TOPIC: 57 Leavens

Hi All,

I have a 1957 Leavens "Bat" boat. It has been in the family for 35 years now. It is the boat I grew up on and although I have moved on to new and bigger boats, I still love this one and want to restore it.

Over the last 20 years it has gone in and out of service for one reason or another and now I want to bring it back. The picture doesn't it show it well, but it has great bat wings. The wake/splash it makes has been the most unique on the lakes we have been on—you can identify it from miles away!

Anyhow, the red gel coat is very oxidized as well as the white bottom. I’ve been reading a lot about gel coat repairs and, although it is the most time consuming, I would like to go with the approach that Jamil writes about ( www.fiberglassics.com/restoration/restoring-gel-coat ). I have two questions here though.

The first is, this approach is ok on smooth surfaces. However, on the bow of my boat it is a textured surface along the lines of a smooth pebbled surface. How do I wet sand this?

My second question is about the bottom of the boat. It is both oxidized and very scratched up. Although still strong I don’t think the gel coat restoration process will adequately take care of it. I was thinking sanding to the point of removing the oxidation on the entire bottom (and sides) then painting up to the water line and continuing the gel coat restoration above the water line. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks for any help given!

Merccooper wrote:

Hi All,

I have a 1957 Leavens "Bat" boat. It has been in the family for 35 years now. It is the boat I grew up on and although I have moved on to new and bigger boats, I still love this one and want to restore it.

Great Boat! Your family history with it is what makes it special.

I would like to go with the approach that Jamil writes about ( www.fiberglassics.com/restoration/restoring-gel-coat ). I have two questions here though.

You can't go wrong with his procedures...

The first is, this approach is ok on smooth surfaces. However, on the bow of my boat it is a textured surface along the lines of a smooth pebbled surface. How do I wet sand this?

You can either just wet-sand with 400G just enough to get good adhesion, or remove a bit more (say 240G) back to a smooth surface and then recreate the "pebble". You can do this with a 3M undercoating called BODY SCHUTZ. This type hardens!! It's not the "rubberized" type that stays gooey...
You could also re-spray the front with a bit of truck-bed liner to emulate the pebble finish- and then paint it to match. I did my splashwell area with bed-liner and am very pleased.

My second question is about the bottom of the boat. It is both oxidized and very scratched up. Although still strong I don’t think the gel coat restoration process will adequately take care of it. I was thinking sanding to the point of removing the oxidation on the entire bottom (and sides) then painting up to the water line and continuing the gel coat restoration above the water line. What are your thoughts on this?

For the hull... any very deep scratches (through to the glass) MUST be ground out about 3" on either side, built-up, and repaired with glass mat. Then you can use QUALITY automotive body fillers to get a smooth surface. I use USG ALL-Metal for the keel area. It gets much harder than regular polyester fillers. It's also 4x more expensive than polyester- so you can't skim the whole hull with it. I then prime with 2-part epoxy primer, and finish in Single-Stage Urethane.

I am very happy with the results on my '67 MFG, and '69 Fabuglas hulls. The MFG has seen 5-seasons of boating and only a few scratches- even though we beach it regularly. The Fabuglas hasn't been in the water enough to judge yet.

www.raylinrestoration.com/BoatStuff/BoatWeb/index.htm

Good Luck...
Ray

That's a cool boat and the family history make that more special(is that you shivering in the picture?)

I would agree with you on the choice to sand/fair and then paint. I have had great luck with the Rustoleum products... over time they harden up darn near that of an epoxy.

Sorry can't help you with sanding the dimpled deck. Bet if you checked out some of the sailboat forums(Catalina owners etc) you'll find an answer to that.... they pretty much all have that anti-skid surface on decks.

Good luck.
Tim

Ray, I was looking at your pics and was wondering about 2 things.

What did you do to your floorand what is the grey part, looks clean.

did you build boxes for your seats or came like that. Thx, Joe

That is just indoor-outdoor carpet from Lowes

The seats came like that.. they were cheap but didn't last very long (4-years) before they started falling apart. The boxes were cheap plywood. The newer ones have composite frames to prevent rot.

My (MFG) boat sits outside uncovered most of the time.
As soon as I'm (completely) done with the Fabuglas- it will be stored in a covered carport.

Thanks for the input everyone. Im looking forward to starting work on it. Yep, that's me a long time ago! I'm in the middle of a move now so I'll have to wait a couple of weeks.

Isn't it crazy and sad how time goes by so quick!
I was so embarrassed at how long ago this was that I was going to just start a new post.....but then I thought, I couldn't be the only one that has procrastinated, so here I am again!
I never did get to the point of working on the gelcoat. I did sand and repaint the hull though. After that, we had it back out on the water for a summer (see the pic of my kid and mother). Then, near the end of the summer there was a heavy rain and the bilge stopped working...and of course it sunk(see picture, this is after pulling it to shore). After that it was neglected for yet another summer.
But.....now I'm back at it, only now I have the engine to rebuild as well. It is in the garage (getting the garage cleaned out was a major task in itself!), naked and ready for gelcoat work.
I tried using Photobucket (link below) to post the additional pictures. Hopefully it works.
s1004.photobucket.com/user/cprs1/story/28767?evt=email_share

Merccooper,

WELCOME ABOARD.

NEAT boat.

yours, satx

I'd love to own it. What's the story on the water? Did someone forget to check after rain?

mercooper,great boat,at least it was the bilge pump that screwed up,because my dad sold a new 21 foot sunbird cuddy cabin after only using it 4 times.
the guy he sold it to didn't listen to him,and listened to his buddy instead.
he was afraid to run the battery down,so he unhooked it,it sunk because the pump couldn't work while it was docked during rainstorms,the worst part is my dad had a custom camper top made for it,but he didn't use that either.
john

Robert...I never did find out what happened with the pump (the boat hasn't been launched since, but for some reason, it stopped working. The heavy rain happened when I was away from the cottage for about two weeks. You can bet I'll do a double check on the new pump!

John....some people are crazy in their math, a $100 (or so) for a dead battery or big bucks for a sunken boat.

I have owned 2 Leavens boats both being the Victor model which was about 15' and had the front seats moulded in. What size and model is yours? I do think you off a bit on the year however the rear style with the big fins was 60-61 as far as all the research I have done has shown, just wondering how the age was determined as both mine had the build year stamped right into the serial # plate.
Al

al lockhart wrote:

I have owned 2 Leavens boats both being the Victor model which was about 15' and had the front seats moulded in. What size and model is yours? I do think you off a bit on the year however the rear style with the big fins was 60-61 as far as all the research I have done has shown, just wondering how the age was determined as both mine had the build year stamped right into the serial # plate.
Al

You're right! I don't know where I came up with 1957. I looked at plate (not sure why I would not have done that in the first place) and see that it is a 1960, Model P-2. The plate on the dash says it is a "Sportster" model. It is 13' 5" long. 1960 would make sense since the engine is a 1960 Merc 350.

Since there are not a lot of Leavens boats that made it to the U.S. I was wondering if you are up here in Canada with me??
Al

al lockhart wrote:

Since there are not a lot of Leavens boats that made it to the U.S. I was wondering if you are up here in Canada with me??
Al

Yup, I'm in Newmarket, Ontario.

Should not be that hard to find parts for that motor in southern , Ontario.

nice leavens! I owned a 61 leavens comet didnt have fins though