1996 Cole 22ft Superhawk rebuild!

[Revived]

Hello everyone I dont normally post all that much but I think this will make a great thread! About 3 years ago my Dad and I found a Cole Superhawk in California on craigslist. We called the guy and talked to him and he said it was in good condition and just needed a little TLC and some clean up and would be good to go as well it had always been stored indoors. Well we are from Colorado so we decided well it looks good for the price which was 9,500 as I remember so we decided lets go check it out and we jumped on a plane to go check it out. Also we needed another boat for our annual Lake Powell vacation due to the amount of people we always have. So we show up and look at it and the guy had obviously lied to us the boat was very dirty and cooked by the sun so we thought about it some and decided we are in a time crunch for another boat at Powell so we offered him 8,000 and he took it. We got the boat going for the summer and at the end decided to rebuild it and started to take it apart. So here is the rebuild pictures of it as we went along. My Dad and I did all the work except for the gel coat, paint and powder coat and My Mom and younger brother did all the upholstery work except for the embroidery done on the seats. So here is the true family rebuild of a Cole Superhawk.



So here is the pictures of the boat the day after we got it home from California. As rough as it looks we got it running the night before we went to Lake Powell for a week over July 4th and we went with this boat and my Dads 27.5 Stingray ( i will post a picture since it is pretty cool as well) but the boat ran great at the lake but we did have a mechanical fuel pump go out and Bullfrog marina had one so we were back in business before we knew it! We noticed that the boat felt good but it for sure wasn't a super sound boat so we decided to start the tear down to see what we had going for us and it wasn't pretty might be a nice way to put it. Here is the pictures of the start of it.




We were hoping that only part of the floor was rotten and we could spot it and still have a good floor but the more we cut out the worse it started to look and pretty soon we had the carpet, seats, seat bases, hardware, engine, windshields, floor, one stringer and whatever else we could think of out of the boat.

 

[OutCole'd]

GREAT start to the thread. I'm looking forward to seeing the updates.

Thanks.

I sure miss my 22.4 Skier.

 

[YoPengo]

This should be good. :thumbup: Nice Cole.

 

[RiverDave]

We are off to a great start!

RD

 

[Revived]

So to continue we started getting into the floor more and here are the pictures to tell more of the story.

As you can see from the pictures the boats is pretty rotten so we decided to say screw it and go for it. We tore the whole floor out of the boat which was pretty rotten everywhere and had mold on the bottom side. The boat had the U shaped seating in the back seat which then had fiberglass coolers in the bases which we believe was what got the whole rotting issue in motion. We do not know if this was done by Cole boats or by another party but the workmanship was very poor with one cooler having a drain right into the top of a main stringer. The floor was put together with scraps it seemed like with bad corners and just poor craftsmanship. But we got the floor out along with the stringer on the passenger side due to bad rot and began looking for a new piece of wood for the stringer. It took me a week looking all over Denver to find out that the Home Depot's supplier north of Denver had a whole stack of 14ft vertical grain, clear with no knots cedar 2x6 that would work even though it was $115 bucks.

 

[RiverDave]

For those of us not in the "wood know" department.. What the hell does this mean?

It took me a week looking all over Denver to find out that the Home Depot's supplier north of Denver had a whole stack of 14ft vertical grain, clear with no knots cedar 2x6 that would work even though it was $115 bucks.

RD

 

[Revived]

So now we got the new stringer in with one coat of fiberglass with matting on top and we followed it with 3 more coats of the same thing and it came out great. Stay posted for more later on! Almost forgot the picture of my Dads Stingray so here you go.

 

[Revived]

For those of us not in the "wood know" department.. What the hell does this mean?



RD

So RD I had a lot of trouble finding the right board we wanted for the stringer we wanted something very vertically strong with some natural water repellentcy. So the board for the stinger is cedar with a very tight grain that is vertical in the board rather than horizontal so when you bolt through the board it is much stronger than if it were horizontal. The tight grain allows for a stronger board and one that wont split when we put the floor in or put the engine mount bolts through it. To find the board I called everyone that supplied wood in Denver to the public and they couldn't find what we wanted but I asked home depot if they could get something like what I wanted and they talked to their supplier that supplied all of home depots wood and they did have what I wanted. But i would have never found them because they sell only to businesses and not to the public so i had to buy it through Home Depot. Finally the clear with no knots basically means that the piece of wood was all the same and had zero knots in it unlike like 2x4's in home depot have everywhere in them which makes the wood weaker in strength.

 

[Luvnlife]

I always liked that model. Thumbup. Cool thread

 

[franky]

Most Cole owners take care of their boat. I would venture to guess that this one had water sitting in it a lot of its life....outside. Also looks like someone tried to pry that front seat section out without taking the nuts off the bottom side of those studs that hold it down. Sad......what a project. Nice job.

Had a 20.5' Super Sport, a 22' Night Hawk and now a 25' 250-S. I like Cole's. My friend has the 20.5' we had built in 92 and my wife wants it back every time we go out with them. Two other Cole's in the "family".

 

[Revived]

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. But to continue the rebuild we built an entirely new floor out of 3/4 inch marine grade plywood since the old floor was very rotten.

Once all the pieces of the floor were cut and custom fitted to the floor we used nails like Cole boats had done to fasten it to the stringers. We knew this because we realized this is what they used when we tore it out before and the old floor was very stuck. Also we noticed that the screws that were used were all rusted off and the wood that was screwed into was rotten unlike the nails. After this was completed the new floor received a good coating of fiberglass matt and resin.

 

[ka0tyk]

hrmm are all open bow areas missing the floor all the way up to the bow? it seems like an area that would collect a lot of water or crud. i know its probably removed to give some added legroom and make you feel like you're sitting more in the boat.

great progress. love all the pix.

 

[Revived]

In all the models that have the open bow other than the 25 and 28ft Coles are missing this floor are for leg room. Its not bad to keep clean just vacuum it a lot and dry it with a towel when it gets wet and its fine.

 

[RiverDave]

hrmm are all open bow areas missing the floor all the way up to the bow? it seems like an area that would collect a lot of water or crud. i know its probably removed to give some added legroom and make you feel like you're sitting more in the boat.

great progress. love all the pix.

I know in some other boats they drill a drain hole at the base to allow water to pass through.

RD

 

[RiverDave]

Once all the pieces of the floor were cut and custom fitted to the floor we used nails like Cole boats had done to fasten it to the stringers. We knew this because we realized this is what they used when we tore it out before and the old floor was very stuck. Also we noticed that the screws that were used were all rusted off and the wood that was screwed into was rotten unlike the nails. After this was completed the new floor received a good coating of fiberglass matt and resin.

That is completely backwards of what I woud've thought.. When I helped Forensic replace the floor in his Spectra we screwed directly to the stringers using stainless. Interesting about the nails not having the rotting problems the screws did. .

RD

 

[ka0tyk]

That is completely backwards of what I woud've thought.. When I helped Forensic replace the floor in his Spectra we screwed directly to the stringers using stainless. Interesting about the nails not having the rotting problems the screws did. .

RD

no way in hell i would use nails. nails have no business in a boat. i used west systems Six10 epoxy and epoxy resin with 404 filler to bed my floors to the tops of the stringers and the hull sides. nails rust, pull out, or shear off when the boat flexes/twists and then the whole floor is loose. you could probably pick up the whole boat from my plywood floor.

 

[Revived]

That is completely backwards of what I woud've thought.. When I helped Forensic replace the floor in his Spectra we screwed directly to the stringers using stainless. Interesting about the nails not having the rotting problems the screws did. .

RD

Ya RD thats what this one had going on. The screws had the water run down the threads and sit in the stringer which had rot and the nails were seated all the way still and intact. When we put the floor back in we used nails and sealed everything with fiberglass so hopefully we have pretty good rot protection this time.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

I'm curious, since I'm about to embark on the same project with my Eliminator... did you fiberglass both sides of the plywood?

 

[Outdrive1]

Ya RD thats what this one had going on. The screws had the water run down the threads and sit in the stringer which had rot and the nails were seated all the way still and intact. When we put the floor back in we used nails and sealed everything with fiberglass so hopefully we have pretty good rot protection this time.

I'd use screws and put mat and or resin over them to seal them.

I'd also drill holes in any bulk heads so water can flow backwards. Last but not least all those floor panels should be resin coated on the underside before installation.

I have never heard of nails before. That baffles me.

 

[Revived]

I'm curious, since I'm about to embark on the same project with my Eliminator... did you fiberglass both sides of the plywood?

No one the bottom we put 3 coats of outdoor spar varnish. We did that on everything that was wood in the boat. All the seat bases and seats, hatch and open bow.

 

[Revived]

I'd use screws and put mat and or resin over them to seal them.

I'd also drill holes in any bulk heads so water can flow backwards. Last but not least all those floor panels should be resin coated on the underside before installation.

I have never heard of nails before. That baffles me.

Ya we were also surprised by the nails to. The floor had been done by cole boats and the nails didn't move unlike the screws. I don't know why but even with the fiberglass over the top of the screws they backed out some enough for water to get under the matt and glass. We tried to go back with what Cole had put into boat in the shop in 1996.

 

[sw1]

Ya we were also surprised by the nails to. The floor had been done by cole boats and the nails didn't move unlike the screws. I don't know why but even with the fiberglass over the top of the screws they backed out some enough for water to get under the matt and glass. We tried to go back with what Cole had put into boat in the shop in 1996.

How did the rest of the build go?

 

[Gelcoater]

Interesting thread from years ago I missed altogether.
I know when we were doing the Cole gel and lamination in Elsinore, Alex always used screws. I don’t recall there being any nails in the shop?
Alex did a few Coles with more exotic wood, Birch, Ash, etc for transom and stringers. Glossed up with flow coat it looked so sexy!

I’m pretty sure a 96 would have been after Cole started doing their glass in-house again.

 

[4Waters]

This thread is really interesting and needs to be completed, I sent him a PM hopefully he comes back with a finished product.