste to your browser. I dont know how to post links yet. You can find your balsa core material there. It is not very expensive. Just depends on the amount of material you will need. You can call them and they will give you a quote per square foot. The wood in the center is white oak. These are the stringers witch will give your hull support. There are six of them in the hull. Two center, Two middle, and two outter. I would suggest to leave the two outer ones alone if you can, That is where the outer hull meets up with the balsa core you are going to replace. The two center ones are nailed to the keal board that is molded into the hull. better to leave that there too, if you can. I have about $350 In just wood and $300 in glass materials. And I am not done yet. It will be hard to say how much, I just love the boat so i will do what it takes. Thank You! Eric

 

New pics! Core is done and the first layer of glass is in. West System Rocks! http://www.westsystem.com/

 

thank you for the help in the recent post. I have been planning my restoration out very meticulously. Today, I was examining the hull/transom joint and started to wonder what the wood is like underneath. The core of the hull is saturated back underneath the engine (My boat is the I/O version with the cowling on top). The transom is very solid (I know this because the engine is litteraly suspended from the transom), however, i wonder what the joint looks like underneath the fiberglass. I Imagine that the balsa butts up against the plywood transom. I wonder if the transom is glassed in separately and the balsa therefore is butted up against fiberglass instead of bare plywood. If it is bare plywood, then I wonder if the water has wicked thru the balsa and begun to rot the bottom of the transom. Did you come up against this? If so, what did you do?

Thanks! Todd W.

 

My transom was solid as a rock but i guess it is possible for it to wick into it. I guess i was just lucky. there was only resin between the transom and the core of mine.