help me identify my new old panga with pic.

[texas]

In that case, I have a couple of questions.  What material should I use for stringers?  Should I use plywood for the decking material or go with the Nidacore like your project?  Should most boat builders have Nidacore?    Should I just glass right over the nidacore with epoxy?  Do you glass the top and bottom of the Nidacore deck?    What is the best way to sand down to bare glass, beltsander, grinder?  Sorry for all the silly questions, but as I said before, this is my first project.  thanks for all the help!
 

[Captain Tyler]

I'm really looking forward to this project! 

Be sure to take lots of pics!

[doc]

Your only option is to use an angle grider like a dewalt  or other decent quality,  I like to use the multilayed sanding discs for rough grinding or the flat glue on discs for smoothing out.

You only need to sand to bare glass in areas where you will  make a bond.

Ye, the nidacore, if used, must be coated on the bottom first, then can be laid i and glassed down with at least two lays of a 10oz or so woven bidirectional glass for the decking.  Wood rots and is heavy, nidacore has built in flotation but is light and may need more glass for equal strength.  Thicker nidacore needs less glass for same strength, so overall it is a better choise IMO but you rewally must appreciate what an absolute pain in the ass making a custom nidacore deck is and glassing ands sealing all the surfaces....  not the way I would go on that boat!

Do you really need a deck in that boat?  A low CG really helps the ride especially under load.  If you want it unsinlkable, you could build some foam filled benches to act as floats and still keep the low CG as well as higher freeboard, I think that if that was my boat, that is what I would do.  Bridge the standing bulkheads with PVC so the water can still drain to the back, then fill the created "cells" with either pour in 2 part foam or styrofoam cut to fit then glass it in to seal it.  Boat will have built in seating, be sink-resistant with sealed chambers, have low CG and adequate freeboard. and save thousands in materials.

Looking at the layout you have as far as I can see it, I see two solid foam benches for seating and floating by only adding one single biukhead then filling with pourable two part foam and glassing over...  this is an easy project, then just grind it down ligghtly and re-gelcoat and you are done. 

You might wnat to consider the engine I used on my boat, and Raul uses on his....  65 HP commercial etec is a workkhorse now that I fixed my one issue with the cooling system, and you wont even need a battery, controls, station or anything...  simple, IMO, is always best.

Good luck and keep me posted.... send photos of the beam shot so I can see the angle of the fins as well as the rear bench area where the motor will hand.

[doc]

By the way,  fixing up old boats is a disease.  You are on a slippery slope my friend....  you start down this path, and its hard to turn back.  I sued to be a doctor and make a decent wage, but now I just fixate on fixing up old boats and wasting my time doing it.  Im on my third, got my eyes on another now that my panga is done;  but honesly, its the best damm boat I ever had, and not cause I built it myself, thats just icing on the cake, and the woman just wont tolerate another one...  so now Im bulding skiis, ski binding sytems  and one piece carbon fiber musical instuments.

[texas]

Man thanks so much for all the advice!  I really had my heart set on a deck though.  I have a center console that I am rebuilding and I am almost done with it.  I just like the idea of a full deck, it is just so much cleaner, and friendly for the family IMO.  I took a week of vacation at the end of this month and plan to work on the boat everyday.  I still need to find a way to roll the hull over when I get the stringers glassed in so that I can do some work on the keel.  It seem I wasn't as ginger as I could have been getting it home and did a little cracking on the keel, woops.  I will take as many pics as I can and again thanks so much for all the help and encouragement! 

[doc]

Do you want a self bailing deck or will you have a bilge to drain deck water into?  If you want a self bailer, you need to calculate the waterline or splash the boat and measure where it will be...  then goe at least two inhes higher to the top of the deck and make sure the deck will slope towards the stern at rest in the water.

As far as what to build the deck out of, way easier to use plywood for a first attempt and a s a boat builder I know you wont do something stupid like screw hardware into the deck when you can always just glass it, and if it does get a bit rotten after a few years you can always do the repair yourself. 

Nidacore has advantages, but you would need a thicker product, and would need to cut all the anngles VERY CLOSE for the curved and angled gunnels, and this is a lot of work;  best technique if you decide to do it would be a table saw with tilting blade but I would go with the ply deck....  will save dozens of hours and hundreds/thousands of dollars.

Always best to glass the underside of the ply  first, but many people dont bother...  using a coating of resin or  penetrating  epoxy  is a good option as well as it will seal the wood with less weight.

[texas]

I would like to go self bailing.  I also will have a small bilge but not necessarily for water just for access to the internal stuff wiring etc.  I have a pretty good idea where the water line will be but I will splash it anyway just to be certain.  Just out of curiosity how would you calculate the water line?  As far as doing stupid things I am sure there will be plenty of those, but screwing anything to the deck will not be one of them lol.

[texas]

Doc,
I have decide to build the deck from plywood and use epoxy for it all.  How many gallons of Epoxy do you think I will need to setup stringers and lay in the deck? 

[texas]

got some more photos of the fins at different angles



they sure do look like some type of device to lift the stern when running.   kinda hard to get any time to go work on it with a 6 month old baby, but I am gonna start working on the boat in the next couple of weeks.  I got in the hull today and looked around a little closer and everything except for a couple of spots on the port rale feels very solid.  I can only imagine what the intended purpose for this boat was.  I have to imagine just by looking at it that it was built atleast 20 years ago.  the large canopy which certainly could have been added on later in the boats life is very large, suggesting passengers.  It had electronics above in the canopy.  very strange but also very interesting!  I have been checking out dory boat videos on youtube and I have to agree it looks more like a dory than a panga although most dorys I have seen are a little flatter on the bottom.  I will keep everybody updated with photos as I progress.

[doc]

Hey...  been outta town in NYC and salmon fishing the great lakes, just got back.

2:1 epoxy prob best for your needs,  two layers of 10 oz glass  on  and around the the deck;  probably can get by with 3 gallons of epoxy and 1.5 gallons hardner with some left-over for the future.  Dont be stingy with it, put on a reaosnable layer to fully wet out the cloth, but dont over apply either.  You want about 30-35% epoxy by weight to the amount of glass you have.

Im surprised by the shape of those "fins"  I thought they were more parellel to the running piutch of the boat to act as stabalizers in the water, but from the side  perspective they look like giant  fixed trim tabs that will force the stern up and bow down.  Cant wait to here a performance report.

YOU NEED TO JUMP IN FEET FIRST and get this project moviong.  If you dont get on it while its fresh, the project will stagnate and it will sit in your yard for 10 years before you give it away to someone else....  START LAYING SOME GLASS!

[Captain Tyler]

+1 Doc!!

Get Moving!!!! 

[texas]

That is exactly what happened to the guy who had the boat before me,  He just lost interest.  I am hoping to get the boat going and to enjoy it next summer.  Summer comes early in south Texas, usually around February, so I need to get going.  I am taking a week of vacation next week to work on the boat, just really hard to make time otherwise.  In my defense I have built a center console for it out of fiberglass, mainly to work on my fiberglass skills.  thanks of the encouragement guys I will post some pictures next week during the restore.

[Captain Tyler]

Console looks real good!

How tall is it and what are you planning on mounting in the vertical panel

[doc]

Great glass work, cant wait to see the rest....  I have never seen a center console that high....  you trying to block wind or what?  Looks like youll be driving on your tippy toes.

[texas]

Thanks  I priced a similair size console for about $1,000.  It is about 50 inches tall and about 26 inches wide.  It comes up to about my arm pits so I can see over it real well standing up.  I am going to have to use some pretty tall seats though.  As far as what is going on the vertical, that is a real good question.  So far for sure gauges, switch panel, GPS screen, xm Radio/stereo, compass is going on top, the vhf radio I think will go under the console.  I am planning on putting the fuel tank under the deck so the underside of the console will be for the batteries and for storage.  the seat setup I am planning on using will have some storage also.  Planning on going offshore mostly with it, probabl some camping and some cruising.  Is there anything I am forgetting?  Also does anybody have a good ideas for getting in and out with dive gear?  I would like to do some type of swim platform on the back space permitting.  The transom is just under 5 feet wide so I think most of the space will be engine.  I am getting real excited about this project and finally I think I have the wife convinced also!  I have been tossing around some Ideas for names and the best one so far is "The Sofa II".  Sound strange? well it is.  When my wife and I were first married I showed up one day with a 1953 dodge power wagon that I wanted to fix up.  When I showed my new wife she procceeded to tell me that we needed a sofa for our house, and wondered why I brought home another piece of junk (money pit) in a very stern manner!  lol!  I ended up selling the power wagon for a profit, but the paint scheme I wanted to use was olive drab green with the words "the sofa" on the side of the hood as an omage to my wife, and her non willingness to have fun as far as I was concerned.  What makes the story even funnier is the new boat came from the very same guy that I got the power wagon from.  So I think it is only beffiting to give it the name "The Sofa II".