TOPIC: 1959 Glasspar Seafair

Hi everyone! This is my first post here on this forum, so I'll provide a bit of background. I'm 25 years old, and working on finishing my masters degree, and work, and travel around the great state of NC heavily. Money and time are obviously at a bit of a premium at this point in my life, so I figured the intelligent thing to do would be add a project boat into the mix. Now obviously I know this isn't the best decision in the world, but truth be told this isn't my first boat project I've ever tackled, and also grew up around old cars (especially MGs and Triumph's), so the whole one step forward and two steps back game isn't new to me. I also grew up along the coast (as well as in the piedmont region which has plenty of inland lakes), and have watched, helped out with, and seen some pretty impressive boat projects take shape. I have very rudimentary fiberglass, wood working, metal working, and engine working under my belt as a result of all of these past experiences. However, this is the biggest boat project I have ever undertaken by myself on a personal level. I've got a stretch goal to have the boat structurally sound by next spring or summer, but that'll all depend on time and available cash along the way. I also intended to start this thread when I got the boat back in May or June, but its just slipped past me until now. With that out of the way, let's talk about the boat! It's a 1959 Glasspar Seafair; I drove with some buddies in an old 90s Land Cruiser the 16 hour round trip from middle NC to Nashville for the boat and it cost a grand sum of less than $400. This guy had bought it from an estate auction where the original owners kids were just trying to get rid of their fathers belongings that he had let deteriorate, and the boat was just a side piece to what he actually went there for (some cars and machinery). He originally thought it had fiberglass stringers and that it would be as simple as new plywood; obviously not so for a '59, and as such he wanted to dump the project. It had a first or second year Merc 1000 100hp outboard that had almost torn through the transom (me and my two friends hand lifted it off and put it in the land cruiser for towing back to NC), that I do not intend on using for this project (more on that later). The boat does not have the standard Glasspar folding door, but instead has a solid door made of tongue and grove Philippine mahogany. I'm unsure if this is original to the boat, but the guy swore up and down the original owners son said his dad never bothered to do any serious work or maintenance to the boat besides a fresh repaint in the 70s, and plexy windows after the old ones were shot out with an air rifle (the guy just pushed the Wefco rubber back onto his homemade windows); whether or not this is true at all is up for debate. The boat rides on a tandem axle roller trailer, which I originally though had to be aftermarket 1970s, but have since found an old Glasspar ad that shows an identical tandem axle trailer, so maybe it was a dealer option or just a popular aftermarket trailer at the time. I also intend to restore this trailer on a budget like I have with other old boat trailers (ie rustoleum paint and primer and a few cases of beer with friends), but the trailer is rather beat up. Currently, the boat is sitting at one of my grandmothers properties and has been blocked up on cinder blocks and supports, the floor has been torn out, the transom mostly torn out, the stringers (totally mushed out) still remain, and the veneer cabin bulkhead has been cut out. Sadly, the cabin bulkhead is in pretty good shape save for the bottom 1/8 or so which was rotted. The mahogany side boards are pretty much shot, the mahogany rub rails are salvageable (but are missing the aluminum over riders I've seen in most examples of these boats), and the upper mahogany deck trim pieces also suffer slight rot but may be salvageable. Also, in addition to the missing rub rail pieces, the two transom caps that sort of attach the transom to the topsides were missing; these seem to be a fairly common missing part? Additionally, the original seat brackets are also MIA, but instead are replaced with giant aluminum tubes that were custom made and had a stamp on the bottom with a signature and the date 1960. Again, with the Merc being a 63 it also had an engine upgrade early in its life, so it was certainly being modified and tuned to the custom tastes of the original owner at that point. The history of this boat is rather circumstantial, but it was made in Nashville TN and really never left the area at all it would appear and I suspect that the original owner either worked for Glasspar, or had connections to it or the marine industry at the time based on some of the other things the family had and sold, but that's speculation for another time. I do not intend to make this boat a show queen, but make it look presentable from 30 feet across a parking lot, and intend on using it for cruising and fishing the intracoastal waterway near Southport NC, near shore/light duty offshore, in the Cape Fear River, up to Wilmington, the sounds around the Outer banks, and various inland lakes. The next big task is putting in the new stringers, of which I've already collected most of the materials for that (old school Doug Fir timber from a lumber yard, 1.5oz CSM, 24oz Woven Roving). That's all for now, but in the next few posts I'll go more in depth to what works been done so far, more detailed plans for the boat, asks for advice and opinions, etc. Thanks for reading!

Hello OMCenvinrude and welcome to FG.


Nice Glasspar!


Would be interested to know what the sn # reads on Glasspar data plate.


She may be my Mama Mia! long lost sister. Also a 59 Sedan survivor and is on original Mabley trailer from Maben MS which are common with Nashville Glasspars.


On Topsail Beach NC

Please post more pictures.
Thanks,
Terry

Terry, thank you for the warm welcome! I should've introduced myself better in my first post, my name is Christopher! Trust me, I'm very familiar with Mama Mia! and have spent more time than I'd like to admit looking at many threads and forums with pictures of it as a clue as to what goes where and also as a guiding inspiration. I might be mistaken, but I seem to recall your boat is a lower serial number than mine, so if anything I suppose they're cousins. My boat is hull #47. I have plenty more pictures, but they're going to start getting ugly quick as they dive deeper and deeper into the demolition and rebuilding of this thing thus far. I'm nearing the point where I'm ready to start the stringer replacement and have some questions regarding some of the stringer layout (mine are so rotted to the point that they've literally evaporated), but I'll make a separate post on this thread (and the many other small details that'll need going over).
Here's the data plate

Another picture of the trailer

The ad with the near identical trailer

The replacement power for the Merc. I don't mean to offend any Merc fans here, I'm a big OMC fan (as my name would imply). Dual matching '63 40hp big twins that cost me very little. They'll get the standard works (impellers, carb kits, ignition, etc) and some fresh paint.

Wilcox instructions plate

Wilcox ports, but no head. If it had one on it at any point, its been gone for a rather long time. They need to be removed to replace the wood shims they're bolted through to, but I may just glass them up. The jury is out on that one until I get opinions back.

The boat on blocks leveled out.

The gutting job so far

As you can tell this is certainly quite the project. The sad thing about it is you can tell that the boat was at one point a prized lake/river queen, and either through mechanical failure (the mercs lower was seized when I first removed it; pretty standard for these it seems like) or through health issues/lack of care, it was just parked to rot under a tarp and tree. Sad but that seems typical sometimes, several friends have had relatives/friends and neighbors who've left several classic boats and cars (Karmann Ghia, GTO, Chris Crafts, etc) to rot into the ground. The locker hatch and under seat areas were full of waxes, polishes, varnishes, accessories, flags, ski ropes, manuals, outboard parts, safety equipment. Also, sorry for any sideways photo's, I haven't yet figured out how to correct that here, but I will!

Great to see another "builder" here. Terry is the go-to guy for these Glasspars. I'll be following your progress. I understand your OMC decision.

I had an opportunity to work briefly on the boat today. Using an oscillating tool I finished removing the core of the transom, particularly the smaller pieces that take up the port and starboard side outside of the cantilevered portion of the transom. I've seen rebuilds on various forums and resources where just the thick, cantilevered/main outboard bearing part of the transom on these boats is replaced, but these side pieces (only about 1/4 thick plywood by my measurements) were just as rotted and seem to be just as critical for structural integrity. I also finished cutting out the deck finally exposing the full length of the main stringer so that opens up my next steps which will include lots of grinding. I have seen on some claims before that the keel stringer only goes slightly beyond the cabin door threshold (which seemed odd to me that it wouldn't be longer), but it does in fact extend much further beyond the door.


I do have a few questions regarding in the replacement of the stringers though, or rather how they were originally laid out and how I should proceed. The stringers (as I'm sure most of you familiar with these boats knows) were just held in with thick chopped mat at intervals with the wood remaining un-glassed in between. In these sections void of fiberglass, several of them were square-notched with fairly small slats of wood spanning between the outer stringers and the main keel stringers, and it didn't appear that these slats were held in with nails or any glass.
My question is this: should I put the stringer system back in as near to factory as I can with these notches and cross sections, or should I just run the full length of the stringers without the notches and slats? I've seen one build with no slats, one build where the slats were put back in, and one build where the stringers were built using more modern methods using proper bulkheads, which is something I'm also considering, but I'd like to get a feel for what everyone thinks is the best move. My second question regarding the stringers is also somewhat related to the transom. I've seen several photos where, at the end of the stringers at the transom, there is a piece of dimensional lumber that spans the width of the bilge, with the bilge drain plug pipe going through this wood. On my boat, this piece of wood had either totally rotted away or never existed to begin with. There was a small square piece of wood with the drain pipe going through it, but again I can't say to whether or not that square of wood was all that was there originally, or the rotted remnants of a full board. If indeed a full board is supposed to be present no evidence of any fiberglassing exists either, which leads me to believe that if it was there, it was just sat down into the hull in between the stringers and transom in a similar fashion to the slats that span the stringers. Can anyone tell me if indeed this is supposed to be a full board just laid into the hull without any glass work, or if maybe the small square was all the was originally there on some of these boats?
I look forward to hearing some replies, progress on the boat is going to be stalled for a little while due to the deteriorating weather here in NC and other focuses, but I hope to have the rotted stringers (mostly just dirt at this point) cut out shortly which will be the next update!

Thank you kindly for the warm welcome! I was looking at your Chrysler rebuild, it seems to be coming along nicely. Again, I'm only in my mid 20s so I haven't had a chance to work on a ton of boats, usually just what me/friends/their dads have had lying around, but I actually cut my teeth on two Chrysler outboards when I was probably 13 years old or so. They're the reason I got my first OMC, a little Fleetwin; my friend and I desperately wanted an upgrade to that tired 6hp engine. The other was a 50hp that ran fairly well, it was replaced with an 80s Merc a few years ago. I always thought they were pretty stout, and fairly reliable. The 50hp absolutely hated being started if it was anything close to cold (for us southerners, below say 50ish degrees). The biggest draw back was parts availability, seemed like many parts were made of unobtainium.

Yup you definitely got your sights set high. Let me say that there are some boats that I restored that I wanted to keep "original" but as I progressed I kept telling myself that some of these manufacturers just took shortcuts to save money and used cheap stuff while others were quality minded. You'll know the difference when you see different boats. Glasspar has been around for a long time. Original be damned unless your going to show in a judged contest. If you want a good looking safe ride use updated technology and products. IMHO when you replace the keel/stringers use copious amounts of 3M5200 to bed them in and then if you want lay your glass then you are assured of a strong immoveable foundation. I would put in that cross member you pointed out with a drain hole . The more strength you add to the transom the better you will be.
When I first began on this site years ago there was one bit of advice that always stuck with me.
"It's YOUR boat, do what you want with it"
Some of the basics ain't cheap so you gotta do some research on price.
Seek advice but make your own decisions.

Maybe an ill fated attempt at a transom knee? Are you planning on putting a tank in the floor? If not I'd personally keep the same layout and plywood construction, just to be easy. You may also be planning this already, but I'd remove and tab in the outer and inner stringers separately to maintain a bit more rigidity in the hull.

Hey Christopher,

Like Cal, aka 63 Sabre says.
"It's YOUR boat, do what you want with it"

Thanks for pics but most are too tiny. Can be up to 1meg.
Never saw a Glasspar on that type trailer you have.
From first pic thought it could be a Mobley double axle.

Another Nashville Sedan I saw at Lake Dora down in FL.