1978 Formula 233

[Henry Todd]

Greetings everyone!

 

Just picked up a great looking 233 this weekend and now have another project in the works.  I have been lurking on the site for some time and using the information I have learned to help with another project I am working on, but since I am now the owner of a 233 cuddy, I figured I should register.

 

I purchased this hull and trailer on Saturday July 2, 2011 for a fair price (Much too low to advertise, thank you Jay!), and I will do my best to document the transformation from a loved, used and corroded 233 cuddy to a rejuvinated more modern 233 center console.  I know, I know...  There are some Formula purists who will scoff at this idea and maybe even a few people who will turn over in their grave due to my ridiculous decisions, but please be patient and understanding along the way... 

 

Having this proposed transformation in mind, I initially had thoughts of offering up most of the accessories, hardware and fittings to other board-members who are themselves completing restorations.   As I have started the process of disassembly, I have realized almost every single piece of hardware is corroded beyond belief and most likely not in a desirable condition.  For the price, it would be more beneficial to start with a new item in lieu of attempting to restore one of these parts.  So, to the trash it shall go.

 

So, that being said, please check in with me once in a while to see the progress (If any!), and to help keep me motivated and focused on the end results.

 

Glad to be on board and proud to be a new owner of a classic 233!

 

Henry

[steve hantsikon]

Well done henry waiting to seesome photos cheers steve 

[David]

Henry, good luck with your project.  Please keep posting as you move forward.

 

David

[Henry Todd]

Thank you Steve and David for the positive reinforcements!

 

Well, it has been some time since I have had the opportunity to post any updates and I apologize for that.  Since I last logged in, I had to relocate two citrus trees which gave me some additional space to slide this hull and trailer into my back yard.  Now, the Formula is no longer taking up valuable space on the driveway which makes it easier for my wife to pull her truck in and out of the garage.  My son is happy too as he has regained his parking space back in the driveway.  The Formula is now safely parked behind a locked gate!

 

Since moving the hull into the rear yard, I have removed the winshield frames, glass and the electrical wiring inside the frames.  I have removed the CB radio and an inexpensive fishfinder which was mounted on top of the dash.  As I was removing the bowrail, I found several places where the rail itself had deteriorated and the tubing had cracked.  It was only a matter of time until someone could have pushed on the bowrail believing it was secure only to find themselves in the drink!

 

I spent this weekend confirming my earlier suspicions.....  The fuel tank in this Formula was shot!

 

After cracking open the deck where the fuel tank resides, I saw two different types of foam coating most of the tank and all of the voids around the perimter of the tank.  One of the more dense foams appeared to be the original foam which could have been installed at the factory.  The second foam appeared to be the same type of foam that you buy in a can at your local home improvment store....  This foam appeared to be more recently installed and was not as dense as the other foam.  While gazing at the top of the fuel tank, the odor of old fuel mixed with water and oil was pretty incredible.  From the way things looked from the topside of the tank, I was fairly confident this tank has not been replaced and it would be in terrible condition.  There was only one way to find out.....  Break out some prying tools!

 

I do not have the luxury of a forklift at my disposal so I had to take my time and pull this tank out the "Old fashioned way."  I scraped out as much foam as possible from around the top and sides of the tank.  Once I had the top and the perimeter of the tank exposed and "Foam-free," I began using leverage to free the tank.  Once the tank was free, it was merely a matter of lifting it up from the depths of the hull.  I estimate it took me between four and five hours from the time I unscrewed the hatch until the time I scraped the last piece of foam from the inside of the hull. 

 

I ended up filling six extra-large "Hefty" plastic bags with chunks of foam soaked with fuel, oil and water.  After scraping all of this foam out, I was left with about three gallons of fluid in the bottom of the hull.  I plan on cleaning this out in the next day or two.

 

The tank isn't full of fuel but there is some fuel left inside.  Once I take the tank out of the boat completely, this fuel will be disposed of.

 

For those of you who are considering removing and/or replacing your tank, I highly recommend it.  It isn't that difficult of a job and only takes a couple of hours once you have access to the hatch itself.

 

While pulling all of the foam out from the bottom of the hull beneath the fuel tank, I found what was left of a metal pipe.  This pipe was layed on the bottom of the hull beneath the fuel tank between two 2"x2" strips of wood.  This tube looked as though it went from the bow area beneath the cabin  underneath the fuel tank and exiting into the bilge area at the stern of the boat.  Due to the level of corrossion, this pipe came out in numerous pieces so I am unsure of exactly what it was connected to.  Interesting rigging idea regardless.

 

I did take pictures of all of the above-mentioned details but I have not downloaded these images to my computer.  As soon as they are downloaded, I will share them with you.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this update.  I'll stay in touch and keep you updated with any progress!

 

Henry

[David]

Was the pipe designed as a bilge drain?

 

[Henry Todd]

Good morning David!

 

It appears as though this was the intended purpose of this drain pipe.  I am not 100% certain of where the pipe originated forward of the bulkhead in front of the tank well.  I have not pulled the cabin sole out yet so I am merely speculating at this point.  Once the cabin sole comes out, I will have a better idea of where it originated.

 

On a different note, the tank is free and clear and the bilge and keel of the boat are drying out as we speak.  It was amazing how much gasoline, oil and water were in the bottom of this hull!  There are numerous spots on this tank where it has corroded completely through.  These holes allowed fuel to spill out into the well which obviously soaked all of the foam.

 

From what I can tell at this point, the stringers appear to be in good shape and there is only evidence in one place where moisture can be seen.  I will know more as I continue on my path of destruction.  :)

 

Obviously I have taken photographs to document the progress but have yet to download the images.  Once of these days I will stop working on this boat long enough to download these images to share with you all.

 

Again, thank you for the continued interest gentleman!

 

Henry

[Robert OHerlihy]

Good Luck! That's where I was at 2 years ago. The finished, or almost finished project was well worth the effort! One of the best riding boats I've ever had, lots of compliments! Have fun!

[Henry Todd]

Good afternoon Sir!

 

Thank you for the positive reinforcement!  I have heard nothing but great things about the way these hulls ride and perform which is one of the reasons I purchased this particular boat (Even though it is in "Less than desirable" condition!).   I knew I was going to get my hands dirty during the deconstruction process but the final outcome will be well worth it!

 

Thanks again!

 

Henry

 

[Henry Todd]

Good afternoon all,

 

I spent the morning removing the remaining eight gallons of fuel from the fuel tank.  I used a wire wheel to clean the corrossion from the exterior of the tank just to show you how bad it was.  There were several places on this tank which had corroded to the point of creating large leaks in the fuel tank.  I photographed some of these areas and uploaded these photos to the main page of this site.

 

For those people who have questioned whether or not they should inspect or replace their own tank; I HIGHLY recommend you pull it to at least inspect it.  The top of this tank did not look that bad; after I pulled the tank I realized majority of the corrossion was along the lower three to four inches of the tank.  There is no way I would have been able to view this had I not removed it.

 

Once I drained the remaining fuel, I loaded it into the truck and went to the city yard.  Luckily, our city offers residents the opportunity to dispose of hazardous waste materials.  So, they are now in possession of about eight gallons of old fuel mixed with water.

 

I then hauled this empty tank to a nearby recycling center.  With the fuel, sending unit and fittings removed from the tank, it weighed 99.4 pounds.  Since this aluminum was considered "Old" due to the corrossion and the pitting, the recycling center pays $0.57 per pound.  That put $48.00 in my wallet!

 

After that, I returned home and loaded all of the dirty foam (Which I previously bagged!), the rotted wood from beneath the fuel tank and the rear engine hatch into the truck and headed for the local landfill.  They only charged $14.00 to dispose of those items!

 

Productive day to say the least!

 

Even after removing all of the fuel-soaked foam and the pitted and leaking tank from the belly of this hull, the empty boat still smells like fuel and oil which leads me to believe my earlier prediction is becoming more of a possibility!

 

The area where the pitting was the worst and where leaks had developed in the tank had soaked the inside of the stringer on the starboard side of the boat (Directly beneath the helm.).  I am positive I will find additional moisture in the stringer system once I pull the floor out of this boat.

 

So, with that in mind, we should find some more surprises along the way!

 

Thanks for tagging along!

 

Henry

[Henry Todd]

Good evening!

 

Well, I took today off to go fishing with my son and father-in-law off the coast of Dana Point, California.  Try as we could, we were not very successful!  My father-in-law NEVER gets skunked on any body of water at any time.  He either has a rare God-given gift or his Hawaiian blood offers some form of super-hero type of advantage when he is out chasing finned specimen.  I realized years ago that I did not have the same fortune and good luck.  After a beautiful day on the water, it was time to head home.   Father-in-law; 4 fish.  My son; 0 fish.  Me; 0 fish.  :)

 

I did spend a little bit of time working on the boat yesterday afternoon though.  Since I only had a short amount of time, I did not want to dive into a time-consuming part of this disassembly project.  So, I decided to just pull the rubber insert out of the rubrail and remove the aluminum trim around the perimter of the hull.  Pretty simple task.

 

First, I pulled the rubber insert out and threw it in the trash.

 

Then, I used a drill and phillips drill tip to remove each of the screws holding the aluminum rubrail on the hull. 

 

After that, I drilled out the heads of the rivets which allowed me to pry the aluminum rubrail off of the hull.

 

Interestingly, I discovered that the original builders alternated between a rivet and a screw around the entire perimeter of the hull (With exception to the bow where there was about 10 rivets in a row.).  The aluminum rubrail piece on the transom was installed primarily with screws and no rivets were used here.

 

Although there was a good amount of dirt and dust beneath the rubber insert, everything came off extremely easy.  Well, a little bit too easily as I was about to discover....

 

After I removed all of the screws and the rivets, I realized there was nothing holding the deck cap to the hull!  There was no fiberglass cloth bonding the deck to the hull!  No tabs of glass anywhere!  After I noticed this, I had to re-install half of the screws that I had just removed!

 

At this point in this project, I am not quite ready to remove the cap.  Had I removed all of the rivets and screws, there would be nothing holding the deck to the hull.  Without these two portions of the hull attached, the hull sides could have sagged outwards which would have been a problem later when the cap was reinstalled.  (Another extremely talented gentleman on a different website had this same problem and he was forced to make additional cuts in his deck cap to help "Adjust" it to fit.  After a little bit of time and effort on his part, it all worked out!) 

 

I must admit, I was pretty shocked by the lacking fiberglass tabbing on the inside of this hull and deck joint.  I would have imagined there would have been SOME type of bonding material placed on the inside to help keep the deck in place.  I'm very surpised that the builders relied on rivets and screws alone to join these two pieces.  So, once again, I've stumbled into an interesting twist with this boat!

 

Well, it's back to the grind tomorrow.  I will upload some additional photos later in the week to show you the minimal progress I made.

 

Thank you again for following along!

 

Take care,

 

Henry

[Henry Todd]

Good evening All,

 

I have not been able to divert too much time to this boat during the past week... so there has not been a lot of progress.  Between work, events with the family and other on-going projects around the house, finding time has been tough!

I was able to remove some miscellaneous deck hardware along with other miscellaneous rigging from the inside of the transom.  The blower motors and vent hoses were removed along with the fuel and vent lines and what remained of the bilge pump hose....  I also removed the remaining screws and clamps from inside the transom.

 

I pulled what was left of the original wire loom forward from the transom and began pulling out the remaining gauges from the dashboard.  As mentioned earlier, I do not planning on re-using these items, I am merely removing them.

 

In the photos I have added, you will notice two images of a classic center consolse fishing boat.  This was a boat that I saw moored here in Southern California a few weeks ago.  I do not know who the owner of the boat is but I heard he is a Captain on a local commercial fishing vessel.  I thought it was a really nice boat and similar to what I am planning.  At first glance it looked like it could have been a Formula but I believe it was a Mako or a Sea Craft.  I am not certain.  I looked briefly but could not find any manufacturer's labels or decals.

 

Anyhow, I just wanted to check in and share the minimal progress with everyone. 

 

(Mr. Markley, your boat looks great!  It's almost time to hang your motor on the newly reinforced transom!)

 

Thank you again for following and I will talk to you soon!

 

Henry

[Henry Todd]

 

Good evening all,

 

I wasn't able to get much work done to the boat during the week but I did manage to get a few things accomplished this morning.

 

I removed the remaining teak trim from around the doorway to the cuddy cabin and I finished removing what was left of the original electrical wiring harness.  Most of the ends of the harness had been cut off prior to me purchasing this hull so the fact that this wiring loom was not complete was not an unexpected suprise....

 

I removed what remained of the carpeting and headliner from inside the cuddy cabin and removed the trim pieces from the hullsides just above the liner inside the cabin.

 

After that, I pulled out the saw and went to work.

 

I am planning on re-using portions of the factory dash on the new center console so this portion of the deck was cut out and set aside to be utilized later.  I then removed the center portion of the dash above the entrance to the cuddy cabin and then the deck on the port side of the boat.  Neither of these pieces will be used so they were removed and will be disposed of.  I also removed both bulkheads which separated the cuddy cabin from the deck of the boat and these too will be disposed of.

 

After cutting out the dash and "Ruining a perfectly good boat," I discovered a large area of the dash which had delaminated and which also had several voids between the layers of fiberglass and plywood.  Some of this delamination and these voids allowed up to 1/2" gap between the layers of coring material and fiberglass. 

 

During this deconstruction period, I uncovered a lot of untreated plywood and other types of wood that never received a coating of resin, fiberglass cloth or any other form of "Protective layer."  As I removed all of the decorative carpeting and shag headliner material, I also exposed the seam where the hull's liner meets the hullsides of this boat.  This seam is clearly visible and there are lots of areas where the fiberglass cloth used to bond the liner to the hullsides did not bond as intended.  When the time comes, this liner will not be too difficult to remove. 

 

All in all, it was a fun and productive day!

 

Please take a look at the photographs I have uploaded to see the details.

 

Thank you for following along!

 

Henry