TOPIC: Photos of Reinell tear down

I decided to bite the bullet and start pulling the Reinell Jetflite apart. For the past couple years I resisted getting in to the boat because I wanted to be sure the time was right to take it on. So, I decided to tear into it right in the middle of tearing up my poor Skagit hardtop. The transom wood is all but gone, and the temporary repairs I made to it quickly failed. Being one of the rarest and best performing glassics ever produced, I want this boat on the water again. I want it back on the water in a bad way. Only way to do that is to pull it apart.

The Jetflite transom is very small, and requires splitting the boat to gain access. Reinell used a exceptionally precise shoebox joint that was double - fastened with screws every 8" to 12", in addition to having a layer of jute - reinforced rubber filling the narrow space within the joint. Getting it apart has been quite a task. The boat has a unique "step" in the joint between the hull & deck, where the ends of the windshield are. This makes getting the boat apart more of a challenge, and requires that the windshield be removed to gain access to the joint. In order to get the windshield off, ALL of the aluminum trim has to be removed as well. The windshield is held in place with 2 channels of aluminum trim. Each starts in the middle of the windshield, and they follow the tail fin edge all the way around the back of the boat. TONS of screws. Rusted screws. Screws and nuts seemingly impossible to reach. I soaked the screws with penetrating oil, but most broke off anyway. That is no big deal because I found a source for new ones, thank god. They are # 10-24 carrige bolts (screws) that fit into a channel inside the aluminum. Not something that your local hardware store is going to stock. I used a cutoff wheel and grinder for some of the stuck bolts, others were almost impossible to get to, because they were in the very tip of the tailfins. I ended up using a very long rotary rasp on the end of a power drill to grind them off. Tough work when you are jamed under a boat deck, reaching up above your head. The last thing I wanted to so is slip & grind a hole in the boat. Much to my disappointment, the windshield did not survive removel from it's mount. It too was held in place by over a dozen bolts and more vulcanized reinforced rubber. I soaked the rubber in foaming penetrating oil to help soften & melt it (this stuff actually actually is oil soluable) but the stuff in the middle was so hard that the windshield wouldn't budge. The plexi had a number of moderate cracks in it, so I planned to copy it & replace it anyway. Still though, I hate to mess up anything this rare.

After the trim was off I STILL had to remove the bonding screws UNDER the trim that was already holding the joint together. I decided to speed things up by drilling the heads off the secondary bonding screws. I then had to soak the rubber boded shoebox joint with oil & repeatedly cut it with a knife. After a couple hours of doing this, I was able to get the top to budge a little.

This boat is really built! I'll be posting more photos as work progresses.

Bruce

Bruce
Where did you get your bolts? I need some for my 195? Howie Craft.
Thanks. Haynesfiberglass.

www.fastmetalproducts.com/Carriage_Bolts_Steel.html