The upper engine beds are held in place by four carriage bolts each.  You can see the some of the bolt heads quite well on the right engine bed in the picture above.  Those carriage bolts pass through the new and old beds between the floors and frames.  On the starboard side of the boat, where the garboard plank is missing amidships, I was able to remove the nuts and washers from three of the four carriage bolts from below.  After the nuts were off, I drove the the bolts up and then backed them out with vice grips.  The fourth bolt had a plank under it.  The clearance between the end of the bolt and the plank was about 1/2".  I used a box wrench to back the nut off 1/8th of a turn at a time.  Since I couldn't drive the bolt up from below, I chiseled away enough wood around the head of the bolt to allow me to grip the bolt head with vice grips and then backed it out.  Once the carriage bolts were out, the upper engine bed came out quite easily.

Nov. 7, 07 - The picture above shows the engine compartment after I removed the starboard side engine bed.  Removing the upper bed revealed the 5 carriage bolts that hold the lower, original, engine bed to the floors.  Those carriage bolts have their heads on the bottom.  The square nuts on the 71 year old bolts came off quite easily.  Once the nuts were off I drove the three bolts at the forward end of the bed down through the bed with a 3/8" drift punch.  The aft two bolts have a plank under then, so I will either have to remove the plank, or cut the bolts.  I am leaning toward cutting the bolts with my reciprocating saw.

The picture above shows the three 71 year old carriage bolts I drove out of the starboard lower engine bed and one of the 1995 vintage carriage bolts that held the upper bed in place.  As you can see the old bolts are very wasted in that the heads on two of them are completely corroded away.  The newer bolt is in very good shape.

After driving the bolts out of the starboard lower engine bed, I decided to start work on the port upper engine bed.  Since the garboard plank was in place there I had to back the nuts off the 4 bolts with my box wrench.  That took about 30 minutes per bolt.  Once the nuts were out I started backing the bolts out.  So far I have only done two bolts.  I quit because it got dark and I didn't have any lights rigged.  I will remove the last two bolts and the port upper engine bed tomorrow.

Nov. 17, 07 - Since my last update I had a bit of a weather hold due to back to back gales.  However, I did remove the upper port engine bed and both lower engine beds.  I used the reciprocating saw to cut the remaining 7 carriage bolts and several nails that held the lower beds in place.  I initially tried to cut the bolts without destroying the engine beds.  After breaking several saw blades I gave up and cut the engine beds into pieces to make it easier to cut the bolts.  The job ended up taking 3 sessions of about 2.5-3 hours each.

The picture above shows where the engine beds were.  The dark area was under the engine.  I have scraped most of the 71 year accumulation of grease off.  When removing that grease and other accumulated crud, it became clear to me that pretty much all of the limber holes were completely plugged.  Likely, some of the problems were caused by the resulting standing water under the engine.  There are a lot of frames here because every original frame has been sistered.  Also the original frame spacing here is on the order of 8", likely because of the large weight of the original gas engine the boat came with.  The bit of plumbers sculpture that supports the raw water strainer will be removed during my next session.  I view that collection of fittings as a classic example of how NOT to plumb a boat.  I will replace the ball valve with a proper seacock.  The strainer will be relocated to make access easier and it will be attached to the seacock with a length of hose (double clamped of course).

The picture above shows the frames, sister frames and floors more clearly.  The original frames in this area are in quite poor shape.  The sisters, which mostly date from the 90's are in good shape, but they are quite short.  As you can clearly see in this picture the frames and sisters are not set in pockets in the keel.  Instead the frames are bolted to the top of the keel.  There are wedges nailed to the bottoms of the frames.  This arrangement is illustrated below.

The drawing above shows an approximate section through the keel under the engine.  The keel is built in a "T" shape from Douglas fir.  The frames are one piece white oak  from gunwale to gunwale.  The frames are bolted to the keel with lag bolts.  The original lag bolts were iron.  They are very badly corroded.  Additional galvanized carriage bolts were added in 1995.  The wedges mentioned above are nailed to the bottoms of the frames with iron nails that are now nearly completely wasted away.  Most of the structural rot in this area is in the wedges, although the original frames under the engine are quite soft, particularly around the iron fasteners.

The picture above shows the remains of the engine beds.  I was able to remove the upped beds in one piece.  However, I had to cut the lower beds into several pieces to get them out.  Both sets of beds were good quality Douglas Fir.  I counted the 67 annual growth rings in one 4" section through a piece of one of the lower beds, which convinced me that the wood in the lower beds was old growth fir.  That 71 year old wood was sound away from fasteners, but was badly decayed where ever there was, or had been a fastener.  Since the boat has been repowered at least once, there were lots of holes in the lower beds.

The next step will be to more thoroughly clean the bilge in this area to get rid of the accumulated oil and other gunk.  After that I will remove all decayed wood and replace it with new either by replacing entire pieces (floors, etc.) or by laminating in new wood (frames).  I will work one one frame/floor combination at a time.  Whan I attach the new wood to the keel, I will use all bronze fasteners.  I hope to be able to remove the old iron fasteners and then drill out and fill the holes with new wood.

The first thing I decided to do this summer was to  start removing the old frames and floors.  My original plan was to cut away the rotted parts of the old frames under the engine and laminate in new wood to repair those frames.  However, when I got to looking closely at the frames and hull, it became clear that when the boat was refastened in the 90s, that the new fastenings were only put into the new frames that were installed at that time.  Thus, the attachment of the planking to the original frames, at least in the area of the engine compartment, is done only with the 1936 iron boat nails.  Furthermore, when I started checking the various partial sister frames installed in the 90s, it became clear that they are in very good shape.  So, my plans changed.  I decided to remove the original frames out to about 3 feet from the keel.  I will then remove the partial sister frames that are under the engine and laminate them into the partial sisters that extend up the the gunwale.  I will also remove and replace the original floors.

The first step in this part of the tear-out was to cut one of the original frames out.  The first one I picked appeared to be sound starting about 24" up from the keel on each side.  However, when I cut it out, I found that the wood was oil saturated where the frame was under the engine and partly saturated for about 30" up from the keel on each side.  Above that the wood is in pretty good shape.  That finding reinforced my decision to simply remove the original frames.  After taking the first frame out I decided to remove the first floor.  The tops of the fasteners holding the floors to the keel looked like the tops of carriage bolts.  That conclusion was consistent with the way the engine beds had been fastened to the floors with down-facing carriage bolts.  To get at the nuts on the "carriage bolts", I would have to remove the worm shoe, which unfortunately was sitting on the blocking holding the boat up.  So, I decided to see if I could simply unscrew one of the "bolts".  I chiselled away enough wood to get a set of vice grips on the bolt head and started reefing on it.  It was all I could do to turn the bolt, but it did turn and start coming out.  I was wondering if I had become some sort of wimp over the winter.  After about 10 turns the "bolt" stopped coming out when I turned it, so I got out my pry bar and pulled it out by main force.   Surprisingly, it came out very easily.  The picture below shows why that was the case.

Yup, what I had thought was a carriage bolt was actually a 5/16" x 6" square wrought iron spike.  The twist in the spike is the result of my unscrewing it when I was working under the misconception that it was a carriage bolt.  That explains why it was so hard to turn at first.  After I found out that the floors were simply spiked to the keel, it was much easier to remove the other fasteners.  I do have the consolation that I am not as wimpy as I thought I was while I was "turning the bolt".

This picture shows the engine comapartment this afternoon.  If you scroll up a bit you can see what it looked like before I started removing floors and frames.  I labelled the various frames and floors to better illustrate the structure of the boat.  At sometime in the past, all the frames from the forward edge of the engine compartment to the transom were sistered.  The engine was apparently not removed when that was done because the sister frames in the area of the engine stopped at the engine beds.  The engine was replaced in 1995.  While it was out, small partial sisters were put in "under" the engine.  These new partial sisters were on the opposite sides of the original frames from the older sisters that extended from the engine beds up to the gunwales.  What I am doing now is removing the original frames as describer above.  I am also removing the short partial sisters under the engine.  I will laminate those partial sisters into the partial sisters theat extend up the the gunwales to make complete frames.  The putty knife is aligned with one of the upper sister frames.  I have removed part of the original frame that went under the engine and the small partial sister from that area.  The partial sister will be liminated into the sister aligned with the putty knife.  All of the sister frames are sound.  Once that frame is "repaired" I will move forward to the next partial frame pair and repeat the process.

Here is the first short partial sister I removed.  The two short pieces of wood are the wedges that go under the frame adjacent to the keel (see drawing above).  All the wood is sound and the oil on the wood is superficial.  I will clean up and epoxy coat the frame before I put it back.

 When I have done all the frames under the engine, I will put new floors in.  At present I plan to laminate composite floors from carbon fibers and 4/4 douglas fir planks.

The other thing about the area under the old engine is the amount of oily grunge in there.  All the limber holes were completely plugged, which no doubt contributed to the problems with the frames.  So far I figure I have removed a couple of gallons of crud from the engine compartment.

July 29, 08 - Since my last update I have been cleaning up the area where I amigoing to laminate in the first short partial sister frame.  I also cleaned up the frame itself, epoxy sealed the end grain and painted it with three coats of gray bilgecoat .  Today was the day to put the first bit of wood back into the boat.  The details follow.

The picture above shows the partial sister frame I removed after I cleaned it up, reattached the wedges and painted it with three coats of bilgecoat paint.  The picture also shows the ends of the upper sister frames I will be laminating the partial frame into.  I decided to go with a step scarfe because it was a lot easier to cut into the curved frames than a 7:1 sloped scarf would have been.

This picture shows an end of the upper sister frame after I coated it with unthickened epoxy.  The plastic is to prevent me from epoxying the frame to the plank.  You can also see where I have epoxied 3/8" fir bungs into the spots where the old fasteners were.  After that epoxy cures, I will epoxy 1/2" bungs into the fastener holes from the outside of the boat.

The next step was to thicken the epoxy with microfibers.  I then liberally coated the frame ends with thickened epoxy.  I used a lot more than I needed to be sure that I would fill any gaps and squeeze out the excess.

Here is the short sister frame after I put it in place.  In the center of the frame you can see the two 1/4" x 5" bronze lag bolts I used to bolt the frame to the keel.  You can also see three of the #12 1.5" bronze screws I used to fasten the short frame to the upper frame ends.  I have wiped up excess epoxy.  Tomorrow I will remove the plastic under the frame, paint the area again and screw the planks to the frame.  After that I will move to the next frame forward and repeat the process.  I am working on one frame at a time to avoid weakening the hull more than I have to.  Once I finish with the frames in this area, I will build and install new floors.

Aug. 2, 08

The weather has been really bad for the last few days so I haven't accomplished much other than to remove the next short partial sister frame forward of the one I replaced last week.    I have also gone back over the area I removed the old frame from and bunged five more fastener holes that weren't evident from inside the bolt.  After that I removed the fasteners that hold the next old frame forward down as well as those in the ends of the next set of partial frames that extend up to the gunwale.  I started to cut out the old frame today, but broke a sabre saw blade and didn't have a spare, so finishing that has to wait until tomorrow.

After I finished working on the boat I started making up some of the new floors that will support the engine beds.  Yesterday I made a trip to the lumber yard and bought some 4/4 x 3.5 (finished measurements) CVG douglas fir.  Today I used an old floor as a pattern and cut out blanks for two new floors.  The new floors are 28" long.

The old floors were 2.5 inches wide.  Since the old floors supported a nearly 1,000 lb 110 h.p. engine and my new floors will only have to support a 450 lb 55 h.p. engine, I decided to downsize the floors to 2" wide.  Since the only douglas fir available locally was the 4/4 stock, I decided to laminate each floor from two pieces of wood.  The picture above shows the parts for two floors.  I integrated the wedges that are under the frames into the floors.  The inset cut into the bottom of each floor will sit on top of the keel and the longer sloped parts of the bottom will extend across the garboards about 2" onto the second plank.  The insets cut into the tops of the floors are to allow room under the engine's oil pan.  Because the body of the floor on top of the keel will only be 1.5" high by 2" wide, I decided to laminate in a scrim of full length carbon fibers between the two planks that make up the floor.  The holes in the planks are pilot holes for four #12 x 1-3/4" bronze wood screws that will provide extra strengthening to hold the two planks together.

After I cut out the floor pieces I laminated them together.  As shown above, both halves of the floor were wetted out with neat epoxy and the carbon fiber scrim was laid in place.  The next step was to assemble the composite floor and screw the two halves together.  Tomorrow I will sand off excess epoxy and start painting the floors.  The plan is to put three coats on the entire floor before it is installed.  Each floor will be installed adjacent to a frame by lag bolting it to the keel with four bronze lag bolts.  I will also screw the planks to the floors to provide better position stability for the ends of the floors.

August 30, 08

Since my last update I have been gradually working on the frames and floors in the engine room.  As of today I have four of the five frame/floor sets finished.  A couple of days ago I removed the last old frame and floor.  I also removed a backing block that was through bolted to the hull with a couple of bronze carriage bolts.  The backing block appears to have been put in place over a bad crack in the garboard.  It had to come out though because it was in the way of one of the new floors.  Also, the backing block was installed flush with two adjacent frames with no provision for drainage.  After all the old wood was out, I cleaned up the planking and keel.  Next I though drilled all the spots where the old iron boat nails had been with a 3/8" drill.  Yesterday I set 3/8" fir bungs in the holes from the inside of the hull.  Today I sanded the bungs flush then went to the outside of the boat, used a forstner bit to expand all the old fastener holes to 1/2" and epoxied 1/2" fir bungs into the holes.  Then back inside the boat I wetted out the area where the backing plate was with unthickened epoxy and filled the crack and the gap, left where I dug out bad wood, with epoxy thickened with microfibers.    I also filled any small imperfections in the planks with the thickened epoxy.  Tomorrow after the epoxy cures I will sand everything smooth and put the first coat of bilge coat on.

The fifth frame I removed did not have a short partial sister frame.  Consequently, after I removed the old frame, I nailed it to the floor of my shop and used it as a pattern to laminate a new partial frame that I will laminate into the partial sisters that extend up to the gunwales.

I laminated the 1.5" thick x 1.75" wide frame from six strips of oak using West System epoxy thickener with 403 microfibers.  After the epoxy cured I ran the frame,, which I made a bit over width, through my planer to clean it up and trim it to the final width.  The result is shown above.  After I took this picture, I epoxy coated the frame then painted the top and sides of the frame with Bilgecoat.  I left the bottom paint free because I will be laminating wedges to the bottom of the frame.  I expect to install this frame in about 3-4 days after I have added the wedges and finished painting it.  This is the first frame I have laminated.  I am quite pleased with the result.  There was no spring back when I removed the clamps.

August 31, 08

Today I sanded the epoxy smooth that I put into the boat yesterday.  After I finished that I cut the scarfs into the new laminated frame and the sister frames it will be laminated into.  After vacuuming the sanding and saw dust up, I wiped the area down with mineral spirits and then put the first of three coats of bilgecoat on.  Next I made up the two oak wedges and epoxied them to the bottom of the laminated frame.

Sept. 6, 08

Today I finished the engine compartment rebuild with the exception of the engine beds, which I can do until I decide which engine I will install.  I have some very nice clear douglas fir 4x4s to make the beds from.  The project involved removing six old frames, six floors and five partial sister frames.  I then laminated the partial sister frames into extended from outboard of the old engine beds to the gunwales.  Since I removed six frames and only had five partial sisters to replace them with, I laminated a new partial frame and laminated it into the sixth set of partial frames.  I also made up six new floors and lag bolted them to the keel.  In addition, I removed all the old fastenings, both iron and bronze, and bunged the resulting holes with 3/8" bungs on the inside and 1/2" bungs on the outside.  All wood that went into the boat received three coats of Interlux Bilgecoat on all surfaces (except faying surfaces) before installation.  I also removed the old plumbers nightmare that supported the raw water strainer and replaced it with a proper seacock.  The result is shown below in the before and after picture.

This phase is effectively finished.  I will be working in the engine compartment again when it comes time to install the new raw water strainer, battery box, fuel filters and finally the engine.  However, that won't be for a while.  Now it is time to move on to the next phase - reframing the forward half of the boat.

October 4, 08 - Here is the engine room with the engine beds in place.  The beds consist of two parts.  The lower part is laminated from two layers of 1"x3.5" douglas fir.  The lower beds (painted gray) are lag bolted to the floors.  The upper beds are cut from a douglas fir 4x4 (3.5"x3.5").  They will be carriage bolted to the lower beds after I shape them as required for the actual engine mounting.  The beds are attached to six floors tp spread the engine weight and propulsion thrust out adequately.