1964 MFG Westfield For Sale!

I bought this boat about 6 years ago in Elgin, Ill. It has been in my shop and a rainy day project ever since. It has been cleaned, buffed, waxed many times. The gel coat is terrific looking. The sides and hull have been scrubbed and had several coats of Poli glow applied. The windshield is way above average for this year of boat. All hardware and emblems are intact. If you are looking fro a great old vintage boat, this may be the one for you. MFG's were the sport utility of boats in the 60's.
They were made of all fiberglass composite construction except for the transom core, which I have replaced on this boat with a Nida-Core composite transom. It was all done from the top side, with no damage to cosmetics or thru-hull fittings.
The 1968 Evinrude Speedifour has been completely serviced and runs like a champ. New after market CD pack, NOS solenoid, and rebuilt starter.
The TeeNee trailer has been sanded, painted and new decals applied. All roller hardware was replaced and most nuts and bolts. It looks very sharp. Trailer is completely wired and ready to ride. Wheel bearings cleaned and packed and new seals.
If you have ever restored an old boat, you know what is involved. This boat could be in the water in a couple of weekends! What is needed:
Carpet, seats, battery and a wire steering cable. I have all the hardware.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS SALE.

1964 MFG Westfield custom featured in March 2009 Fiberglassics calender.
All the elbow grease in scrubbing, buffing and waxing many, many times.
Nida Core transom, no cosmetic damage to hull and original thru hull fittings.
Working lights, horn and all new wiring and fuse block.
Simplex controls stripped, serviced and painted.
1964 MFG pennant flag.
Interior painted.
PoliGlow hull treatment.
Mooring cover.

1968 85 HP Evinrude Speedifour
Serviced, tuned-up, new aftermarket CD pack and NOS solenoid.
Rebuilt reduction starter plus two complete starters and two parts starters.
(If you know old motors, you know these are hard to come by.)
New wiring from power head to switch.
Over heat indicator and amp gauge.
Two NOS props.
Gas tank (6 gal metal) cleaned, painted and NOS decals.
Bilge pump, not installed.
Air Glide compass not installed
Montgomery Ward period speedo, not installed, no pickup or line.

1964 TeeNee trailer, sanded, painted and new decals on fender and tower.
New roller hardware and most nuts and bolts.
New trailer wiring and all working lights.
Original tires and wheels and NOS baby moons.
One set of slotted wheels, tires and buddy bearings for transport.
New wheeled jack stand.

Original parts and service manuals.
1966 MFG catalog.
1968 Evinrude catalog.
2009 fiberglassics calender featuring this MFG.
This blog and archived material.
Misc. nuts, bolts and parts.
Bill of Sale, plus copy of bill of sale from when I purchased. Many States did not title boats in this era.


What you need:
Carpet
Seats
Twenty feet of side molding. (standard, easy to find)
Battery
Cable for cable steering system. I have all the hardware.

I honestly believe that is the extent of what it would take to finish this project. Plus incidental parts of course.

$2,500.00 Firm !

paragonfl2@aol.com

Pourable Transom Repair the longer story....

March 5, 2007
Bill Brenemen

High Springs Florida 32655

Pourable Transom Repair

First of all, let me say that I am not any kind of boat mechanic, restorer, refurbisher, or whatever. I am a pretty good mech on old JohnRude's but that is about it, - and an all around 'Handyguy'. The Seacast material is well known in MFG circles, as the way to replace these dual skin radius transoms. I had used some leftover Seacast for a project, and was not confident that it was something that I could do (especially by myself). When I stumbled across the Nida-Core and talked to those people a few times, I realized this was the product for my boat and my skill level. I am not familiar with other boats and construction, so you will have to make your own decision as to this working for you. Up front you need to know that you are going to be pouring a liquid with the consistency of 50W oil in the void you are creating. If it has a place to run out, - it will. On the other hand, after the prep work, the job took less than an hour to complete.

I recommend that you go to the SeaCast site especially the forums section, and the Nida-Core site. Jim Coffman has a 'how-to' article on the MFG Boats pages that depicts the process perfectly. Lay the transom out on grid paper or mark it out on the transom itself with a dry erase marker. I like the paper as it gives me something to 'noodle' on. I came up with a total of 1640 cubic inches. the Nida-Core pours 1255 per five gallon bucket, so ordered two buckets figuring on having 2 1/2 gallons remaining unmixed. This was $295.00 including shipping. I had to order the MEKP from another source for $26.00 total, but only used half of it. I now have 10 ounces of high explosive in my shop to dispose of{Transom opened to core} All of my pics of the core removal are archived on the MFG site. I robbed this one from Jim's article, (I hope he doesn't mind). I removed the aluminum extrusion from the top and used a skill saw to make a plunge cut on the inside of the inner and outer skins and just moved it back and forth until I had the fiberglass cap cut off the top.



Then it was a matter of drilling, chipping and vacuuming to get all the wood core removed. I wanted to preserve my thru-hull fittings so this made it a little more difficult for me. If you do not have these types of fittings, or know how to replace them, then you could just get 'down and dirty' with a chain saw and remove the core in hours. I found that by drilling the center section of laminate, I could then pry other pieces out in larger sections.







The upper corner blocks on the MFG just 'sit' on the top of the transom core. I think they are just there to attach the deck to at the rear. I replaced these with marine plywood, and cut them four inches longer so that they would be well down into the resin. This allowed me to pour without building 'dams' or removing the deck.









Here we have the core completely cleaned out, and all holes in the inner and outer skin patched from the inside.











I glued a few spaces in place to keep my transom thickness so that my extrusion would fit back properly.











The inner skin felt kind of thin, so I tensioned with a 'Deadman' to keep it form bowing.











I sat the trailer on stands (I could envision one of my "maypop" tires going flat) and leveled it from side to side and as much as possible from front to back. This created a situation that I did not think of, which I will go into later..











I draped the whole work area and put down drop cloths, got out the jeans, long sleeved shirt, gloves and mask and goggles. I usually take material data sheets and warnings with a grain of salt, but this stuff sounded pretty scary, as far as fumes and skin contact.









This is the unstirred, unmixed product, I wanted to show the consistency here. I stirred both buckets with the clean mixer blade and then poured 21/2 gallons into a separate bucket to mix. I have to say this product mixed and stirred easier than latex house paint. I poured the first two mixes, poured off 1/2 of the second bucket , mixed, believing I would have a gallon or so left.











-- WRONG! I was an inch short of the transom top! I did not want to try to recalculate mix ratio's at this point, so I went ahead and mixed up the remaining 21/2 gallons. I poured to the top, filled up some molds I had laid out for 'experimenting', and placed the remaining product in a cooler with ice packs to 'hold'. This was per Gary's suggestion.

This is the poured product. It gelled up within minutes and generated so much heat across the transom, I had to leave it until the next day. It was at this stage that I realized what had happened to the extra product. My calculations weren't off, I forgot {did not think about it) that some material was going to run between the hull and floor between the stringers. I could feel the heat about six inches forward on the bottom, but only about one inch on the sides. I just totally lucked out here. I got a better job than I had planned by accident. I guess one thing you could do in prep, is to pour water into the void a gallon at a time, to see what happens. Then just wet vac back out and let dry. My cooler did not work at all, I think this material hardened up just as fast as the rest. (Maybe not enough ice)

The next day it took a couple of hours to replace the extrusion, scrub the transom down with comet, and apply a few coats of Poly-Glow. I would like to paint the sides and transom one day, but first I want to get it all back together and go ride! This product allowed me to do a job that would have been impossible (for me) using any other method. You could honestly do this in a weekend, if you had every thing in place and an action plan. Guestimated weight of new transom core 57 pounds.

1964 Brochures

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Gel Coat Restoration

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Restoring a vintage fiberglass boat is an ongoing, time consuming, and never ending
project. If you want to truly maintain the character and charm of that old boat, then
consider refurbishing the original gel coat rather than repainting. It is a tedious and
labor intensive process but has great rewards!

The following is a well known and proven method for restoring the gel coat on your
old boat. It came to me via Mark Mullen on the MFG Boats web site.

The first thing is to get a good idea of the true condition of the gel coat. You will need
to do this regardless of your decision to restore, re-gel or paint.

Completely remove all hardware, windshield, deck cleats, etc.
Start by throughly cleaning the surface with liberal amounts of Comet, Barkeepers Friend,
or any other kind of cleanser. You will need several good green 'scrubby' pads.
Keep the surface wet and scour the finish with the green pad. It helps to have some tooth
brushes and fingernail brushes handy for getting in to all the nooks and crevices.

After several scrub downs and washing with dish washing soap, you will be left with a dull
matte (but clean) surface. This procedure will get rid of the oxidation, grime and tree sap.

If you have a few chips and stress cracks, you need not be too concerned. Now pick out the worst spot and rub in a few coats of paste wax. If you come up with a moderate shine you are good to continue. This is the time for your evaluation. If you feel that a much better shine (10 times better) on that old gel coat will be all you desire, then go ahead with the following steps.
If you are not seeing a good shine, you can make the decision to paint or redo the gel coat as you choose.

You will need a two speed polisher and a good bowl type lambswool bonnet. You can save money
on an inexpensive polisher, but be sure and buy a high quality bonnet.

Again you will want to keep the surface wet, so do this outside or drape your work area
to protect against drips and sling off. This is a very messy procedure, but you waste energy
in trying to keep it 'neat'.

Buff the entire boat twice with red polishing compound. I like Turtle products for this, but
any brand will do. You will see a cleaner surface with little or no shine.

Now buff out twice with the white compound. You need your polisher on low speed for
both the red and white compounds. This should leave a very smooth and clean surface,
again with little shine. Just consistent color throughout. Be sure and remove all the compound as it will degrade the wax if left on. Use the brushes to get into crevices and any spider cracks you may have.

Wash the bonnet out after each application and be sure and keep the material wet at all times.

Now, for the fun part! I prefer pure carnuba waxes, but this is a matter of personal preference. The McGuire's line of products go on and come off easily and leave a clean, sparkly shine in my opinion. Buff in two coats of wax at low speed being sure to cover all sections
thoroughly. Buff this out until you have a very uniform and moderately shiny surface.
Next, move that polisher up to high speed and burnish two or three coats in. Clean well
between each application of wax. You can buff in all the coats you desire and at this point
it will become cleaner and shiner with every application.

The final product will be a clean crisp gel coat that is easy to maintain and will make your
boat stand out in any crowd.

Keep some spray type wax on hand for weekly cleaning and buff in more wax at least
twice a year. The old gel will absorb this wax and become richer and sharper with each
application.

Enjoy!

Common Sense Rules of Boat Maintenance

Boat Maintenance

For every complex problem there is a simple answer.
The simple answer is wrong.

Every job will cost three times as much and take twice as long as your first estimate -
if you are lucky.

Axioms of Boating:

If it ain't broke only a sailor will fix it.
Murphy was a sailor.

In the long run, all solutions are temporary. -
Go ahead, use duct tape.

The binary theorem of maintenance:
If it doesn't move and it should, spray it with WD40.
If it does move and it shouldn't, wrap it with duct tape.

If all else fails lower your standards.

Cruising is maintaining your boat away from your home port.

If you didn't swallow it, don’t put it in the heads.

Clean (nautical): An imaginary unstable transient state of infinitely short duration
between dirt and dirt.

If anything is dropped on the pontoon, only the most expensive or irreplaceable
items will fall into the water.

Outboard Law:

The probability of an outboard motor starting is inversely proportional to:
Distance to shore x's number of people watching.

The probability of a motor failing increases as a square law as you approach the half way point on the trip. In a strong tide the law is exponential.

Polish Polar Bear Club

or, how hard is this guys head?
This is not exactly boat related, but it sure needs preserving for posterity!
The woman cackling in the background?
I would have clocked her.


Polish_Polar_Bear_Club.wmv