O/T Pillaged the blower fund to buy a Red Fish Boat

Went into Hutchinson for lunch today with the wife. Don't do that all that often so it's special. On the way out of town this thing catches my eye. I slam on the brakes and quickly pull the car into their drive. Cheryl is giving me "THE LOOK" but I'm to pumped to really notice. Knock and the owner comes out to look over his 1959 RED FISH boat, complete with original 35 horse Evinrude. It needs attention, has the usual fiberglass cracks, a bizare homemade axle under the trailer, but is in pretty fair shape overall. Price tag? $200.00 I'm going to pick it up after work.

This picture isn't the actual boat but it looks pretty much like it. Just add bench seats, a cut down windshield, and almost fifty years of patina.

 

I love that boat! Congratulations!

 

Very nice redfish! Go to www.fiberglassics.com for more info and tips, kinda the HAMB for old boats.
Here's my other hobby...

 

Hey Aaron is that just the boat you use when getting off your yacht behind you for going into town.

 

You are sooo in trouble...
r

 

You're gonna have to catch me first! ;-)

Some things are just meant to be. Plans had been to go home for lunch but Cheryl suggested going into town. Riding back, talking about the boat I reminded her of that.

Hey, I might have a line on a 318 for you. Is that big enough?

 

This is kind'a funny, just yesterday the webmaster of fiberglassics posted a note that he's going to sell most of his 'glassics and build a "rat rod" (please don't shoot the messenger).

Here are pic's of a couple of mine. The blue one is a '62 Dorsett Catalina, been working on it for too many years but hoping to finish it this winter. The other one is a '59 Crownline that I just bought, was too good a deal to pass up.

 

Don't let Plowboy see that...he'll cut the ass-end off and make a truck bed outta it...

 

I'd be more worried he'd take the window frame from my sons 36 Chevy pickup.

Here's a few shots of what I got. The transom needs some major attention because of rot and it appears a layer of the glass on the inside of the boat has delaminated. There is some cracking on the outer glass but mostly just in cosmetic areas. Steering cable needs replaced and on and on... The engine has great compression though. It is a cool engine even if is only 35 horsepower.

 

kick ass Kerry-
all that thing needs is a good 3 hrs and a buffer...

there is a boat junkyard not far from me... being from the land of 10,000 lakes trust me... if you need some hard to find part for that engine PM me.

Tuck

 

If speed costs money, then that 200 dollars you spent means my car will beat yours by about 2 tenths....

-Abone.

 

I had a Red Fish back in 1971. On a trip to Nance Speed Shop in Witchita one weekend I spotted a go cart with twin Mac 91's in the corner of the shop. Well, he traded me straight across, cart for the boat.

I wish I would have taken some pictures of my boat before I traded it away...it was sweet. Good luck with your restoration.

 

That would look real nice behind my '60 Falcon.

Chicken (with the new improved "High Power" Falcon)

 

Kerry,

Here is my 59 Red Fish. I restored it a couple years ago. I also cut down the windshield a bunch,.. It's the only way to go. Also adding 75 horse power helped. Enjoy yours.

 

Guess I'd better quit eating and use the grocery money to catch up. Hmmm I could lose a few pounds in the process and gain another tenth or two.


Thanks Tuck. I may just take you up on that. Boat parts are a bit hard to find in Kansas.

I'll let you tow my boat to Kanopolis for me Terry. Real nice gesture, thanks. ;-)

Looking at it closer this evening it appears that it was constructed with an outer fiberglass shell, next there was a layer of wood, followed by a fiberglass layer as the floorboard. Looks like the wood between the layers is all but gone. I figure I'll cut the floorboard glass around the perimeter, and clean out the mess. Big question is do I need to put something back in for floatation? Is there a composite that is boyant that I could glass in and gain some structual value in the process? Time to learn about fiberglass for real.

I've not examined the back yet but that's another whole can of worms. I do know much of the inner wood will need replacing.

 

Now that's motivation! Thanks!

 

Nope, that is my only boat, My parent's own the 40' Sea Ray it's their marina...Their boat is as wide as mine is long

Very cool Dorsett! I'd like one of those some day

 

Awesome dude!

When we goin' fishin'?

 

locate a marine supply store and see what their recommendations are. i would imagine there is a foam that you could use to replace the old wood. if you or anyone else needs advice on fiberglass let me know. i was a composite and fiberglass repair tech for my helo squadron in the navy. i rebuilt the impossible and made it better.

 

Good on you, Kerry! You dont need no stinkin blower, anyway.

 

Oh, the blower will happen... just got another distraction.

Got the spash pan off of the transom. Taking the old rotted transom out doesn't look to bad. Got the glass floor cut out to reveal the rotted wood. What a mess. Plans now are just to replace with glass reinforcement and foam.

How warm does it need to be for the fiberglass resin to kick?

 

I know this is an ooold thread, but I've got a '62 Red Fish that I think I'm gonna start fixing up and I was just wondering what became of this one. I'd love to see some pictures of it if you've got it all fixed up!

 

The project stalled but I mad a lot of progress. I'll take some more pics for you.

 

Cool lookin boat!

 

Thanks, that'd be awesome. I've never really been into boating before but I fell in love with this one when I saw it and decided it was just too cool not to fix up.

 

It's really a mess now. Here are some more recent but not new pics.



The balsa core was rotten so I cut the inner layer of glass out and took the balsa out. I'm not that handy with wood so I chose to replace it with stringers. I scored a bolt of woven glass for cheap off of ebay and covered it all. I also replaced the rotten transom.





I'm gluing some fiberglass imbedded plastic on the stringers for the floor. I actually got another piece of it in tonight. It'll need a couple of layers to be strong enough.

I've made sure all of the wood parts have a coating of a marine epoxy that soaks into the wood to protect it. I need to flip the boat to treat and repair some of the would under the deck. Then it'll be time to start working on the outer glass.

I love this old outboard!



I picked up a harness to update it with a generator.

I found a new windshield but not for a redfish. I'm going to need to heat and recontour it a bit.

 

I got my eyes on one here but but all I have is my 10 horse Johnson so I may pass

 

very nice! yours looks like it's in quite a bit better shape then mine. Mine's basically just the shell, all the fiberglass is cracked up and the balsa in the floor is all rotted so I'm gonna have to cut the top layer of glass out of the floor in mine too. I like the idea you had to replace the wood in the floor with stringers. I might try doing something similar. I've also been thinking my best bet would be to find a parts boat, preferably something newish and wrecked so I can get it on the cheap. That way I'll just steal all the parts I need off of it rather than trying to find and buy everything I need individually.

 

would you be interested in selling your old windshield? or is it even worth using? I don't need anything real nice.. I'm just trying to get this old boat on the water without spending a fortune hahah