John Looker could not bring the Looker Sande Ace boat to the 2008 Ace Rendezvous
but he brought this photo instead. The Looker family truly loved the boat and protected it in a dry barn for years outside of Olympia, Washington.
My friend, Arlyn Stieger, accompanied me to load and unload the boat and trailer from the U-Haul trailer
and into the warm garage.....right next to its older brother (Hull Number: 2594). It's nice to have a similar experience from the last Ace with this part of the project. First things first. Strip it down to the bare minimums. Pound for sound with a light hammer, poke and pick around on the boat for soft spots and problem areas. Make notes and.....email the Ace guys, Ed Waali, Ned Hamlin, Roy Dunn and Tom Regan, for recommendations and how-to suggestions.
I added the recommended extra knees. This went quickly - I had the lumber left over from the
first Ace and I had a pattern left over as well. The seat supports were strengthened with the
addition of the vertical plywood supports. Interestingly, the previous boat had vertical supports
and this boat had none. The original seat boards were cracked from not being supported so I
thought this would be a good long term addition.
Center lower seat support was added to match the front and give the seat boards something to be screwed
into rather than just "floating" over the center board. Note: Amber T. Dog in the background
thinking...."not another project!"
The interior of the boat had been painted black over the original Zolatone, an industrial coating.
I used paint stripper to the interior. Worked well on the paint but only marginally well on the Zolatone.
Stripping the interior revealed some cracked beams. I used marine plywood and laminated on both sides of the beams using the West System epoxy, clamps and some small ring nails.
Seat supports and seat back supports were installed. The clamps were removed from the laminating procedure.
Note the screws in the dash. Three supports were added under the center deck evenly spaced across the width of the boat.
The transom and various areas of the boat had several holes that had been drilled over the years.
The transom had 13 alone. I drilled them out to 1/4" and installed doweling with West System epoxy. After the dowels and epoxy set up, I trimmed and used the belt sander to shape and/or flattened the filled areas.
Sanded and primed. Roy Dunn visited and recommended that I add Penetrol to the primer to
penetrate the bare wood better. Three coats of Interlux primer and it is starting to look good!
Seattle has a number of wood suppliers and I was able to find some dark red mahogany for
the seat replacements. All the seats in this boat are made from two boards! The seats were
a snap to make because I had Sande Ace 2594 to use as a pattern. In less than one hour I had
the seats cut out, planed and fitted to this boat.
The boat dolly is the way to go. You can move it when and where you want it quickly.
Nice feature here in Seattle when it rains so much.
Stripped, sanded and then stripped and sanded the hull down to bare wood on the side
planking. I stained the mahogany with filler/stain. I painted the boat bottom with three
coats of Interlux red.
The bottom had been fiberglassed and was in relatively good shape. Near the bow, however, a
little fiberglassing was done over the seams and had turned into "zipper cracks." Using
a heat gun and a razor, I was able to cut out the small problem areas. The rest of the
fiberglass appears to be bonded well to the bottom. Note the added glassed in keel and shims at the transom. I will give it a try....for now. The keel may be removed later and a fin added, depending on performance.
Original aluminum molding sanded with a belt sander and then hand sanded to remove the pitting and corrosion. Janet and I installed the molding in short order.
Original hub with a period correct steering wheel mounted and rigged...ready to rock! Original hub center bolt snapped off when being disassembled by Rob Estes at Action Auto Parts of Shoreline, Washington...fifty years of corrosion played havoc on all the metals. The tapered hub of the steering wheel was frozen to the helm. Since the steering wheel was shot, Rob did a great job of saving the helm as much as he could. John Meyers rebuilt the hub and taper and added a new center stud with a lock nut. It looks as good as new and works better than new. The steering wheel obtained by Janet (for the best price of FREE) at a Marine garage sale on Whidbey Island. The wheel was sent out to be powder coated white and looks great. The fit and style are perfect for the Sande Ace.
Earl Sande blessed me with two original Sande Ace emblems! I asked him how much he wanted for them...he said "$1000." He watched my reaction...then he said "but for you they are free if they going on that boat." Made my year! The emblems were still wrapped in newspaper!
All the metal parts found or replaced. Sande Ace being the versatile boat it is...you will note a salmon lead sinker fishing weight that was under the floor boards. Note the steering wheel hub in the lower right hand corner, cut off the steering wheel. I still can't figure out why there were three different steering adaptors under the floor boards as...I guess better to have two too many than be one short?
John Meyers, the elusive and noted outboard racing wrench and machinist, smiles with approval after checking out all of the installation and adjustments on the 1961 Mercury 500, Sande Ace combination. John and/or his motors, holds in excess of thirteen World Records for various outboards. One OMC 3-cylinder at 104mph, five OMC "15" records, four "B" Yamato records, one "30H," one "25XS" Mercury and his favorite motor, "44" cid Mercury, 1.25 Kilo record...the Mercury Mark 58A, 400, 450 and 500. You will note that the lower unit is missing. John is replacing all the seals in the lower unit. More on the motor soon!
Breathing new life into an old Sande Ace is rewarding to me. However, I have to share with you that it is the people you meet, who love these old boats, that really make this a fun past time. Thanks to John Looker and his Dad, Ed Waali, Ned Hamlin, Tom Regan (Doctor of Old Boats), Roy Dunn, Gerry and Janet Mason, Tom Farr and Janet Parks.
